Bamiyan, 12
March 2001 New York,
11 September 2001
Prof. Lalzad
Warning:
Taliban Is Back - More 9/11s
The
Taliban/Al-Qaeda regime was broken by the bombardment of American forces from
the air and toppled by the advancement of the United Front forces from the ground at the end
of 2001.
The notorious
middle-age regime was ousted, but it was expected that the Americans, with the
help of the international community, would establish a proper government
(relatively democratic) in Kabul to heal and alleviate the prolonged wounds and
pains of Afghanistan people, rehabilitate/reconstruct the country and bring
peace and stability to the society. Moreover, it was expected that the
Americans would rebuild the society, in the hope that it would become a model,
enabling other countries in the Middle East to bring democracy and social
prosperity to their countries. It has also been stated, countless times, that
Afghanistan is a true example of a success story in the “War on Terror” and that
the Karzai regime is a “shining example” of a democratic society. However, the
question remains: Is this turning out to be true or false?
War on Terror – True
Success?
Over the past week,
the fierce clashes between the Taliban fighters and the combined coalition and
Afghan security forces have proved that everything said by the Bush/Karzai
administration was wrong and full of deception and falsification. The security
environment has deteriorated in a very significant way in Afghanistan. Taliban no
longer solely rely on hit-and-run tactics by small groups of guerrillas.
Instead, they have formed groups of more than 100 fighters to carry out frontal
assaults on the coalition forces and government security posts. They are now
challenging the Karzai regime and the coalition forces by controlling a number
of districts in several provinces within south and east Afghanistan (Kunar,
Ghazni, Zabul, Kandahar, Urozgan and Helmand). They are slowly advancing to
north and west Afghanistan. Rather than recognising the faults of its own
policies and actions, the Karzai regime continue to blame Pakistan as the only
source of the issues and problems related to Afghanistan. They are not
considering the internal factors at all. They are failing to recognise that
there could be something wrong inside their regime/government. It is very
likely that the main source of resentment among the people of Afghanistan and
foreign interferences lies within this regime/government.
It all shows that
the Bush/Karzai policy is at fault, ending a deadlock. But to understand what
went wrong and how to make it right, it is important to understand the main
roots/causes of the problem - imposing a puppet regime with wrong policies.
Shining Example – Bush/Karzai
Democracy?
The US forced a
puppet person, in Bonn agreement (Karzai – 2 and Prof. Sirat – 11 votes) on
other representatives, without considering the complex, regional and ethnic
divides within Afghanistan. The instance that a “Pashtun” must be in power was
the first wrong milestone for the building of a new Afghanistan put down in
Bonn (obvious violation of democracy/election principles).
American did not
know that decades of war and centuries of brutal ethnic cleansing and religious
persecution by Pashtun rulers required basic preconditions such as
trust-building and goodwill among the different ethnic groups and regions for a
peaceful society in Afghanistan. They must have understood that it could never be
achieved through focusing on a single Pashtun leader within a centralized state
in a multi-ethnic society. As it was barbarically practiced by Amir A. Rahman
Khan during 1880 - 1901 and followed by Zahir Shah, Hafizullah Amin and Taliban
regimes.
The US and United
Nations must have been focused on building national institutions and a
relatively democratic system to provide equal opportunities to all ethnics. In
contrast, they provided strong support to a “person”, Karzai - a founder of the
Taliban movement in Pakistan - “a wrong man for a big job”. Moreover, if this “wrong”
man was advised and supervised with “right policies”, the conditions would not
be such as today.
Americans
thought that installing a “Pashtun”, in a presidential system, within a
centralized state would have a unifying effect on a fragmented country. They
accepted the wrong views of many radical Pashtuns, that all ethnics in
Afghanistan are (called) Afghans (knowing that “Afghan” is the historical name
of Pashtun and even the word “Afghanistan” as the official name of a country
for the “Kabul” rulers was first created and used by British in the
Anglo-Persian Treaty in the first half of 19th century, while the
“Kabul” rulers called themselves as Amir/King of “Khurasan” until the end of 19th
century). They have been told that Afghans see each other as brothers,
undivided by differences (covering all the atrocities/genocides took place during
the past century) and any talk and dialogue of addressing ethnic issues and
diversity in the country was/is stamped as a “crime” against national unity and
categorized as a “plot” by outsiders to divide the country. They have been told
that who controls Kabul controls Afghanistan.
It
is well known that Pashtun rulers in Kabul have usually requested foreign
intervention (from British, Russians, etc.) to sustain the suppression of
non-Pashtuns and even some Pashtun tribes in the past. Karzai’s attempts for
the US to restrain local conflicts and restore a central power in the country
is heading that way. The signs of Pashtun domination and Pashtunization
(moving/settling of Pashtuns from south to north on the lands confiscated from
other ethnic groups by royal/official edicts, forcing Pashtu language, monopoly
of senior positions, elimination of others historic/cultural values, imposing
of tribal values, etc.) are shining up again, as several key posts/positions
have been given to radical Pashtuns in the government while the leaders of
other ethnics who claim rights for their people and regions or who talk of
diversity are dismissed and sidelined as “warlords” to re-establish the
so-called “national unity” in the country!
It should be remembered that
Afghanistan is a country of minorities (with their majorities in neighbouring
countries) and no ethnicity is more than 30% of the total population. In the
aftermath of a century of oppression of the non-Pashtuns and numerous measures,
projects and actions to “Pashtunize” the country, there will be no permanent
peace, security and trust among different ethnic groups in Afghanistan.
However, there is a very simple and least expensive solution to this long-lasted
painful problem even at present situation (if someone honestly wants to solve
it). In order to cure the fractured relations and history of violence and
distrust, it is needed to create a greater political space by making the
local organs/authorities to be elected in district and provincial levels
besides having a national government in Kabul. It is also the only approach
that directly renounces ethnic and religious extremism at present situation.
Today, the Karzai
regime is sadly opposing this solution and this is the main reason/concern that
many non-Pashtuns believe that radical Pashtuns in the government are using
their posts and positions to re-establish Pashtun domination of the country as
before. The US is exacerbating the situation (by backing the Karzai regime and
its wrong policies) in contrast to their lraq policy, which recognizes Iraq's
diversity and the political rights of different groups long oppressed there.
Other Achievements?
The general public
resentments and social unrests/uprisings could be the final achievements of
the Karzai regime (backed by Bush administration), considering its overall failure
in other aspects of people’s life (after four and half years) such as
trust-building, nation-building, state-building, rehabilitation/reconstruction
(billions of pound spent without any tangible change); fraud in constitution,
presidential and parliamentary elections; extensive corruption, NGO-ism,
narcotism (even the brother of Karzai has been linked to the trade as a major
smuggler) and terrorism. As it was announced in several occasions, Afghanistan
is among top ten “failed states”.
Pakistan Interference?
It was crystal
clear that Taliban was created by the Pakistan military Inter-Service Intelligence
(ISI) in Pakistan in 1994 (after its failure to impose Hekmatyar as the head of
Kabul government) and exported to Afghanistan to establish the darkest regime
(with the name of a pure Islamic state) serving the interest and strategic
depth of Pakistan. The Taliban regime provided such conditions and Afghanistan
was practically transformed to be the 5th federation of Pakistan
during that time (Pakistan’s main objective).
Pakistan knew that
the establishment of a powerful Pashtun (an ethnic minority in Afghanistan with
their majority in Pakistan) regime with the support of the US in Kabul can
create huge problems regarding the un-recognition of the Durand Line and
division of Pakistan (it has already been claimed several times that social
unrests in Baluchistan have some roots in Afghanistan). Therefore the Pakistan
government have done and will do whatever they could/can (knowing that Pakistan
is an atomic power) to prevent the creation of an anti-Pakistani regime in
Kabul which do not recognise/respect its internationally recognised borders.
Pakistan knows that Karzai/Bush administration has collected and organised the
most radical Pashtuns in the Kabul government which clearly claim/propagandize
the “expiration of the Durand agreement?” and the establishment of a “Great
Afghanistan?” - the inclusion of two federations of Pakistan (North-West Frontier
Province and Baluchistan) to be part of Afghanistan. A radical Pashtun
regime in Kabul not only poses the greatest danger and utmost threat to
Pakistan, but also to all non-Pashtuns in Afghanistan.
To prevent this,
the easiest way and the least expensive tool for Pakistan is backing and
sending of thousands of fanatic Muslim fighters under the name/flag of
Taliban/Al-Qaida to fight “infidels” and American “occupation” in Afghanistan
(such as Iraq)! Pakistan may receive financial and logistic support from
different sources for this purpose. It is thought that even the Russians and
Chinese may not be upset and uninterested for the drowning of Americans in the
swamp of Afghanistan to compensate the disintegration and collapse of the USSR
few years ago. It seems that the same scenario of the Soviet occupation is
repeating with American occupation in Afghanistan. Pakistan is playing the same
role, that time against the USSR and now against the USA (in both cases against
the establishment of a radical Pashtun regime in Kabul).
It was very wise for Bush
administration (to force the Kabul regime) to positively respond to Pakistan’s
proposal of border-fencing to stop the so-called terrorist infiltration and
flow of arms by both sides. Karzai and his team harshly responded to this
proposal, but the Bush administration strangely ignored it. In reality, this
proposal was a gauge to measure the temperature/pulse of the Kabul regime (composed
mainly of radical Pashtuns) and its intentions; otherwise it seemed to be
impractical.
Conclusions
The key solutions to end this
vicious circle of endless ethnic tensions and Pakistan interventions in
Afghanistan are
·
Ensuring
all local organisations/authorities have a chance to be elected at district and
provincial levels besides having a national government in Kabul for
trust-building, nation- and state- building and national unity in Afghanistan.
·
Recognition
of the Durand Line as the official border by the Kabul regime for ending the
border dispute and Pakistan interferences in Afghanistan. This will help not
only to end the mistrust between the two countries but also reduces the
concerns of Pashtun domination in Afghanistan.
Otherwise this bloody wound
continues to bleed with more 9/11s!
London, 28 May 2006