Distraught followers bury slain Afghan ex-leader

[September 23, 2011]  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A surging crowd of mourners on Friday touched and kissed the coffin of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, slain by a suicide bomber claiming to carry a Taliban peace message, and vented at a host of perceived traitors and tricksters.

In angry chants at a hilltop cemetery, grieving followers blamed the Taliban for Afghanistan's woes, Pakistan for allegedly stirring up the conflict and their own government for trying to reconcile with insurgents. Shouts against the United States, which backs the government but is withdrawing troops, reflected frustration that a decade of Western support has failed to unite their divided land.

"Death to the foreign puppets," chanted the throng, some young men, others veterans of the guerrilla war against Soviet occupying forces in the 1980s. "Pakistan is our enemy ... Long live the resistance ... The Muslim people are united."

The outpouring of frustration, and declarations that the time for peacemaking has passed, contrasted with a stately funeral ceremony at the palace of President Hamid Karzai, who hailed Rabbani as a tireless advocate for reconciliation.

"It is our responsibility to act against those who are enemies of peace," said Karzai, urging Afghans to shun despair over the death of Rabbani in an attack at his home on Tuesday, and instead escalate efforts to bring an end to the fighting. The U.S.-led coalition seeks to exit by the end of 2014, raising questions about whether Afghan forces will be able to maintain security on their own.

The 70-year-old Rabbani was the leader of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, which helped overthrow Taliban rule during the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. His death threatens to deepen rifts between the country's ethnic minorities, especially between those who made up the Northern Alliance -- including Tajiks like Rabbani -- and the majority Pashtun, who make up the backbone of the Taliban.

Karzai, who is Pashtun, had appointed Rabbani to Afghanistan's High Peace Council, which was seeking to reconcile the nation's warring factions. It has made little headway since it was formed a year ago, but its efforts are backed by many in the international community.

One by one, lawmakers and foreign envoys stepped up to pay tribute before Rabbani's casket, draped in a red, black and green national flag. A military band played the national anthem. Then the coffin was carried by uniformed servicemen with caps and white gloves, marching stiffly.

A procession of vehicles, some bearing large portraits of Rabbani, showing him dignified in robes and with a long white beard, drove up a hill overlooking Kabul, the capital. There, the observances turned unruly. Gunfire erupted briefly, possibly because guards were jittery about the possibility of an attack.

Supporters of the former president's political faction, chanting and distraught, reached out to the coffin and the funeral at one point resembled an opposition rally.

"Death to those wanting to make a deal," they said. "We don't want Karzai."

The suicide attacker who killed Rabbani had a bomb in his turban, and gained entry to the former president's home by convincing officials, including Karzai's advisers, that he represented the Taliban leadership, based in the Pakistani city of Quetta, and wanted to discuss reconciliation.

No one has claimed responsibility for the killing, and Taliban spokesmen have declined to discuss it.

Namatullah Ahmady, a university student who attended the burial, said Rabbani's death dashes all hope for making peace with the Taliban.

"It's finished," he said, adding that if the insurgents now say they want to reconcile, the government should say: "We're not interested."

Waqif Hakimi, a spokesman for Rabbani's political faction, Jamiat-e Islami, said only a small number of people became overly emotional.

"They were chanting against the Taliban and terrorism and other things, but it did not escalate," he said. "Some people were shouting their different slogans, but it was not the message of the party."

In Washington on Thursday, U.S. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, accused Pakistan's powerful intelligence agency of backing extremists in planning and executing an assault on the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan last week and a truck bomb attack that wounded 77 American soldiers days earlier.

Pakistan rejected the American claims that it is supporting extremist attacks on American troops. Some analysts believe Pakistan seeks to bolster its influence in Afghanistan as a way to counter the regional influence of India, its longtime rival.

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker was among those attending Rabbani's funeral ceremony at the presidential palace. Iran's state media said Ali Akbar Velayati, a former Iranian foreign minister and confidant of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, led the Iranian delegation.

"Today we are witnessing one of the biggest and saddest events of this important political time in the history of the world," said Salahuddin Rabbani, the former president's son. He urged the Afghan government to aggressively investigate the killing.

Also, NATO forces said two service members died following a bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan on Friday. The deaths bring to 436 the number of international troops killed so far this year in Afghanistan.

[Associated Press; By AMIR SHAH and CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA]

Associated Press writer Deb Riechmann contributed to this report from Kabul, Afghanistan.

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