VZCZCXRO7563
PP RUEHPW
DE RUEHBUL #1948/01 2101056
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 281056Z JUL 08
FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4912
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KABUL 001948 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/A, 
NSC FOR WOOD 
OSD FOR SHIVERS 
CENTCOM FOR CG CJTF-101 POLAD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV AF
SUBJECT: HAZARA-KUCHI DISPUTE GOES NATIONAL 
 
REF: A. KABUL 1818 
     ¶B. KABUL 1008 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY.  President Karzai's effort to make peace 
between Hazaras and Kuchis engaged in a dispute over grazing 
lands is not meeting with early success.  The largely Pashtun 
Kuchi nomads say they are considering temporarily pulling 
back from disputed grazing lands in central Afghanistan at 
President Karzai's request, but local media report continued 
violence.  A Karzai success would have eased ethnic tensions 
that have the stalled National Assembly debate on electoral 
reform (ref A).  Karzai,s inability to deliver a permanent 
solution may harm his credibility among both Pashtuns and 
Hazaras before next year's presidential elections. 
 
Karzai Speaks, But Did Anyone Listen? 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶2. (SBU) Karzai ordered the evacuation of Kuchis from Bihsud 
district in Wardak province July 20, although reports from 
nearby Bamyan province say hundreds of displaced Hazaras are 
still fleeing from Kuchi raids and seeking refuge deeper into 
Hazara territory.  Kuchi leaders say they are confident of 
their legal claims to the land and will respect Karzai's 
order, but many Hazaras doubt the president's sincerity or 
effectiveness in negotiating a fair compromise and say Kuchis 
are still occupying their land.  For centuries throughout 
Afghanistan, ethnically Pashtun Kuchi nomads have brought 
their herds in the summer months into land occupied 
year-round by other groups, often triggering resentment and 
occasionally violence.  A severe drought in central and 
northern Afghanistan this past year has severely limited 
available forage.  Local news media report armed Kuchis 
killed more than a dozen Hazara villagers in Bihsud this 
month and displaced thousands more from their villages. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Kuchi MPs told PolOff Karzai had promised them a 
legal resolution in the country's court system next year in 
return for their sQnding down this year.  MP Haji Mullah 
Tarakhel (Kabul) said Kuchis held legal documents confirming 
their easement rights to Wardak grazing lands and were 
confident they would prevail in a fair legal battle.  "Kuchis 
will never leave to others what is within their rights to 
have," Tarakhel said. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Hazara MP Ustad (Professor) Mohammad Akbari (Bamyan) 
said Hazaras recognized the government's constitutional 
obligation to provide for Kuchi nomads, but any claims to 
land rights disqualified a group from the constitution's 
definition of a nomad.  Akbari thinks most of the Kuchis in 
Bihsud are settled Pashtuns looking to claim Hazara land and 
are ignoring Karzai's order. 
 
¶5. (SBU) When Hazaras and other non-Pashtuns lashed out 
against Kuchis last April, angry MPs walked out of the 
National Assembly's lower house in protest at the nomads' 10 
reserved parliamentary seats (ref B).  The dispute deadlocked 
parliament for more than a month and stalled attempts to 
re-write election laws ahead of next year's presidential 
elections.  Hazara leaders said they would block action on 
the new electoral law and would take up arms to defend their 
territory if the government does not find a solution soon 
(many Hazaras living in the central highlands have largely 
given up their weapons under the GIRoA's Disbandment of 
Illegally Armed Groups (DIAG) process, while Kuchi nomads 
have yet to do so.) 
 
Hazara Tempers Running High 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶6. (SBU) At a July 22 protest in Kabul attended by more than 
10,000 Hazaras, MP Haji Mohammad Mohaqeq (Kabul), a former 
Hazara warlord who is reputed to have visited extreme 
brutality upon Pashtuns during the civil war, accused Karzai 
of trying to downplay Kuchi violence against Hazaras in order 
to hold on to Pashtun support for next year's election. 
Several thousand Hazaras also demonstrated July 24 outside of 
UNAMA headquarters in Mazar-e-Sharif, asking for 
international help to convince the Karzai government to take 
a stronger stand against Kuchi encroachments in Bihsud. 
 
KABUL 00001948  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
¶7. (SBU) Hazara leaders have exploited the conflict to rally 
support to their own powerbases.  Mohaqeq, who played the 
most visible role at the Kabul protest, earlier went on a 
week-long hunger strike over the issue and Vice President 
Khalili boycotted Cabinet meetings for nearly three weeks. 
Both ended their personal protests this week, but along with 
Akbari, have been jockeying for more than a year for 
leadership of the splintered Hezb-e-Wahdat party, the center 
of Hazara politics.  Shia Ayatollah Muhammad Asif Mohseni, an 
ethnic Pashtun from Kandahar influential with the Shia 
Hazara, appears to be trying to moderate the competitive 
chest-thumping of Mohaqeq, Khalili, and Akbari.WOOD