Anger mars Afghan council

After three days of hopeful speeches and some low-level procedural squabbling, the outbreaks were a sharp reminder of the fractured politics that dominate Afghanistan after more than two decades of conflict.

The constitutional council, or loya jirga, is being billed as a historic opportunity to shape a new and democratic system for this ravaged land. It is also a powder keg of factionalism and a forum to air the grievances of a nation still beset by Taliban insurgents and controlled by warlords.

The council's morning session began with fireworks after a scathing speech by Malalai Joya, a female delegate from western Farah province, who decried the positions of influence given to faction leaders such as former president Burhanuddin Rabbani and Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a deeply conservative Islamist.

Both men won election to the jirga while others, like northern strongman Abdul Rashid Dostum, were appointed by the US-backed president, Hamid Karzai. Rabbani and Sayyaf were both named to head important subcommittees at the jirga.

"Why have you again selected as committee chairmen those criminals who have brought these disasters for the Afghan people?" shouted an angry Joya. "In my opinion they should be taken to the world court."

Many of the commanders who fought the Soviets 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.

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, while others say it is essential to keep them in the fold.

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, saying she had "disturbed this jirga and been very rude."

As Joya resisted security guards that had come to accompany her out, Rabbani made a call for tolerance and she was allowed to remain.

The clash came a day after other women at the jirga complained of receiving second-class treatment from their colleagues. None of the 100 women delegates were elected to leadership posts in voting Tuesday, though one was later appointed as a fourth deputy chairman.

Rabbani's supporters caused yesterday's other controversy, with many accusing the government of trying to force them to accept a presidential system, which they say could put too much power in Karzai's hands. Many in the assembly are calling for the creation of a powerful prime minister's post to blunt some of the president's influence -- something Karzai has come out strongly against.

Several delegates threatened a walkout over the issue, and others signed a petition yesterday saying the structure of a new government should be decided before the council takes up other hot-button issues, such as women's rights and the role of Islam in a future state.

"A large group of delegates stood and shouted that they would walk out if the jirga continues in this manner" without a decision on the prime minister, Mohammed Daoud, a delegate from Bamiyan, told The Associated Press. The session was closed to the media.

About 200 of the 500 loya jirga delegates signed a petition calling for a quick decision on whether to create a prime minister, said delegate Hafiz Mansour, a Rabbani supporter and editor of a Northern Alliance weekly newspaper.

But Karzai played down the controversy, saying a walkout was unlikely.

"I don't think they'll walk out of the jirga," he said outside his palace office. "The jirga will go on, and it depends on the delegates of the jirga what they decide."