A TALE OF TWO KABUL MAYORS

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 KABUL 000062 C O R R E C T E D COPY (HANDLING INSTRUCTIONS) NOFORN SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/05/2020 TAGS: FBI JUS PGOV PINR PREL SUBJECT: A TALE OF TWO KABUL MAYORS REF: 09 KABUL 4066 KABUL 00000062 001.4 OF 002 Classified By: Polcouns Annie Pforzheimer, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. Summary: (C) President Karzai has appointed a new mayor of Kabul, Engineer Mohammad Yunos Novandish. This follows the December 7, 2009 'mismanagement of authority' conviction and the December 8, 2009 release pending appeal of former Kabul Mayor Abdul Ahad Sahebi (Reftel.) The Novandish appointment portends controversy because he is not from Kabul; the Sahebi case suggests kangaroo court justice. Bio information on Novandish is in paras 3 and 4. End Summary. -------------- New Mayor - Old Ties -------------- ¶2. (C) President Karzai issued a January 3 decree appointing Engineer Mohammad Yunos Novandish the new mayor of Kabul. Controversy over the appointment may arise for two reasons: First, according to Article 141 of the Constitution, mayors shall be elected, not appointed. Some Afghan MPs went on TOLO TV January 5 to challenge the appointment on constitutional grounds. Second, according to embassy contacts among the National Democratic Front (NDF),Mayor Novandish is not a native Kabuli and the NDF is planning to try and organize protests within the month. (Note: The NDF is a loosely organized coalition of urban civil society groups and members of parliament.) ¶3. (U) According to media reports and embassy contacts, Novandish, an Uzbek from Saripol, graduated from the engineering faculty of Kabul Polytechnic University in civil engineering and did post-graduate studies in the Ukraine. He served as a lecturer at Balkh University from 1994 to 1996, lived primarily in Central Asia during the Taliban years, and was Deputy Minister of Water and Energy from 2004-2006. Novandish resigned his post when Ismail Khan was appointed Minister of Water and Energy. After 2006 he worked as a consultant for USAID-funded programs such as International Development Relief and Development, Inc. (IRD) and Advanced Engineering Institute Associates (AEIA). In 2009 he opened his own engineering firm, Energy and Power Construction Company, which has allegedly done extensive subcontracting work in the energy sector. (Note: alternate transliterations of his name include Noandesh, Novandesh, and Nawandaish.) ¶4. (S/NF) Sensitive reporting indicates that warlord and leader of the Junbesh Party General Dostum pushed Novandish for the Kabul Mayor appointment. Although Novandish claims publicly that he is politically independent, this reported Dostum support has credibility given that Novandish was Deputy Minister of Water and Energy when current MP and Junbesh Party member Shakar Kargar (Uzbek, Jowzjan) was Minister. Kargar reportedly owed his own ministerial appointment at that time to Dostum. Although Kargar is an intra-party rival of Dostum, they often unite to further party interests. Dostum has been publicly vocal in his criticism of the January 2 ministerial confirmation process in which all three Junbesh nominees were rejected. The appointment of an apparent Dostum supporter to the mayor's office may well be President Karzai's attempt to placate Dostum and Junbesh. -------------- Old Mayor - Yesterday's News -------------- ¶5. (C) Media coverage of the new mayor's appointment has included condemnation of his predecessor, Abdul Ahad Sahebi, for "massive embezzlement of funds and brazen misuse of authority." The ex-mayor's December 7 conviction and almost immediate release from jail on bail pending appeal generated a media frenzy and intense speculation over President Karzai's role in Sahebi's release. (Reftel.) USG officials met with Sahebi on December 25, 2009 and January 2 and 3, ¶2010. Sahebi produced the December 6 summons he received to appear at primary court and obtain a date for his preliminary hearing. Sahebi contended that normal procedure requires a minimum of 5 days between summons and hearing date, but when he presented himself to the court on December 7, his lawyer was handed not a hearing date, but his sentence - four years in jail and a USD 16,000 fine. ¶6. (C) Concerning the actual charge of poor oversight of contracting authority, Sahebi laid out his version of the case: In 2007 Sahebi's predecessor signed a one-year contract leasing some city property to two individuals who had shops on the site. When the contract came up for renewal, the City Hall financial department assigned three people to study the continued use of the land. The financial department recommended the contract be renewed, with mention of the city's future plans for the site. Sahebi's deputy KABUL 00000062 002.2 OF 002 signed the renewal. Three months later, a higher bid for the site came in. Had that bid been accepted, the city would have gained about USD 16,000 more for the lease and this "loss" was the basis of the case against him. Embassy officials have not been privy to the prosecution's case against Sahebi. ¶7. (C) Regarding his job perfomance, Sahebi also mentioned to USG officials that in his less than two years as mayor he had found files for approximately 32,000 applicants who paid for non-existent plots of land in Kabul city. He said he ordered a halt to the distribution of residential and commercial land until claims could be sorted out and invalidated the illegal claims of some important people like Engineer Ahmed Shah, who is close to the fundamentalist former warlord MP, Rasoul Sayyaf (Pashtun, Kabul). This claim supports information reported reftel that some of Sahebi's official decisions may have antagonized powerful people who then sought to use the power of the state to discredit him. -------------- Karzai's Motives Still Unclear -------------- ¶8. (C) Comment: Metaphorically speaking (there is no jury trial in Afghanistan) the jury is still out on Sahebi, the first high-profile case of official corruption following Karzai's re-election. Sahebi's case is on appeal, but no hearing date has been set. Unfortunately for the former mayor, he has already been tried in the press and condemned as an embezzler, a charge that apparently was not even brought and for which we have seen no evidence. As for the formal process itself, it appears that Sahebi may have been convicted without having been accorded what little due process there is under Afghan law. ¶9. (C) The Novandish appointment may indicate that Karzai concluded, despite his initial forceful defense of Sahebi, that it was more politically expedient to sacrifice him. Karzai may hope both to satisfy international expectations that he will act to clean up his government and at the same time to placate powerful Afghan players who wanted the ex-mayor gone for their own mercenary reasons. End Comment. EIKENBERRY