The UN Security Council
& Afghanistan's continuing miseries
Editorial
Summarized translation of last issue's Dari-Persian
editorial column.
The United Nations Security Council is undoubtedly the most
well-known international political organ to claim world peace as
its highest objective.
The UNSC has played a key role in helping to solve conflicts
throughout the world. Among these accomplishments we can count the
settlement of conflicts in Mozambique and parts of the Middle
East. Additionally, the Council has or continues to make critical
decisions and take pivotal steps in the cases of Iraq, Indonesia's
East Timor province, the Caucuses, the Balkans and other so-called
hotspots
Some major UNSC actions have included the deployment of peace
keeping forces. And every now and then, the Council has taken part
in organizing international coalitions in pursuit of its demands
for the withdrawal of foreign invaders and belligerents. In those
cases, the Council did not shilly-shally or veil itself from
responsibility. Instead, swift UNSC action resulted in the quick
defeat of tyrants and salvation of innocent victims.
But (with a capital "B"), these humanitarian and
benevolent deeds were directed at regions handpicked by certain
overlords -- or just overlord (?) -- and determined by them to
require success at all costs. More specifically, such resolute
actions have come to full fruition, beyond the usual perfunctory
measures, in areas where these overlords have either military or
economic interests, or both.
The position of the bruised and bloodied nation of Afghanistan,
however, has waxed and waned in this unforgiving game. During the
past two decades, our nation has at times found itself within the
sphere of interest of the overlords. And even then, Afghanistan
was the recipient of superficial and useless measures of various
degrees, the levels of which were predetermined by the overlords.
When the Soviet Union facilitated the communist takeover of
Kabul, Afghanistan became the subject of a handful of paper tiger
resolutions condemning the coup d'etat. But when the Red Army
invaded the country, thus endangering the interests -- petroleum
lifelines, for one -- of some of the overlords, there was a sudden
and dramatic increase in the Council's level of attention to
Afghanistan.
To date, we have witnessed five years of direct military
intervention by Islamabad in our destitute nation. And thus far,
at least two UN special envoys have explicitly attested to the
presence of Pakistani armed forces and foreign trained mercenaries
fighting alongside the Taliban militia against the nation's
resistance force.
Moreover, countless independent sources, journalists,
eye-witnesses and international agencies -- such as human rights
organizations and aid groups -- have time and again, in an array
of languages and mediums, testified to Pakistan's blatant invasion
and barbaric crimes against the people of Afghanistan. As to why
the overlords have chosen to ignore these facts is left for the
reader to decide.
Leaving aside the well-documented brutalities and savagery of
the Pakistani Army, Osama bin Laden's brigade and Islamabad's
Taliban puppets against our people, there is still more than
enough cause for effective and beneficial UN action.
Certainly the UNSC and Kofi Annan are literate. They have,
undeniably, read Pervez Musharraf's clear-cut statements regarding
Islamabad's intent to do with Afghanistan as it wishes. Musharraf's
pronouncements have laid to rest any doubt of Pakistan's direct
interference in Afghanistan, most visibly through the ISI's
creation, support and sustenance of its Taliban deputies. And
Pakistan's month-long campaign in the provinces of Takhar,
Baghlan, Kunar, Ningarhar and the Shamali have soaked
Afghanistan's plains and mountains with blood of the nation's
innocent civilians and patriot warriors.
And what was the Security Council's response to this carnage?
Nothing, except a meaningless resolution that, in effect, gave the
green light to Islamabad to continue its murderous rampage in hot
pursuit of Pakistan's goal of the eventual take-over of
Afghanistan.
The overlords have spoken, and as expected, nary a word of
their damnable rhetoric is of use to the plight of the Afghan
people or the cause of a free and sovereign Afghanistan.
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