Afghan Interim Administration
The Afghan Interim Administration (AIA), also known as the Afghan Interim Authority, was the first administration of Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban regime and was the highest authority of the country from 22 December 2001 until 13 July 2002.
Afghan Interim Administration | |
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Date formed | 22 December 2001 |
Date dissolved | 13 July 2002 |
People and organisations | |
Head of state | Hamid Karzai |
Head of government | Hamid Karzai |
Deputy head of government | Mohammed Fahim, Sima Samar, Mohammed Mohaqqeq, Ahmed Shakar Karkar and Hedayat Amin Arsala |
No. of ministers | 30 |
Total no. of members | 30 |
History | |
Predecessor | Rabbani Cabinet |
Successor | Afghan Transitional Administration |
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Background
After the September 11 attacks, the United States launched a "Global War on Terrorism" as part of its Operation Enduring Freedom, to remove the Taliban government from power in Afghanistan. Just after the commencement of the invasion of Afghanistan, the United Nations sponsored an international conference in Bonn, Germany with Afghan anti-Taliban leaders to re-create the State of Afghanistan and form an interim government.
The Bonn Agreement established an Afghan Interim Authority which would be established upon the official transfer of power on 22 December 2001. The Interim Authority would consist of Interim Administration a Supreme Court of Afghanistan and a Special Independent Commission for the Convening of an Emergency Loya Jirga (Grand Council). The Emergency Loya Jirga was to be held within 6 months after the establishing of the AIA and would put in place an Afghan Transitional Authority which would replace the Afghan Interim Authority.[1] The Afghan Interim Administration, the most important part of the Interim Authority, would be composed of a Chairman, five Vice Chairmen and 24 other members which each head a department of the Interim Administration. Also decided was that Pashtun leader Hamid Karzai would be the chairman of the Interim Administration.
At the Loya jirga of 13 July 2002 the Interim Administration was replaced by a Transitional administration.
History
Negotiations in Bonn
Four delegations of anti-Taliban ethnic factions attended the Bonn Conference: the Northern Alliance or United Islamic Front; the "Cypress group," a group of exiles with ties to Iran; the "Rome group," loyal to former King Mohammad Zaher Shah, who lived in exile in Rome and did not attend the meeting; and the "Peshawar group," a group of mostly Pashtun exiles based in Pakistan. At the time of the conference half of Afghanistan was in the hands of the Northern Alliance, including Kabul where Northern Alliance President Burhanuddin Rabbani had taken over the Presidential Palace and said that any talks on the future of Afghanistan should take place inside the country.[2]
There was a lot of debate about who would lead the interim government. Rabbani didn't want the Bonn Conference to decide on names for the interim government but after pressure from the United States and Russia the Northern Alliance delegation headed by younger leader Yunus Qanuni, decided to go on with the talks with or without the support of Rabbani.[2]
At the beginning of the conference it seemed that King Zahir Shah had a lot of support, but the Northern Alliance opposed this. By the final days of the conference, it was down to two candidates: Pashtun leader Hamid Karzai, whom the U.S. was promoting as a viable candidate and Abdul Sittar Sirat, whose name was proposed by the Rome group.[2] Because of worries that Afghans Pashtun majority would be alienated by the selection of Uzbek Abdul Sittar Sirat, the Bonn conference agreed that Karzai would head the Interim Administration.
Creation of the cabinet
With Karzai chosen as "chairman" of the Interim Administration, he created a 30 member cabinet. The Northern Alliance received about half of the posts in the interim cabinet, and members of the Rome group were named to eight positions. These included warlords with private militias. Among the most notable members of the interim administration were the trio Yunus Qanuni, Mohammad Fahim and Abdullah Abdullah, three of the most powerful leaders of the Northern Alliance. Afghanistan had been in a state of serious ethnic fragmentation and factionalism since the early 1990s; Karzai attempted to unify the country by working with and representing all four major ethnic groups in the cabinet.[3][4] The inclusion of different warlords in the cabinet (and appointment to high provincial positions) divided opinion in Afghanistan, but many saw it as an attempt by Karzai to include everyone in a post-Taliban era of Afghanistan to prevent further conflict.[5] During the time in power of the administration, clashes between certain warlords did occur, notably ethnic clashes between Abdul Rashid Dostum and Atta Muhammad Nur in northern Afghanistan[6] (their rift would continue until c. 2003), and factional clashes between the militias of Pacha Khan Zadran and rivals including Taj Mohammad Wardak in Paktia and Khost provinces.[7][8] Karzai's administration in Kabul did not always have power in the regions where warlords were battling.[9]
Composition of Afghan Interim Administration
Interim Administration Position | Name | Ethnicity | Notes |
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Chairman | Hamid Karzai | Pashtun | Independent Pashtun tribal leader in exile in Pakistan |
Vice-Chair and Defense Minister | Mohammed Fahim | Tajik | Defense Minister of the United Islamic Front |
Vice–Chair and Women's Affairs | Sima Samar | Hazara | Founder of the Shuhada Organization and Shuhada Clinic in Quetta, Rome Group. |
Vice-Chair and Planning Minister | Mohammed Mohaqqeq | Hazara | Warlord fighting against the Taliban for the People's Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan in the United Islamic Front |
Vice-Chair and Water and Energy Minister | Ahmed Shakar Karkar | Uzbek | United Islamic Front |
Vice-Chair and Finance Minister | Hedayat Amin Arsala | Pashtun | Foreign Minister of the Islamic State of Afghanistan in the 90s. Rome group. |
Foreign Minister | Abdullah Abdullah | Pashtun | Foreign Minister of the United Islamic Front |
Interior Minister | Yunus Qanooni | Tajik | Interior Minister of the United Islamic Front |
Communications Minister | Abdul Rahim | Tajik | United Islamic Front |
Borders Minister | Amanullah Zadran | Pashtun | Taliban leader, who defected after the American invasion, Rome Group |
Refugees Minister | Intayatullah Nazeri | Tajik | United Islamic Front |
Small Industries Minister | Aref Noozari | Pashtun | United Islamic Front |
Mines and Industry Minister | Mohammed Alim Razm | Uzbek | United Islamic Front |
Health Minister | Sohaila Siddiqi | Pashtun | Has been in the governments of king Mohammed Zahir Shah and the communist regime of the 1970s and 1980s. Independent |
Commerce Minister | Sayed Mustafa Kasemi | Shiite Muslim | Spokesmen and leader of United National Front |
Agriculture Minister | Sayed Hussain Anwari | Hazara | Chief military commander of the Harakat-e Islami in the United National Front |
Justice Minister | Abbas Karimi | Uzbek | United Islamic Front |
Information and Culture Minister | Saeed Makhdoom Rahim | Tajik | Poet and writer, Rome group |
Reconstruction Minister | Mohammed Fahim Farhang | Pashtun | Rome Group |
Haj and Mosques Minister | Mohammad Hanif Balkhi | Tajik | Independent |
Urban Affairs Minister | Abdul Qadir | Pashtun | Leader in the United National Front for the Hezb-e Islami Khalis faction |
Public Works Minister | Abdul Khalig Fazal | Pashtun | Rome group |
Irrigation Minister | Mangal Hussein | Pashtun | Previously warlord for the Hezbi Islami Gulbuddin, Peshawar group |
Martyrs and Disabled Minister | Abdullah Wardak | Pashtun | Leader in the United National Front for the Islamic Union for the Liberation of Afghanistan |
Higher Education Minister | Sharif Faez | Tajik | United Islamic Front |
Civil Aviation & Tourism Minister | Abdul Rahman | Tajik | Member of United Islamic Front, but he threw his support to former king Zahir Shah and became a member of the Rome Group |
Labor and Social Affairs | Mir Wais Saddiq | Tajik | Son of influential warlords Ismail Khan, United Islamic Front |
Transportation Minister | Sultan Hamid Sultan | Hazara | |
Education Minister | Abdul Rassoul Amin | Pashtun | Member of the National Islamic Front and the Rome group. |
Rural Development Minister | Abdul Malik Anwar | Tajik | United Islamic Front |
References
- "Bonn Agreement". afghangovernment.com.
- https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/campaign/withus/cbonn.html Filling the Vacuum: The Bonn Conferen Frontline
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/dec/05/qanda.markoliver
- https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-hamid-karzai-legacy/26602469.html
- https://carnegieendowment.org/files/warlords_as_bureaucrats.pdf
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/mar/03/afghanistan.rorymccarthy
- https://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/31/world/nation-challenged-warlords-fighting-erupts-afghan-city-warlords-compete-for.html
- https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/19/world/a-nation-challenged-the-fighting-in-a-shift-us-uses-airstrikes-to-help-kabul.html
- https://www.economist.com/unknown/2002/08/08/brothers-in-arms
- Thomas H. Johnson (February 2006). "The Prospects for Post-Conflict Afghanistan: A Call of the Sirens to the Country's Troubled Past". V (2). Strategic Insights. Archived from the original on 1 March 2009. Retrieved 29 June 2009.
External links
Preceded by Rabbani cabinet |
Afghan Interim Administration 22 December 2001 – 13 July 2002 |
Succeeded by Afghan Transitional Administration |