September 9, 2002	Monday	Rajab 1, 1423

BAZARAK (Afghanistan): Ahmad Shah Masood, the legendary face of the anti-Taliban resistance, still has the power to unite and divide Afghans, even a year after his death.

His ethnic Tajik kin are determined to mark on Monday (today) the first anniversary of his assassination at the hands of suspected Al Qaeda operatives with rallies and rhetoric that suggest the Masood personality cult is alive and well.

A huge car bomb in central Kabul that killed 26 people on Thursday and a dramatic attempt on the life of Afghan President Hamid Karzai just hours later mean security in the capital will be extra tight.

Masood’s distinctive features — almond eyes, large nose, wrinkled forehead and thin beard beneath his trademark rolled woollen hat — adorn street corners and shop windows across Kabul and in his former stronghold in the Panjsher Valley.

A huge Masood poster will go up in the main Kabul stadium where senior officials will pay respects, and up to 20,000 followers are expected to visit his shrine high on a hill amid the stunning mountain peaks he turned into a fortress in the war against the Soviets in the 1980s and the Taliban more recently.

But while the “Lion of the Panjsher” has been an inspiration to the people who fought alongside him, he does not have the universal appeal to unite a nation where ethnic divisions and memories of bitter war are very much alive.

His Tajik clan from the Panjsher valley has taken many of the key positions in the transitional government — the reward for helping the US military oust the Taliban regime.

That has left Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group, the Pakhtoons, disgruntled in many cases and in no mood to celebrate a man who was involved in bloody internecine fighting in the capital Kabul during the early 1990s.

DIVISION AND SUSPICION: A senior Western diplomat in Kabul said he feared Tajiks within the government could try to use the Masood anniversary to strengthen their position further and sideline Karzai, who is a Pakhtoon.

Defence Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim has strongly denied reports that he is a rival to Karzai, but diplomats are not convinced. Masood’s former intelligence chief would be the obvious choice to take over the country were Karzai to disappear.

Many Afghans assume Masood would have been president of a transitional government had he lived to witness the overthrow of the Taliban. His supporters argue that despite his ethnicity, he had the charisma to drag Afghanistan from its violent past.

“He was the natural leader of this country. He had the characteristics of a leader,” said Masood Khalili, the commander’s mentor who was next to him when he was blown up by suspected Al Qaeda members disguised as reporters.

“He was experienced...and he was one of the most unique, intelligent, decisive guys.”

Karzai has already paid his own respects to Masood, attending a seminar in Kabul on Saturday before flying to Bazarak, Masood’s picturesque birthplace, and then driving to his shrine nearby. He called him a “hero forever”. Karzai left for New York on Sunday.

VIOLENT BUILDUP: Thursday’s huge car bomb in Kabul and the assassination attempt which narrowly missed Karzai were chilling reminders of how fragile peace is in Afghanistan, despite the presence of thousands of US troops and international peacekeepers.

Two cabinet ministers have been assassinated in broad daylight since Karzai came to power in December, and reports of Al Qaeda and Taliban regrouping in Pakistan and Afghanistan are a growing concern for Afghan and Western powers.

Tribal clashes and a bomb blast in the Khost province near the Pakistan border on Sunday underlined the lawlessness and lack of central control over remote areas.

Warlords in all corners of the country are more preoccupied with their personal fiefdoms than they are with Karzai.

Francesc Vendrell, the European Union’s special representative in Afghanistan, said that a representative government was a prerequisite to peace.—Reuters