Hazaras look forward to polls

When American troops helped oust the Taliban regime, it was the Hazaras of Bamiyan who may have cheered the loudest. As the homeland of Afghanistan`s most oppressed group - Hazaras are Shiite Muslims in a Sunni majority nation - Bamiyan is a province that stood to benefit the most from a modern, secular, Western-supported democracy that boosted minority rights.

But in three years, Bamiyan`s citizens have received very little development aid, and this month`s parliamentary elections could become a referendum of sorts for a well-behaved minority whose patience with the government of President Hamid Karzai is wearing thin. Out of frustration, some Hazaras may look to Iran for support, an unwelcome possibility in a country recovering from decades of conflict fueled by neighboring nations.

Hazaras have Mongoloid features that visibly set them apart and have led to the belief that they are descendants of Genghis Khan`s invading armies. For centuries, Hazaras have been limited by low wage jobs and isolated in the mountainous center of Afghanistan. Their struggles have become more familiar in the West due to the recent best-selling novel, "The Kite Runner."

Despite the Karzai government`s official policy of promoting minority rights - and the presence of six Hazaras on his cabinet - much of the government`s and international community`s funding is diverted toward more powerful ethnic groups, such as the Pashtuns and Tajiks, or to more accessible cities like Kabul, Kandahar, Mazar-e Sharif, and Herat.

                                 

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