Questions swirl as funeral held for Afghan president’s brother

 
By William Marsden
KANDAHAR CITY, Afghanistan — The streets of Kandahar City lay empty and ghost-like Wednesday as Afghan President Hamid Karzai wept over the body of his half-brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, whose reign as the strongman of Kandahar ended abruptly Tuesday morning when a security guard pumped three bullets into him.
Ahmed Karzai’s funeral brought out several thousand mourners — all men — including senior Afghan ministers. As military helicopters hovered overhead, the dignitaries joined a cavalcade of buses and cars in a procession to the tiny Karzai family village of Karz, about 30 kilometers outside Kandahar. Here Karzai stopped momentarily to appeal to the Taliban “to join us and work together for the prosperity of the country.”
Back in Kandahar City, the cradle of the Taliban, coalition and Afghan soldiers and police patrolled the streets, throwing such a heavy security blanket over the city that most Afghans remained home. Yet as Ahmed Karzai’s body was lowered into the ground, there were increasing doubts about the Taliban claim that they are responsible for his assassination. New facts have emerged that indicate the assassination could have been part of an ongoing family feud over the rich spoils coming from coalition contracts.
Ahmed Karzai, 50, was murdered by Sardar Mohammad, 40, who Karzai employed as head of security at four checkpoints close to the Karzai compound. Mohammad shot Karzai Tuesday morning in the head and chest with his pistol as the two men met privately in Karzai’s home.
Mohammad was a member of the Popalzai tribe, of which Ahmed Karzai was the leader. The Popalzai have always been enemies of the Taliban. Mohammad was considered such a close and trusted friend that he was allowed to carry a gun in Karzai’s presence.
According to one source, who didn’t want to give his name for fear of being killed, Mohammad was also employed as one of Karzai’s bagmen and enforcers and had his own team of personal bodyguards, seven of whom have been arrested. The source claimed that Ahmed Karzai believed Mohammad was skimming from the money he collected and Karzai had threatened him.
“Mohammad killed him in retaliation,” the source said, adding that there are rifts within the Karzai clan over how the wealth is divided up.
Ahmed Karzai’s companies are said to control the lion’s share of the multimillion-dollar contracts, including most of the supply lines, for serving the sprawling Kandahar Airfield Base, which in the last four years has more than tripled in size. It is now a small city of about 35,000 soldiers and civilian support staff and the expansion continues with many new construction projects.
NATO forces had complained about Karzai’s greed and that fact that he used his position as head of the Kandahar Provincial Council — the provincial legislature — to ensure that most coalition contracts for Afghan companies flowed through him.
The Afghan president acted quickly Wednesday to fill the power vacuum left by his brother’s death by appointing another brother, Shah Wali Karzai, to take his place on the council.



Ahmed Karzai’s control of contracts was discussed in a U.S. embassy cable dated Sept. 28, 2009, which recounts a meeting between U.S. officials and Karzai and Kandahar Governer Tooryalai Wesa. The cable expressed regret that the U.S. had to deal with Karzai, who is “widely understood to be corrupt and a narcotics trafficker.”
The cable, which was made public through Wikileaks, claimed that Ahmed Karzai attempted to persuade the Americans to essentially allow him to control construction contracts and security in the region. The cable indicates that Karzai wanted big projects controlled by the provincial council, which would in turn distribute them among local tribal leaders, who would then distribute the jobs to the people. He also wanted to bring Kandahar’s many private security companies under one roof.
“(Karzai) is understood to have a stake in private security contracting, and has aggressively lobbied the Canadians to have his security services retained for the Dahla Dam refurbishment,” the cable states. “Both he and the governor have tried to exert control over how contracts are awarded in the province all of which could be a significant conflict of interest.”
The day Karzai was killed, two bombs exploded in the city. There were reports that a woman and child were killed and six others wounded when the Taliban attacked a police station.
Gulab Mangal, the governor of Helmand province, escaped death when a bomb reportedly went off near his car on the way to the funeral. Elsewhere in Afghanistan five coalition soldiers were killed.
But in spite of the fears of instability sparked by the assassination of Karzai, the commander of the Canadian troops who mentored Afghan security forces said impressive progress has been achieved in the war-torn country.
Col. Hercule Gosselin, commander of the Operational Mentor Liaison Team in Kandahar, said Wednesday the work done by his unit of some 175 mentors in the past eight months has been remarkable.
“There are still instabilities in the country, but overall the sense of security has increased considerably for the population in the past year,” said Gosselin minutes after landing with a group of some 200 soldiers at Quebec City airport, near Canadian Forces Base Valcartier.
Gosselin declined to speculate on the impact of Ahmed Karzai’s murder on the efforts made to stabilize Kandahar and other provinces. The colonel said he has witnessed during his deployment Afghan security forces gain confidence in their ability to defend their country from the Taliban.
“More than ever, the Afghan National Army is able to plan, carry out and sustain security or combat operations independently, without any mentor or coalition partner,” Gosselin said. “It’s an unprecedented level of autonomy.”

Source: National Post