Tight security around King after Loya Jirga row

Описание: (10 Jun 2002)

1. Various of ISAF security at entrance to Loya Jirga
2. SOUNDBITE (Pashtu) Din Mohammed Jurat, Afghan national Police Chief:
"(Interim Afghan Leader Hamid) Karzai himself is a Pashtun. He's is the best leader now. Everybody has agreed to vote for him. And he is the only person who can keep all the ethnic groups together. So, Karzai is a Pashtun himself, there is no problem from Pashtuns."
3. Wide of ISAF troops in silhouette by security fence

STORYLINE:

Security has been stepped up at the Loya Jirga in Kabul after supporters of ex-King Shah found out that the former leader has renounced any role in the new Afghan government.

The move was aimed at defusing a crisis which forced a one-day delay in the opening of a grand council to select new leaders for this war-battered nation.

Some delegates expressed shock at the decision, which appeared to be aimed at pacifying the ethnic Tajik clique which took power through a United Nations brokered agreement last year after the US bombing campaign toppled the Taliban.

But ex-king Zaher Shah's announcement caused bitter complaints among some ethnic Pashtun delegates who had wanted the ex-monarch to have a greater role in the running of Afghanistan.

Some threatened to boycott the procedures, which are to begin on Tuesday.

Afghan national Police Chief Din Mohammed Jurat said that rumours that some of Shah's Pashtun supporters would become violent were not true because their ethic group was already well represented by Hamid Karzai.

An ethnic Pashtun, Zaher Shah returned to Afghanistan in April after 29 years in exile in Italy, to try to unite is shattered homeland, deeply divided along ethnic lines after 23 years of relentless war.

However the divisions appear to be widening.

In his statement, Zaher Shah said he fully supported Karzai for transitional president to rule this war-shattered nation for the next 19 months, spearhead the writing of a new constitution and oversee preparations for nationwide polls.

There were rumours of some security problems during the last 24 hours, although the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), led by the British and put in place by a Untied Nations resolution, held an earlier news conference to say there were no security concerns.

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