Powerful Afghan Governor Challenges President - WSJ.com

Defiant Former Warlord With Popular Backing and Armed Supporters Demands a Say for Karzai's Defeated Rival Abdullah

By YAROSLAV TROFIMOV

MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan -- An escalating quarrel between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a powerful governor is stoking fears of bloodshed in one of the country's more peaceful and prosperous provinces.

During this year's presidential election, Balkh Gov. Atta Mohammad Noor was alone among Afghanistan's 34 governors -- all of whom were appointed by Mr. Karzai -- to openly back challenger Abdullah Abdullah.

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Adam Ferguson for The Wall Street Journal

Afghan National Police searched cars at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, Wednesday.

Mr. Karzai's victory last week, declared by an election commission after months of controversy, has Mr. Atta steaming, and tensions rising over the prospect that Kabul will try to reassert central authority in this province of two million people.

"Karzai is a thief of people's votes. Democracy has been buried in Afghanistan. He's not a lawful president," Mr. Atta said in an interview in his vast rococo-styled office, as turbaned supplicants lined up to petition for his help in resolving court cases and disputes with local authorities.

Mr. Karzai was declared the winner after Dr. Abdullah withdrew from the race, claiming that the election commission was biased. Dr. Abdullah has yet to concede defeat, and is seeking a broad say in policy making.

The governor, whose personal bodyguard militia lines city streets in the mornings, with rocket-propelled grenades poking out from their backpacks, hinted at what could happen if Dr. Abdullah's demands aren't met.

"We do not want to use violence to further our demands -- but the people have the right to defend themselves if democratic norms are violated," he said.

Mr. Atta didn't rule out reconciling with Mr. Karzai. He said such a deal would involve giving key ministries to the Abdullah team -- and must include Mr. Karzai embracing the challenger's agenda for a decentralized, corruption-free government.

The governor's control of this vital province, on the crossroads of North Atlantic Treaty Organization supply routes from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, serves as Dr. Abdullah's strongest card in trying to wring postelection concessions from Mr. Karzai.

But Mr. Atta's defiance of Kabul is also stoking fears that Mr. Karzai could seek to replace the province's police chief -- who is a presidential appointee but loyal to Mr. Atta -- and even fire the governor himself.

That, some say, could bring a repeat of the carnage inflicted by feuding mujahedeen commanders in the 1990s. "We have dark memories about the civil war in the past, and we fear that such days are again in our future," says S.M. Taher Roshanzada, a prominent businessman who heads the Balkh Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Mr. Atta is genuinely popular here, and any movement against him is likely to spark unrest. "All the people of Mazar will be in the streets if Atta is removed -- and some will bring the weapons with them," said Munir Ahmad, a 21-year-old student in Mazar-e-Sharif, the provincial capital and the bustling economic hub of northern Afghanistan.

Maj. Gen. Murad Ali, the regional Afghan army corps commander based in Mazar-e-Sharif, says he is seeing intelligence suggesting that some of Mr. Atta's supporters are arming themselves in expectation of a showdown.

Kabul authorities shouldn't be afraid of confronting the governor, adds the general, who is a Karzai appointee loyal to the president. "If a president cannot even replace a governor, what kind of government is this?" he wondered. "How can people trust it?"

Mazar-e-Sharif and the surrounding province of Balkh have been ruled by Mr. Atta with an iron hand since 2004. Like Dr. Abdullah, Mr. Atta -- identified as "Full-rank General" on his business cards, though he usually wears charcoal banker suits -- is a former comrade-in-arms of Ahmad Shah Masoud, a Tajik warlord assassinated by al Qaeda in 2001.

Campaign banners with portraits of Dr. Abdullah and Mr. Atta hang all over Mazar-e-Sharif, proclaiming that the two men "come from the same trench" -- marking the city as solid opposition territory.

While corrupt officials stuffed nearly a million fraudulent ballots for Mr. Karzai elsewhere in Afghanistan during the election's first round in August, here in Balkh the falsification occurred to Dr. Abdullah's advantage, according to the United Nations-led election watchdog.

Many of Mr. Karzai's supporters, especially from the ethnic Hazara and Uzbek communities, want the Afghan president to fire Balkh's mutinous governor. "He's been in power for too many years -- and if water stands still, it turns into a cesspool," says Sardar Mohammad Saeedi, the deputy head of Mr. Karzai's re-election campaign in the north and regional chief for the mostly Hazara Hezb-e-Wahdat party.

Yet such moves are likely to be discouraged by the U.S. and Western allies, diplomats say. Balkh, under Mr. Atta's rule, has been largely insulated from the Taliban insurgency that spread over the past year through other formerly peaceful provinces of northern Afghanistan.

Famous for its medieval tiled mosque where Prophet Muhammad's son-in-law is believed to be buried, Mazar-e-Sharif is a remarkably relaxed city by Afghan standards, with few of the razor wire barriers, cement blocks and Hesco fortifications that give Kabul or Kandahar the look of a military camp under siege.

Mr. Atta "is the son of this province -- he's been here during the jihad, he's been here fighting the Taliban, he knows everyone here and everyone knows him -- which is why he was able to play a big role in making this province secure," says the Balkh chief of Afghan National Police, Gen. Sardar Mohammad Sultani.

In a sign of how safe this part of Afghanistan is perceived to be, the foreign troops responsible for security in Balkh and three adjoining provinces consist of a few hundred soldiers from neutral Sweden and Finland.

The contingent's acting commander, Finnish Army Lt. Col. Tommi Härkönen, says he doesn't foresee much trouble because of Mr. Atta's fallout with Kabul. "There could be some demonstrations or crowds gathering, but we don't expect a major problem," he says.

Interviews with many Mazar-e-Sharif residents, however, suggest a more alarming picture. "People trust and respect [Atta]," said Hamid, a 25-year-old businessman who, like many Afghans, goes by one name. "But if he's gone, they will turn to backing the Taliban, as it happened in other provinces."

Write to Yaroslav Trofimov at yaroslav.trofimov@wsj.com