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Delegate lashes out at Afghan council
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A woman delegate to Afghanistan's landmark constitutional council issued a stinging rebuke of powerful armed faction leaders at the gathering Wednesday, calling them "criminals" and sparking arguments and an attempt to throw her out.
The incident came at the start of stormy day at the Kabul session. Supporters of former President Burhanuddin Rabbani, meanwhile, accused the government of trying to force them to accept a presidential system, which they say would put too much power in the hands of U.S.-backed Afghan leader Hamid Karzai.
Many in the assembly are calling for the creation of a powerful prime minister's post to blunt the president's influence. Karzai has rejected any move to curb his power.
In the morning session, Malalai Joya — one of abut 100 female delegates to the 500-member council, launched a verbal attack on faction leaders such as Rabbani.
"Why have you again selected as committee chairmen those criminals who have brought these disasters for the Afghan people? In my opinion they should be taken to the world court," said Joya.
Many of the commanders who fought the Soviet Union in the 1980s still control provincial fiefdoms and have been accused of human rights abuses and corruption. After ousting the Soviets, the militias turned on each other in a brutal civil war that destroyed most of the capital, Kabul.
Some faction leaders, like former president Rabbani and Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a deeply conservative Islamist, have been elected to the jirga, and others — like northern strongman Abdul Rashid Dostum were appointed by Karzai.
Human rights groups and others have warned that Karzai will bargain away too much to the men in return for their support for a presidential system.
Joya's comments, which stopped only after her microphone was turned off, sparked outrage among the hard-liners and their supporters, who denounced her as a communist and demanded she be removed from the session amid shouts of "God is Great!"
Council chairman Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, a Karzai ally, ordered Joya thrown out of the session, saying she had "disturbed this jirga and been very rude."
As Joya resisted security guards that had come to take her away, Rabbani called for tolerance, and she was allowed to remain.
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