| | New Afghan Parliament Presses for Removal of Security Barriers The New York Times
01/01/2005
By Carlotta Gall
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KABUL - Afghanistan's new Parliament, in existence only 10 days, is already showing its teeth, pressing the government to act on an inflammatory issue involving the capital - namely the inconvenience caused by security barriers set up by foreign elements, like embassies, contractors and the American military. On Friday, President Hamid Karzai and the Ministry of Interior, apparently responding to both pressure from the new Parliament and longstanding public grumbling, ordered all organizations, foreign and otherwise, to remove within a week barriers obstructing Kabul streets. As the issue heated up today, security contractors working for the American military detained three employees of the Arab television network Al Jazeera as they tried to film security barriers near the United States military headquarters in Kabul. The American Embassy and American military headquarters have closed several streets around their premises. After 10 days of discussion on the rules of procedure for the Parliament - and only getting through a third of the document - the lawmakers formally turned today for the first time to a discussion of pressing problems facing the Afghan population. For an hour, representatives spoke with passion about the suffering of the homeless from the cold weather, disease and poverty, about government corruption, and the fate of those in American military detention. But the issue that threatens to cause an international incident is the frustration about traffic in the city, and the closing of whole districts when foreign or government dignitaries visit - as when Vice President Dick Cheney attended the recent opening of Parliament - causing widespread disruption. "We have to open the roads that have been closed by foreign princes and war-princes," said Ramazan Bashardost, a populist member of Parliament, who has been speaking out on the issue. "The issue of security is the same for Afghans as for members of embassies. I am not convinced that security is solved by closing roads." The day after Mr. Karzai's decree on Friday, the Ministry of Interior informed various foreign organizations, including the American military, American security contractors like DynCorp, private aid organizations and several embassies, that they had a week to remove barriers. The ministry had identified 46 sites around town where the barriers must come down, said a ministry spokesman, Yousuf Stanizai. A presidential spokesman, Khaleeq Ahmad, said there would be no exceptions to the decree and that all streets had to be cleared and opened for public use, including those closed by embassies and foreign military forces. American military forces were not rushing to comply, however. Representatives of the American-led coalition forces, among others, "registered their concerns about the general proposal" at Saturday's meeting with Interior Ministry officials, said an American military spokesman, Lt. Col. Laurent Fox. The issue was not resolved and will be discussed again at a later date, he said. The security contractors working for the American military detained the three Al Jazeera employees as they filmed from across the street from the United States military headquarters in Kabul. Al Jazeera's Kabul bureau chief, Samir Allawi, said the three men were a journalist, a cameraman and a driver who were filming barricades on the civilian side of the road opposite the American headquarters, to illustrate the issue of the presidential decree. They were detained for six hours, handed over to the Afghan police and eventually released without charge, but their equipment, including the camera and mobile and satellite phones, was seized by American troops, Mr. Allawi said. An American military spokesman, Lt. Mike Cody, said the security forces had evidence that the men had filmed "security features" of the headquarters, which is forbidden by a sign at the entrance to the base. "The security personnel dealt with it in the manner they thought appropriate," he said.
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