Ex-Taliban elected in Afghanistan

The Bâmiân Buddhas
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Tuesday October 18, 2005 5:01 PM


By AMIR SHAH

Associated Press Writer

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A former regional governor who oversaw the was elected to the Afghan parliament last month, officials said Tuesday as results from two provinces were finalized.

Elsewhere, U.S.-led coalition forces killed four police officers after mistaking them for militants during an operation in the southern province of Kandahar, provincial Gov. Asadullah Khalid said. The coalition said it could not confirm the shootings and was investigating.

Mawlawi Mohammed Islam Mohammadi, who was the Taliban's governor of Bamiyan province when the fifth-century Buddha statues were blown up with dynamite and artillery in March 2001, was chosen to represent the neighboring province of Samangan, according to results posted by the U.N.-Afghan election organizers. Election law did not bar former Taliban officials from participating in the Sept. 18 polls.

International outcry followed the destruction of the giant Buddhas, which were chiseled into a cliff and famed for their size and location along the ancient Silk Road linking Europe and Central Asia. Archaeologists in Bamiyan have been painstakingly collecting the stone remains of the two statues - the largest of which was 174 feet high - and are considering rebuilding them.

Mohammadi told The Associated Press he should not be held responsible for the destruction of the statues, which the Taliban considered to be idolatrous and anti-Muslim.

``It was not my decision. It was foreigners like Chechens and Arabs with the Taliban who made the decision. They were crazy people,'' he said in a telephone interview, pointing to the influence of foreign Islamic extremists over the hard-line regime. ``Even though I was governor, I had no power.''

Mohammadi fled to the country's north and was never detained after U.S.-led forces ousted the fundamentalist regime in late 2001.

Samangan province also is home to some artifacts, including Buddhist stupas and the remains of a 1,000-year-old monastery. Mohammadi promised to ``do everything I can to protect them.''

Provisional results from the landmark elections have been published for several regions, but tallies from only four provinces have been finalized, including Samangan and nearby Kapisa province on Tuesday. Three former warlords still suspected of having ties to armed groups also were declared winners in those areas.

Human rights activists say many of the winning candidates are regional strongmen linked to armed groups, raising fears of more violence.

``Many of the winners are linked to armed groups or drugs,'' said Ahmad Fahim Hakim, deputy director of the state-sponsored Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, referring to a booming trade in heroin and opium.

``The number of elected lawmakers who are honest and interested in reform may be tiny compared to the regional strongmen who are only interested in themselves.''

In the latest bloodshed, Kandahar's governor said U.S.-led coalition troops opened fire at police in the province's Maywand district late Monday after spotting the officers firing their weapons into the air and mistaking them for Taliban rebels.

U.S. military spokeswoman Sgt. Marina Evans said investigators were looking into the shooting, but she could not confirm it involved coalition forces.

A bomb also exploded on a main road in the south and killed an Afghan guard working for an American security company and wounded two others, Khalid said.

Fighting has escalated in Afghanistan in the past six months, leaving more than 1,400 people dead and raising fears for the country's nascent democracy.

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