Afghan UN envoy says Karzai showed "great statesmanship"

Jan 26, 2011, 13:30 GMT

Kabul - The United Nations top envoy to Afghanistan said Wednesday President Hamid Karzai showed 'great statesmanship' by opening the new parliament, and refuted reports that the international community had pressured Karzai to do so.

Staffan de Mistura, head of UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said they were not pressuring the president but advising him.

'And I think the president today showed great statesmanship by not postponing further this period of vacuum,' de Mistura said after the inauguration.

Karzai Tuesday accused 'foreign elements' of creating a crisis in Afghanistan amidst pressure from international allies and lawmakers that forced him to open the new parliament now, and not at a date of his choosing in mid-February.

The winning candidates were encouraged to open the assembly without him, he claimed.

De Mistura said there was a danger of lack of unity with Afghanistan without a parliament fife months after the electons. 'Such a vacuum would bring tensions and confusion to countries like Afghanistan where democracy is young.'

The UN envoy had held meetings with the winning candidates in the days running up to the inauguration and had called on Karzai to open the new session 'as soon as possible.' Similar demands had also been made by US and NATO officials.

The showdown between the newly elected lawmakers and the beleaguered president had plunged the country into a political crisis after Karzai delayed the opening of the new parliament for more than a month, a timeframe demanded by a special tribunal he had formed to look into complaints of electoral fraud.

But he gave up after the parliamentarians threatened to go ahead and open with or without him, allegedly with the backing from international community.

Lawmakers and others, including Western allies, have dismissed the special court as 'unconstitutional' and demanded its abolition.

De Mistura said the status of the special tribunal was not for the UN to decide. 'This is an Afghan decision frankly. The Afghan constitution, the Afghan laws, the Afghan regulation of the parliament and the existing parliament is going to work and clarify this.'

Earlier, the lawmakers had agreed that Afghan courts - except for the special tribunal - could investigate election-related criminal cases provided that their parliamentary immunity was respected.

Read more about Afghanistan Politics

Read more about UN