Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi - November 29, 2001

Meeting of Seyed Abbas Tabatabai and request for research cooperation with the Expediency Discernment Council

Hashemi's narrative on the ongoing controversies of the parliamentary election law amendment and his analysis of the behavior of reformists

Full text of the daily notes:

I was at home. It was drizzling. Most of the time was spent reading bulletins and news. They say that in the Bonn conference, there has been progress on the 150-member council for forming a temporary government in Afghanistan. The United Nations insists on the presence of foreign forces, which the Afghans have rejected, although the representative of the Unity Party has stated that they agree to the presence of international forces.

The Unity Party and [Abdul Rashid] Dostum have expressed dissatisfaction with having only one representative in the conference. The division of Afghanistan under federal management is gradually being discussed. The killing of Juma Khan Namangani, the commander of the Central Asian revolutionary forces and the person responsible for the Taliban assassination operations, has also been officially announced, which has pleased Uzbekistan.

The issue of the mass killing of non-Afghan prisoners in the Qala Janghi fortress is gradually being raised as a war crime, and the possibility that the uprising was fabricated to provide a pretext for their massacre is becoming more serious. The trip of [Burhanuddin] Rabbani, the president of the Mujahideen government of Afghanistan, to the UAE, which was intended for a meeting with [Pervez] Musharraf, the president of Pakistan, but in practice the meeting did not take place, is also noteworthy.

In both domestic and foreign media, the matter of the urgent parliamentary bill [for electoral law reform] rejected by the Expediency Discernment Council is being hotly debated, and it has further confirmed the ineffectiveness of the parliament. Some left-wing and anti-revolutionary representatives see the parliament in a complete deadlock and propose leaving the parliament or holding a referendum. The revelation of my opposition to the proposal of the political commission of the Expediency Discernment Council, which would have completely disarmed parliamentarians, has created a kind of gratitude in the second Khordad circles, although their psychological nature leans towards complaining.

Mr. Seyed Abbas Tabatabai, a statistics professor at the university, and his wife and son came to visit tonight; they expressed interest in participating in the research required by the Expediency Discernment Council. Mr. [Seyed Mohammad] Khatami's disc has become an excuse for the anti-revolutionaries to talk about his isolation and deliberate distancing.

The United States and its allies have published another long list of individuals, groups, and companies accused of terrorist activities and have demanded restrictions on their visas, travel, and activities worldwide, as well as frozen many of their bank accounts.