Junus Ghanuni

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Junus Ghanuni (2008)

Junus Ghanuni ( Persian يونس قانوني, further spellings Qanuni , Kanuni , Qanooni ; * 1957 in Punjjir ) is an Afghan politician and currently holds the post of President of the Wolesi Jirga , the lower house in the Afghan two-chamber parliament. Ghanuni is an ethnic Tajik and comes from the Punjjir Valley in northeastern Afghanistan.

Time of the Soviet occupation

During the Soviet occupation between 1979 and 1989, Ghanuni fought against the Red Army as a member of the Jamiat-e Eslami (Islamic Association) under Ahmad Shah Massoud . He was also the liaison between the Jamiat-e Eslami and the Pakistani secret service ISI , which supplied the group with money, weapons and ammunition. In 1987 he was appointed spokesman for the command council of the Jamiat-e Eslami by Massoud. He has held this post continuously until recently.

Afghan Civil War

After the fall of the Soviet-backed government under President Mohammed Najibullah in 1992, the various mujahideen formed a new government headed by Burhanuddin Rabbani as the new president. Although the rivalry between the mujahideen parties resulted in a new civil war almost immediately , Ghanuni remained in the government until the Taliban conquered Kabul on September 27, 1996. He was initially deputy defense minister, later succeeded Massoud as defense minister and finally became interior minister on July 6, 1995. He retained this post in the "government" of the Northern Alliance after the Taliban came to power.

After the Taliban captured Mazar-e Sharif in 1997 and the remaining opposition was pushed back to around 10% of Afghan territory in the northeast of the country, Ghanuni played an important role in creating the " National Islamic United Front for the Rescue of Afghanistan ", better known under the name "Northern Alliance". In this alliance, the remaining forces against the Taliban should be bundled.

After the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud by members of Al-Qaeda on September 9, 2001, he led the Northern Alliance together with Abdullah Abdullah and Mohammed Fahim as part of the "Tajik Troika from the Punjjir Valley", as it was often called.

Time after September 11, 2001

At the Petersberg Conference near Bonn he acted as negotiator for the Northern Alliance, which after the intervention of a US-led international coalition was de facto in power in all of Afghanistan. Ghanuni himself tried to establish the name "United Front" there, since the Northern Alliance's sphere of influence was no longer limited to the area around the Punjjir Valley.

Like the other members of the "Tajiken Troika", Ghanuni became a minister in the interim administration established by the Petersberg Agreement on December 22, 2001 ; he became minister of the interior, a post that he has held in various forms since 1995. On June 19, 2002, Ghanuni accepted the post of Minister of Education in the interim administration. He had previously relinquished the post of Interior Minister to the Pashtun Taj Mohammed Wardak , as the occupation of all three key ministries by the "Tajik Troika" had provoked protests among representatives of other ethnic groups, especially the Pashtuns.

2004 presidential election

When his former ally Fahim joined Hamid Karzai 's campaign as a vice-presidential candidate , Ghanuni chose to run in the October 9, 2004 presidential election himself. Although he was formally running as an independent candidate, he was supported by the Hezb-e Nahzat-e Melli-ye Afghanistan (Party of the National Movement of Afghanistan) , founded in May 2002 by Ahmad Wali Massoud, the Afghan ambassador to Great Britain and brother Ahmad Shah Massouds ). Ghanuni was considered Karzai's most promising competitor, but with 16.3% of the votes cast it remained far behind Karzai (55.4%). In his home province of Punjjir, which was only formed in the same year, he was able to unite 95.1% of the votes.

General election 2005

In the new cabinet of the now democratically elected President Karzai, which was sworn in on December 23, 2004, Ghanuni received no more posts. He announced the establishment of the New Afghanistan opposition party (Hezb-e Afghanistan-e Nawin) and ran for parliamentary elections on September 18, 2005, in which he came second in Kabul province. On December 21, 2005, he was elected President of the Afghan Lower House (Wolesi Jirga) with 122 votes to 117 against his rival Rasul Sayyaf.

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  1. Cabinet of the Interim Government 2002 (English)
  2. Results of the presidential election (English) ( Memento of the original of July 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.elections-afghanistan.org.af
  3. Result of the parliamentary elections for the province of Kabul (English) ( Memento of the original of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.results.jemb.org