HUGE PROTEST AGAINST AFGHAN GOVERNMENT BRINGS KABUL TO A HALT

[Thousands of demonstrators marched from the west of Kabul to demand that the government abandon its decision to reroute the line, which would transmit electricity from Turkmenistan. The line was initially supposed to go through Bamian, a Hazara-dominated central province that is one of the most deprived in the country. But the current proposed route avoids the province, instead going through the Salang Pass in Parwan Province, which protesters say is vulnerable to avalanches.]

By Mujib Mashal

      

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Kabul, Afghanistan, 
to speak out against the country’s proposed route for a power line, 

calling it unfair to  the ethnic Hazara group. By THE NEW YORK TIMES 

on Publish Date May 16, 2016. Photo by Mohammad Ismail/Reuters.

Watch in Times Video »

KABUL, Afghanistan — A large demonstration against the fragile Afghan government brought Kabul to a standstill on Monday and put security forces on alert, with the authorities stacking shipping containers to block all routes to the city center and the presidential palace.

The demonstration, which was driven by ethnic Hazaras’ outrage over the proposed route for a new electricity transmission line, tapped a deep well of factional tensions and frustration over the government of President Ashraf Ghani.

Though most of the protest remained peaceful, some demonstrators pelted the container blockades with rocks and acted violently toward at least five reporters. The security forces resorted to sporadic use of water cannons to disperse people.

Thousands of demonstrators marched from the west of Kabul to demand that the government abandon its decision to reroute the line, which would transmit electricity from Turkmenistan. The line was initially supposed to go through Bamian, a Hazara-dominated central province that is one of the most deprived in the country. But the current proposed route avoids the province, instead going through the Salang Pass in Parwan Province, which protesters say is vulnerable to avalanches.

Afghanistan still relies heavily on imported electricity, as decades of persistent conflict have derailed the building of dams and kept internal energy production to a minimum. The government continues to import more than 80 percent of its power supply from neighboring countries.

The protesters see the government’s decision as prejudiced against the occupants of central Afghanistan, most of whom are Hazaras, a group emerging from a long history of oppression. But Mr. Ghani’s government has blamed his predecessor for the change of route, saying that two years of costly preparation work has already been done on the new route.

In a declaration before their march ended in the afternoon, the protesters demanded that the government scrap the decision on the route change and promised further demonstrations until it happened.

But much of the declaration focused on larger issues of what the protesters called “the systematic and shameful injustices that have gone on for 70 generations.”

“We can tolerate a lack of electricity, but the degradation of a nation and systematic discrimination is no longer tolerable,” the declaration said.

Mr. Ghani, who appointed a commission to review the project’s contracts, has said that his government had little to do with it, and that he was delaying the execution of the project to ensure that Bamian receives electricity from it, even if the main transmission line does not go through the province.

“In the past 2 weeks, the govt has spared no efforts in reaching out to the protesters to hear their views & engage in discussions,” Mr. Ghani’s office said on its official Twitter account. “The govt has endeavored to address the issue in a way that the project’s funding is maintained & power supply is ensured” for Bamian.

In a highly politically charged environment, pinning down the facts has been difficult. Mr. Ghani, in a speech in London last week, said his government had canceled a billion dollars’ worth of inadequate projects since he took office. But while calling his predecessor’s decision on the transmission line “the wrong decision at the time,” he still reaffirmed it, with the caveat of trying to route some electricity to Bamian.

At the forefront of the protest are leaders who were part of the cabinet in the former government that supposedly made the decision about the electrical line. They include Karim Khalili, who was Afghanistan’s vice president at the time, and Sadeq Mudaber, who was the chief of the cabinet secretariat.

The protests have largely been organized by young activists who have tried to bring technical details to the discussion, including the idea that routing the line through Bamian could tap into coal mines for internal energy production. But many of the traditional Hazara leaders have also jumped on board. These leaders, who are either part of the government or allied with it, are trying to make up for siding with Mr. Ghani’s government in a previous demonstration and using strong language against protesters.

The demonstration on Monday was the second major protest against the government in Kabul, and the largest, since Mr. Ghani took office in September 2014.

In November, thousands of people protested the beheading of seven Hazara hostages in southern Afghanistan by groups believed to be affiliated with the Islamic State. During that demonstration, some of the protesters reached the gates of the presidential palace, and a smaller group scaled the walls.

This time, stronger security measures were in place, with the Kabul security garrison announcing strict guidelines on the eve of the protest. At a news conference, the garrison commander read a list of protest leaders, including Mr. Khalili, who would be held accountable if chaos erupted.

Overnight, the government used the shipping containers to block all the main routes leading to the presidential palace from a wide radius. In addition to the security forces already deployed in Kabul, hundreds of others were brought from neighboring provinces as reinforcements.

Follow Mujib Mashal on Twitter @MujMash.

Ahmad Shakib contributed reporting.

@ The New York Times