Afghanistan: Supreme Court to decide foreign minister's fate

Fariba Nawa 5/29/07

Silver hair blowing in the wind, acting Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta stood at the podium next to his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, at a recent news conference. Toward the end, one journalist asked a simple, yet complicated question: When will Dadfar Spanta's status be clarified?

The 53-year-old foreign minister response was telling: he used the tone of a man unsure of whether he possesses the energy to win this present political battle. "Whether here in the ministry, or somewhere else, my wish is to serve the Afghan people and to struggle for democracy. As a democrat, I've spent 80 percent of my life working toward democratic values and I respect the laws which govern democracy, be it social justice, human rights, or belief in the equal rights of men and women," he said.

Spanta, a scholar with a doctorate in political science, has been foreign minister of Afghanistan for the last year. But since May 12, he has been waiting for the Afghan Supreme Court to clarify his fate, which is tied to a power struggle between the legislative and executive branches of Afghanistan's nascent democratic government. In early May, parliament voted to remove Spanta, but President Hamid Karzai is challenging the legislature's authority to make cabinet changes. Karzai believes cabinet appointments and firings are the chief executive's prerogative.

The Supreme Court has no deadline to issue its decision, and until its ruling is announced, Spanta will continue to serve as foreign minister. The international community, including the United Nations, is supporting Spanta, and is anticipating a decision in his favor. The UN said the Afghan constitution gives parliament the right to give no-confidence votes to the cabinet, but it does not have the right to fire cabinet members.

The origin of the constitutional row goes back to Karzai's controversial move to replace former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah with Spanta. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The move received parliament's blessing at the time, but developments over the last year, culminating in Iran's expulsion of tens of thousands of Afghan refugees in April, resulted in the majority of MP voting no-confidence in both Spanta and Minister of Refugees Akbar Akbar. In explaining their no-confidence vote, legislators assailed the two ministers for ineffectiveness in representing Afghanistan's interests in the international diplomatic arena.

Ahmed Behzad, a member of parliament's lower house, had helped Spanta campaign and gain approval from other members in 2006. But on May 12, he voted against the minister. "He's without a doubt one of Afghanistan's worthy scholars. But he didn't meet our expectations last year. We didn't see any positive changes and instead, we saw a lack of interest ... in how he dealt with political issues on a global level," Behzad said. He added that the last straw was his inability to prevent the expulsions of Afghan refugees from Iran. When Spanta appeared before parliament to account for his actions, his report was flawed and unconvincing, Behzad said.

Karzai approved the parliamentary ouster of Akbar, but the president seems determined to try to keep Spanta. The debate over Spanta's future is causing many in Kabul to grapple with the question of parliament's ability to act responsibly. Many of its members, including former warlords, communists and royalists, have poor democratic credentials. Meanwhile, some MPs are only semi-literate. Debates have occasionally culminated in shouting matches and objects being thrown within the chamber. Critics say many MPs base votes on personal considerations, not on the country's best interests, and with little regard to the constitutionality of the matter at hand.

In Spanta's case, his supporters consider him a victim of political posturing and foreign meddling. They add that Iran and Pakistan both would like to see Spanta ousted because he has tried to protect Afghanistan's interests. For example, Afghanistan plans to build a dam on one of the rivers it shares with Iran – a move that Tehran opposes due to concerns about decreasing access to water supplies. One of the reasons for Iran's decision to expel Afghan refugees may have been connected to the dam issue, suggested Siamak Herawi, Karzai's deputy spokesman. Iran argues that the forced repatriation of refugees was part of a well-publicized plan to send Afghans back to their country. There are about 2 million Afghans living in Iran and, to date, about 90,000 undocumented Afghans were deported and Afghanistan has no resources for them

"Spanta has been one of the most active and energetic ministers and he was able to better relations with other nations during his tenure," Herawi said.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman, Sultan Ahmed Baheen, suggested that Spanta's fate have become entangled in a much larger political battle, in which opponents of Karzai are striving to force the president from power. "Mr. Spanta is an independent individual who is not linked to any party but loyal to the law and the people of Afghanistan," Baheen said. "Perhaps that's why he's being punished."

On paper, Spanta seems to be a good fit for the Foreign Ministry. He can speak German, Turkish, the Afghan languages of Dari and Pashto, along with some English. He was an important adviser to Karzai on international relations before becoming minister, and taught law and political science for many years in Germany and in Kabul. One of his achievements as minister has been an agreement that was signed with Saudi Arabia to allow thousands of Afghan migrants to continue working in the country with legitimate visas and passports.

Analysts say that Spanta's weakness is that he is too much of an academic and not enough of a politician. "He's too soft," an adviser with NATO in Kabul said. "These academics educated in the West do not know how to contain the warlords and deal with an illiterate population. You need to be tough and somewhat of a dictator in this government in order to survive."

Editor's Note: Fariba Nawa is a freelance reporter in Afghanistan.

Posted May 29, 2007 © Eurasianet