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| Afghanistan |
| Afghan interior minister blocked from post |
| 2002-06-21 |
| Soldiers carrying rocket-propelled grenade launchers and police in riot gear blocked off streets surrounding the Interior Ministry in downtown Kabul Thursday, preventing Afghanistan's freshly minted Interior Minister, Haji Taj Mohammed Wardak, from assuming his new post for several hours. Wardak, a member of Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns, was appointed yesterday by newly inaugurated President Hamid Karzai. The soldiers who blocked Wardak's way to the Interior Ministry confirmed they had fought for the Northern Alliance and that they disagreed with Karzai's replacement of Younas Qanooni. The standoff ended only after Wardak made concessions to the former Northern Alliance commanders that had run the ministry under Qanooni. A deputy minister in the department told United Press International under condition of anonymity, "Wardak will be a figurehead, but the Tajiks and former Northern Alliance commanders will have almost total control of the ministry." We expected that would be the case, but that was pretty clumsy. It made Karzai look weak, which he is, and Qanouni look bad, which he's not. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |