Before During After Former governor who oversaw destruction of ancient Buddhas is elected to Afghan parliament http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/33838.html By AMIR SHAH | Associated Press October 18, 2005 KABUL, Afghanistan - A former regional governor who oversaw the destruction of two giant 1,500-year-old Buddha statues during the Taliban's reign has been elected to parliament, election organizers announced Tuesday as the results from two provinces were finalized. In the latest fighting, meanwhile, U.S.-led coalition forces killed four police after mistaking them for militants during an operation in southern Afghanistan, a top government official said Tuesday. The coalition said it could not confirm the incident and was investigating. The Taliban disregarded worldwide protests in March 2001 and used dynamite and artillery to blow up the fifth-century Buddha statues, famed for their size and location along the ancient Silk Road linking Europe and Central Asia. The Taliban considered them idolatrous and anti-Muslim. At the time, Mawlawi Mohammed Islam Mohammadi was the Taliban's governor of Bamiyan province where the statues are located. After U.S.-led forces ousted the fundamentalist regime in late 2001, he fled to the country's north and was never detained unlike other Taliban officials. On Sept. 18, he stood as an election candidate in neighboring Samangan province and won, according to results on the Web site of the U.N.-Afghan election organizers. Election law didn't bar former Taliban officials from taking part in the race. Speaking to The Associated Press, Mohammadi said he should not be held responsible for the Buddhas destruction. "It was not my decision. It was foreigners like Chechans and Arabs with the Taliban who made the decision. They were crazy people," he said in a telephone interview. "Even though I was governor, I had no power." Samangan province is also home to some artifacts, including Buddhist stupas and the remains of a 1,000-year-old monastery, and Mohammadi said, "I will do everything I can to protect them." Though provisional results have been published for several regions, only four provinces have been finalized, including Samangan and nearby Kapisa province Tuesday. Also declared winners in those areas were three former warlords who are suspected still to have ties to armed groups. Human rights officials say that at least half of the winners are regional strongmen linked to armed groups, raising fears of more violence. In the latest bloodshed to wrack the country, U.S.-led coalition troops opened fire at police in Kandahar province's Maywand district late Monday after spotting the officers firing their weapons into the air and mistaking them for Taliban rebels, Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said. It was not immediately clear why the police were firing into the air. U.S. military spokeswoman Sgt. Marina Evans said investigators were looking into the shooting but that she could not confirm it involved coalition forces. Meanwhile, a bomb 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 half year, leaving more than 1,400 people dead and raising fears for the country's nascent democracy.
That's democracy for you. Just because we're occupying them doesn't mean they're going to become a progressive and secular society.
True. And who's to say that the gentleman isn't correct when he says that he was basically a figurehead? Perhaps he was. One has to wonder how fair the elections were. Results are finalized for only 4 provinces, and 2 of them came in as late as Tuesday. That doesn't sound very promising, but the logistics there are terrible. We'll have to see how it plays out. If anything happens to Karzai, all bets are off. Keep D&D Civi.
