PRT/QALAH-E NAW: MP BIOS: BADGHIS PROVINCE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KABUL 000257 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR SA/FO, SA/A, S/CT, EUR/RPM NSC FOR AMEND AND HARRIMAN OSD FOR BREZINSKI REL NATO/AUST/NZ/ISAF CENTCOM FOR CG CFC-A, CG CJTF-76 USAID FOR AID/ANE, AID/DCHA/DG E.O. 12958:N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM PINR EAID PHUM KJUS AF KFEM SUBJECT: PRT/QALAH-E NAW: MP BIOS: BADGHIS PROVINCE Ref: 05 Kabul 5180 ¶1. Summary: This cable provides biographic information on three members of the Afghan National Assembly from Badghis province. Azita Rafat is a young female activist focused on development for her province and with a particular concern about the Badghis custom of selling girls. Yaqub Khan is a pharmacist and former mayor of Qalah-e Naw. Haji Mullah Abdullah is a former commander and farmer from Qhormach district. End Summary. -------------- Azita Rafat: Views on Parliament -------------- ¶2. Azita Rafat ranked third among all candidates in votes for National Assembly candidates from Badghis. In a meeting in December 2005, she told PRToff she considers herself an independent and is working with others to form a non-aligned block of about 90 representatives. Unlike the more well-known Malalai Joya from Farah province, who has sharply criticized the presence of mujahadeen and drug lords in the National Assembly, Rafat believes it is important to work with fellow representatives, regardless of their pasts. She is sharply critical of Joya, whom she regards as a grandstander with no positive agenda. She has met frequently with the other three representatives from Badghis and hopes to lobby the central government to pay more attention to Badghis. In her view, provincial priorities are potable water, electricity, and roads. ¶3. Rafat is supportive of the Spanish PRT, installed in Badghis in June. She believes, however, that it has not sufficiently solicited the opinions of people in Badghis as to development priorities. She also feels that the PRT has not hired the economically neediest people to work on its projects. Although she is aware the Spanish are planning a road from Qalah-e Naw (the provincial capital) to the Herat border (to connect with a road to be constructed by Iran from Herat to the Badghis border),she has seen no progress. She would like to see roads built within the province linking the districts. ¶4. Rafat discussed the prevalent sale of girls in Badghis for marriage. She said the going price is between USD four and ten thousand. She stated that the price has gone up recently because people are poorer after several years of drought and fathers are therefore demanding more money and because commanders and drug lords are willing to spend more. The sale of girls has become a common practice, according to Rafat, and it will be difficult to end since people are uneducated and the judicial system is undeveloped and corrupt. ¶5. Comment. Azita Rafat is bright, assertive, and a committed democrat, unusual in a province where women are as oppressed as anywhere in Afghanistan. Like many Afghans, she is impatient with the pace of reconstruction; this translates into criticism of the Spanish PRT and international assistance in general. She will be a positive force in the National Assembly, but her effectiveness will likely be impeded by her relative youth and gender. End Comment. -------------- Bio-Azita Rafat -------------- ¶6. Azita Rafat, a Tajik, was born in Qalah-e Naw and graduated from high school there after studying in Kabul. She is married with four daughters, including six-year-old twins. Her husband is unemployed. Her father is an academic who has taught at the University of Kabul; he presently works as a businessman. ¶7. After graduating from high school, Rafat became a teacher. During the Taliban years she worked in health, assisting women and children in villages. After the fall of the Taliban, she worked for a German NGO in the health field, and then with UNAMA in voter registration. She is a member of the Afghan Red Crescent and a member of the Afghan Independent Commission for Human Rights. Before being elected to the National Assembly, she was Director of Women?s Affairs in Badghis; in this capacity she started a computer learning center in Qalah-e Naw. Rafat speaks Dari, Pashtu, Urdu, Russian, and conversational English. -------------- Bio-Yaqub Khan -------------- ¶8. Yaqub Khan was the leading vote getter in parliamentary elections in Badghis. An Uzbek, he is 50 years old and is married with eight children. His two oldest sons run an English language and computer center in Herat. ¶9. Yaqub Khan attended secondary school in Qalah-e Naw and teacher training schools in Herat and Kabul. He taught school in Badghis from 1985-1995. After 1995, teaching became difficult as Badghis became a fault line of conflict between Ismail Khan and Junbesh and the Taliban and Junbesh. Yaqub Khan then opened up a pharmacy. After Karzai became president, Yaqub Khan became mayor of Qalah-e Naw but resigned a year later because he perceived the then-governor and chief of police to be corrupt. He subsequently managed his pharmacy and worked for an NGO. ¶10. Yaqub Khan describes himself as an independent. He is supportive of the current governor, but noted that the governor is not present enough in Badghis and does not travel sufficiently in the province to develop his authority. According to Yaqub Khan, Ismail Khan still has influence in Badghis, but it is diminished. -------------- Bio-Haji Mullah Abdullah -------------- ¶11. A Pashtun, Haji Mullah Abdullah is 58 years old and has lived his entire life in Ghormach district which borders on Turkmenistan and Faryab province. He has two wives and no children. He considers himself a political independent. ¶12. Abdullah has no formal education but studied religion as a youth. He worked on his family?s land until leaving his village and becoming a commander to fight the Soviets. He returned to his home after the Soviets left Afghanistan and resumed his agricultural livelihood. He did not engage in organized resistance against the Taliban. ¶13. According to Abdullah, the Badghis governor is well-intentioned, but has paid only one visit to Ghormach. In his opinion, many other provincial officials are corrupt. He has no opinion about the PRT; it has been inactive in Ghormach. ¶14. Abdullah believes that one of the biggest security threats in Badghis is the Gulian, a group of Pashtun families in Gormach. About 60 of the 300 families are engaged in animal rustling and common thievery. Although Abdullah claims to have kept them in check during his days as a commander, he said the current corrupt police force has allowed their criminal pursuits. NORLAND