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[ English Section ] [ Feedback ] Published in issue #447 on 13 November 2000*
The UN held hostageBy Sayed Azizullah Marmooz A summarized translation of Mr. Marmooz's Dari-Persian article, published in last week's issue. A little over a half-century ago, Afghanistan, our beloved country, faced a terrible foe: malaria. This deadly disease ravaged our people, much like the ill-effects of drug production, terrorism and the onslaught of the Pakistani invasion, which have brought ruin upon our land and our fellow Afghans. Even then, Afghanistan was too poor and without resource to successfully fight this malevolent epidemic. Both national and international efforts were launched to contain and eliminate the malaria outbreak. The government set up a malaria division in the Ministry of Public Health. The United Nations initiated its own campaign through the World Health Organization. They dispatched humanitarian aid, medicine, personnel, and equipment. Within a matter of a few years, Afghanistan was rid of malaria and its agent arthropod. Now, more than a half-century later, the baneful mosquitoes that spread the malady of chills, fever, coma and death have been replaced by Pakistan's Taliban henchmen. The first swarm of Pakistan's bringers of death and destruction infected Qandahar. And now, much of Afghanistan has suffered the same ill. But, instead of chills and fever, these killer's sting induce ethnic cleansing, mass murder, gender apartheid, drug production and global terrorism. Like those notorious mosquitoes, however, Pakistan and her henchmen have found the blood of Afghans too sweet to resist. Their poisonous parasites have been strewn over our mountains, valleys, deserts and plains. Some have been forced to cultivate opium poppies to survive. Others are pushed into the frontlines. Mothers and daughters are tyrannized, while fathers and sons are degraded, losing their will to resist and fight the invaders. Fortunately, Pakistan's Taliban endemic is facing national efforts to resist the total infection of the country. But, while our brave champions fight on to save Afghanistan from demise, neither the UN nor any other international organization [Eds: e.g., the Organization of the Islamic Conference] has taken a positive, productive step to either end the murder and mayhem perpetrated by the Taliban or, at the least, eject Pakistani Army regulars, commandoes and paramilitary units from Afghanistan. Inane resolutions, trite statements and other UN hocus-pocus cannot and will not extinguish the flames that now engulf Afghanistan. Prior to our unipolar world -- before the American eagle, with rockets clenched in one claw and missiles in the other, had cast its shadow throughout the globe, including over the General Assembly building -- the UN adhered to its principles and mission. The world body truly represented the hopes and aspirations of both large and small nations. We can cite UN actions during the independence struggle of Bangladesh against US- and British-supported Pakistan. And assistance in the eradication of malaria in Afghanistan is another instance of UN achievement. In this unipolar world, if the UN has a shred of strength left, the well-informed may ponder, it should first declare its own independence and seek to once again represent all its member states. Unlike in the past, the delegates who occupy member seats act deaf, dumb and blind; but they are surely intelligent, keen and observant folk. They know what goes on in the world, both in the day and at night. And they fully know whence the Taliban came, how the militia's deadly wing cast its shadow over Afghanistan, and, like the malaria bearing mosquitoes of the past, what diseases, suffering and death they brought upon the Afghan people. Yet, they sit silent. Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto -- in broad daylight, with full responsibility, and with all her wits about her -- said to reporters in London that both the British and the Americans played a role in the creation of the Taliban and their invasion of Afghanistan. In the same manner, the facts behind the interjection of international terrorist Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan's current crisis is also known but silenced by UN delegates. But, some voices, including high ranking US Congressman, have indicted the Clinton administration for elevating bin Laden to such dangerous heights. And the profiteering of the Taliban and Pakistanis from the booming drug trade -- which leads to the eventual death of thousands, especially in the West -- is also known to these very same delegates. Yet, they sit silent. Bin Laden has terrorized the Americans. The Taliban financier has bombed New York's World Trade Center building, American embassies in Africa, a US post in Saudi Arabia, and recently a US military ship -- each time, killing many American men, women and even children. But, the Clinton administration continues to lampoon the matter. The Saudi terrorist has become a puppet for this administration, which at times it uses during farcical "dialogues" with the Taliban. And Pakistan itself, the world knows, has become a tool by which Washington plays out its inexplicable foreign policy in the region. Blinded by power, the US continues to ignore the cries from Afghanistan and its neighbors. It thinks it can play with fire and not get burned. And the shadow it has cast over the UN has rendered this once effective world body useless and powerless. The UN, it seems, has been held hostage. Mr. Marmooz is one of Afghanistan's most experienced journalists. During his long and distinguished career, Mr. Marmooz served as the Editor-in-Chief of a number of leading Afghan publications. *From this week's English-language page
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