The first steps on the hazardous road to democracy in Afghanistan

The first grand tribal assembly to be convened in Afghanistan for almost 30 years finally got under way yesterday in Kabul. The opening had been postponed for 24 hours; the delegate list had been supplemented several times; the first working session was fractious, and Kabul was swept by a sandstorm.

The first grand tribal assembly to be convened in Afghanistan for almost 30 years finally got under way yesterday in Kabul. The opening had been postponed for 24 hours; the delegate list had been supplemented several times; the first working session was fractious, and Kabul was swept by a sandstorm.

Yet the very fact that the loya jirga opened at all is an achievement that should not be underestimated. The majority of delegates were locally elected, with all the skulduggery and horse-trading that implies. But United Nations observers have insisted that the process was as fair as could have been expected and the result a reasonable representation of the country's population. That, too, is a remarkable achievement for a country that emerged from 20 years of civil war rounded off with an Islamic dictatorship.

And a 24-hour delay after so many years of conflict is but a milli-second in history. The wonder is that so many Afghans, from powerful regional warlords to women only just readmitted to public life, are committed enough to a common future that they have made it their business to attend.

Tribute should also be paid to the United Nations and to the many countries, including our own, whose soldiers and diplomats helped to facilitate this assembly. Had any aspect of the arrangements faltered, or been seen as an imposition, the loya jirga could not have been held. Now that it has begun, it is crucial that it also succeed.

That proceedings opened with some disagreement and anger, in and out of the giant meeting tent, is not in itself a bad omen. The more that political disputes can be aired and settled in public, without instigating new vendettas or resorting to arms, the better for Afghanistan's future. It was resistance to argument and the lack of an accepted national forum that propelled the country so regularly into war.

But outside power-play and meddling also played their part. One unintended by-product of the Kashmir crisis has been that two of the powers concerned have been preoccupied with urgent matters outside Afghanistan. The end of the cold war and the start of a new US-Russia rapprochement have also reduced opportunities for interference, even if the US military presence in formerly Soviet Central Asia has made some Russians wary. It was nonetheless an ominous sign yesterday when the EU representative in Kabul warned other, unnamed diplomats to leave the loya jirga to the Afghans.

By yesterday evening, the loya jirga seemed, however, to have accomplished its first task. Hamid Karzai, the interim leader, claimed to have been elected head of state. If so, Afghanistan now has a leader made legitimate by the grand tribal council. A revolt by some of Mr Karzai's tribal opponents using the one-time king as their proxy was headed off when the former monarch formally opened the assembly and disavowed all political ambition.

The only other candidate, the former president Burhanuddin Rabbani, had earlier withdrawn his candidacy. Thus the only two men with a well-founded claim to lead Afghanistan had left the field clear for Mr Karzai to lead his country towards eventual elections.

That is the optimistic scenario. In coming days, Mr Karzai must cement his leadership; he must reshape his government to the satisfaction of competing tribes and warlords. And he must convince Western governments that he has the authority to govern. Only then will the financial and military help that Afghanistan so sorely needs be forthcoming.