Reuters
08/08/2004
By Sayed Salahuddin
[Printer Friendly Version]

KABUL - Afghanistan's former king Mohammad Zahir Shah said on Sunday that democratic reforms were taking the war-ravaged nation in the right direction despite escalating violence in the run-up to presidential elections.

The former king, now called "Father of the Nation" by President Hamid Karzai, knows not to take anything for granted in turbulent post-Taliban Afghanistan and two months ahead of the presidential polls.

"I am not a fortune-teller," Zahir Shah told Reuters. "But I am optimistic."

Around a thousand people have been killed in the past year as Taliban remnants stepped up a guerrilla war against the U.S.-led occupation forces and Kabul's new Afghan National Army, which has forced the election to be postponed from June.

Zahir Shah ruled Afghanistan for nearly four decades before he was ousted in a bloodless coup in 1973.

After more than 30 years in exile, the 89-year-old now lives in an old mansion in the presidential palace grounds, evoking nostalgia among some people who remember the monarchy's success in managing tensions in this ethnically diverse nation.

The elderly king is seen as a symbol of national unity in a country which has endured 23 years of strife and foreign occupation. But he has ignored calls to run for president.

Zahir Shah has not disclosed who he will support in the October election. But he backed Karzai more than two years ago in the rush to cobble together a government in the aftermath of a war in which U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban.

Both Zahir Shah and Karzai belong to the ethnic Pashtun group, the traditional rulers of Afghanistan.

Karzai's rivals accuse the current president of surrounding himself with men of violence, including some linked to the Taliban - something Karzai denies.

Some of the other 22 candidates seeking to stand for the office also object to Washington's support for Karzai, saying it casts doubt over a democratic process that the Taliban has already labelled a sham.

When asked about his thoughts as to how free and democratic the elections will be, Zahir Shah said: "You will see."

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