[Country will once again be
officially known as an Islamic emirate, as at least two people killed in
protests]
By Emma
Graham-Harrison and Akhtar
Mohammad Makoii
The leadership unveiled on Tuesday
is drawn entirely from Taliban ranks, despite promises of an inclusive cabinet,
and many of its senior figures are on UN sanctions lists, which is likely to
complicate the group’s search for international recognition.
Late on Tuesday, a US State
Department spokesman said: “We note the announced list of names consists
exclusively of individuals who are members of the Taliban or their close
associates and no women. We also are concerned by the affiliations and track
records of some of the individuals.”
“We understand that the Taliban has
presented this as a caretaker cabinet. However, we will judge the Taliban by
its actions, not words.”
The State Department renewed its
call on the Taliban to offer safe passage to US citizens as well as Afghans
looking to leave.
Afghanistan will once more be
officially known as an Islamic emirate, as it was under Taliban rule in the
1990s, and its chief, Hibatullah Akhundzada, will be supreme leader.
The Taliban have also brought back
the ministry for promotion of virtue and prevention of vice, a notorious
enforcement body that was one of the most hated institutions when they last
controlled Afghanistan. Its main function was to police the Taliban’s extreme
interpretation of Islamic law.
The prime minister will be Mullah
Mohammad Hassan Akhund, one of the founding members of the group who was close
to its original leader, one-eyed Mullah
Mohammed Omar.
He has had far less international
exposure than other senior Taliban leaders, but as head of the group’s powerful
leadership council he is one of its most influential members. Mullah Omar’s son
Mullah Yaqoob will be defence minister, and the acting interior minister is
Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is on the FBI wanted list with a $5m (£3.6m) bounty on
his head.
In his first statement since the
Taliban seized power last month, Akhundzada said Afghanistan’s new rulers were
committed to all international laws, treaties and commitments not in conflict
with Islamic law.
“In the future, all matters of
governance and life in Afghanistan will be regulated by the laws of the holy
Sharia,” he said.
The Taliban face a major economic
crisis, domestic pressure from political opponents and an uprising in the
Panjshir valley that has not been entirely stamped out despite
their capture of the provincial capital.
The internal pressures were
highlighted by protests in Kabul that drew hundreds of people and which –
although initially peaceful – ended in the Taliban firing guns into the air,
beating protesters and journalists, seizing equipment and detaining some
people.
A smaller protest in western Herat
ended with two dead and at least four injured, according to the Afghan
newspaper Etilaatroz. The Guardian saw video of Taliban dispersing protesters
with gunfire.
With domestic reserves frozen, and
the country long dependent on international aid, there is also a desperate
search for international legitimacy that may allow funds to keep flowing. The
government lineup is unlikely to offer progress on any of those fronts.
Instead it appears primarily
designed to prevent internal fractures within the movement, after weeks of
heated internal discussions about power sharing, said Haroun Rahimi, a law
professor at the American University of Afghanistan.
“It won’t help with domestic
legitimacy, it won’t help with international recognition, it will not help ease
the resistance, and they will not help government run more smoothly,” he said,
pointing out that few ministers had expertise in their portfolios.
“So I have to conclude that the
only reason they chose this kind of makeup was to make sure there will be no
internal fractures.”
The new cabinet is also heavily
dominated by the Pashtun ethnic group that formed the Taliban’s original power
base but which makes up only about 40% of Afghanistan’s population. Just three
appointees appeared to be from other ethnic groups.
It was unveiled by the government
spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid. Asked about the lack of inclusivity, he could
offer only vague promises that the minor portfolios outstanding may be awarded
in a way that broadens the government.
[‘The
soul of Kabul’: Taliban paint over murals with victory slogans
“Some ministries and deputies and
many top positions are remaining. We will try to include people from across the
country into it. It’s not a permanent cabinet and we will try to make it more
inclusive,” he said.
In another sign that Taliban
promises of change, including respect for media freedom, were being tested by
the reality of governing, Mujahid said people should not be protesting because
the country “had recently emerged from a crisis”.
He also suggested that some
protesters were incited “from abroad”, a possible reaction to the fact that
many of those on the streets were attacking the Taliban as an instrument of the
Pakistani government.
For two decades Pakistan provided
the Taliban with safe haven, and the head of its influential Inter-Services
Intelligence agency spent three days in Kabul this week as negotiations about
the new government were hammered out, but the Taliban and Islamabad deny any
significant ties.
There was no immediate response to
the new government from the countries that have bankrolled Afghanistan’s aid in
the past, and now face the prospect of engaging with a leadership dominated by
figures who are on UN sanctions lists for terrorist activities.
There is pressure for the
international community to work with the Taliban to try to stave off disaster
for the most vulnerable of the country’s 38 million inhabitants. The United Nations has
warned that access to food aid and other life-saving services is close
to running out, as concerns mount that the country is facing a
looming humanitarian
catastrophe.
The grim assessment from the UN’s
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs came amid an appeal for an
extra $200m in emergency funding in Afghanistan after
the Taliban’s takeover sparked a host of new problems.
The UN says 18 million people are
facing a humanitarian disaster, and a further 18 million could quickly join
them.