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[ English Section ] [ Feedback ] Published in issue #460 on 12 February 2001
Into the Forbidden ZoneA February 5 press release from National Geographic TV.
On assignment for National Geographic Adventure magazine (available on newsstands on March 6), Junger and Reza venture into Afghanistan's treacherous battlefields, where they come face to face with the charismatic guerrilla leader Ahmad Shah Massoud. Loved by his people and feared by his enemies, Massoud led his troops to an astounding victory over the Soviet Union in the 1980s as attested by the Wall Street Journal calling him "The Afghan Who Won the Cold War." Since the Soviet retreat, Afghanistan has been torn apart by geopolitics and civil war. For the love of his country that he fought so hard to wrestle back from the Soviets, Massoud returned to the front lines against the Taliban, the extreme Muslim group now controlling much of the ravaged country. Dodging rockets, landmines and Himalayan storms, Junger and Reza gain unprecedented access to the "Lion of Panjshir" as he plans his next offensive. Junger faces more than the Taliban as he visits a refugee camp where hundreds are dying. After spending time with Massoud, he and Reza encounter a military field hospital as the first casualties of the latest battle arrive. Amidst the chaos, Junger faces his own fears of war and death. Through the observations of Junger, the images of Reza and camera work of Stephen Cocklin, National Geographic EXPLORER witnesses the devastation of war and the dreams of peace in Afghanistan. In the coming weeks, Omaid Weekly will feature more in-depth information on “Into the Forbidden Zone,” a landmark National Geographic special on Afghanistan. Paki rulers must be tried for crimes against humanitySummarized translation from last week’s Dari-Persian section. By Dr. Rustazada We know ourselves, and the world knows, too, how the fruits of our people’s sacrifice and our nation’s victorious jihad was soon hijacked by Pakistan’s ISI and its war-mongering agents, who let loose a new bloodbath and with a daily barrage of rockets turned Kabul into piles of rubble. At the outset of Benazir Bhutto’s premiership, outside conspiracies and hegemonic designs against Afghanistan took new forms, as ISI officers — secure in their backing from London and Washington — intensified their brutality and spread the carnage across the country. The innocent and downtrodden were murdered en masse in Balkh, Bamyan, Parwan, and recently in Yakawlang by Pakistan Army regulars, ISI forces and their mercenaries. Alas! The killing, plunder, rape, butchery and barbarism has not registered the slightest worthwhile response from the world — neither from its people, nor its human rights activists, let alone its democracies. It is as though the world and its inhabitants are dead and the heart of humanity has fallen silent. Moreover, at the dawn of the third millennium, the halls of education have been closed off, shutting out Afghanistan’s sons and daughters from knowledge and learning. A fifty year old Pakistan is trying to sever a generation or more of Afghanistan’s progeny from a rich culture and tradition that stretches back thousands of years. Pakistan is fully employing these tools of genocide because Islamabad knows how much easier it would be to control an illiterate, poor, oppressed and helpless Afghanistan. This indifference by the world and other factors — like strategic alignments and even self-delusion or false optimism by national and international intelligentsia — have all worked to further encourage ISI sadists to continue their treachery and villainy. They have driven-out entire populations — from peasants and shopkeepers to professionals and professors — from their native towns and cities, making more room for Pakistani knaves to carry out their take-over bid through a sort of neocolonialism and old-style barbarity. Yet Afghanistan’s defenders did not submit, and the resistance continued against the Pakistani invaders and its international mercenary forces. Then Nawaz Sharif set to deracinate Afghanistan’s intellectual, cultural, and economic foundation. He undertook great lengths to dismember the country by battering its national unity and assaulting the nation’s political and societal structure. But, the heirs of Afghanistan’s proud history and noble character, while lacking many basic necessities and shouldering greater and greater pressures, fought on and stood firmly against our nation’s traitors and enemies. When it became obvious that the conquest of Afghanistan was not near at hand; when the ambitions of oil companies were stalled; and when regional and international power players saw the rise of religious radicals who posed a threat to their plans and aspirations, another scheme was put into operation and Pakistan was handed over to its military men. No sooner had Musharraf come to power than did this dictator wholly verbalize Pakistan’s hegemonic designs, shamelessly redoubling Islamabad’s invasionary efforts. From his advent, Pakistan’s air and ground forces became even more engaged in bombing and shelling the cities, towns, and villages of Afghanistan. They ruthlessly targeted the defenseless people of Afghanistan, destroying their homes and livelihood, their farms and orchards, their grazing fields and forests. Thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians were killed, thousands more imprisoned, and hundreds of thousands forced to flee to the mountains and valleys to face the merciless elements with only the clothes on their back. While Pakistan intensified its application of the law of the jungle in Afghanistan, nothing seemed to resonate in the ears of those who always cry out for the cause of “human rights” or even those who meddle in the smallest detail of other nation’s affairs when their own interests are at stake. The deaf, dumb and blind charade went on. And though some announced a war on terrorism, the perpetrator of terror, slaughter, atrocity and genocide in Afghanistan — namely Pakistan — was termed a “friendly” nation or an “ally,” and further invigorated to carry on its barbarities. The United Nations has done nothing — not in the least — to address any of the atrocities committed against Afghanistan. And the well-advised, wise, rational and most valuable suggestion by Dr. Ravan Farhadi [eds: Afghanistan’s Ambassador to the UN] for the formation of a fact-finding commission to investigate the atrocities in Afghanistan was totally disregarded. When we do hear or read the few Afghanistan-related statements from this world body, they are all but limited to Osama bin Laden and US interests, while the continuing atrocities and crimes against humanity committed by Pakistan are utterly ignored. Therefore, the burden of preserving our nation’s honor and heritage, our people’s pride and their very existence depends on the efforts of Afghanistan’s own begotten sons and daughters. Those whose lungs were fortified with the air from our nation’s mountains and plains, hills and valleys, must show valor and leave no stone unturned in defending Afghanistan’s sovereignty and independence. A person without a free homeland is truly without worth. Afghanistan’s elders, intellectuals, and educated persons are charged with raising the call for an end to Pakistan’s genocidal war against our nation. They must use whatever means — from the media to human rights organizations — to bring to justice Pakistan’s military men and its ISI functionaries for their ongoing crimes against humanity. Failing to do so is not only an affront to our national character, but a full-fledged endorsement of the tyranny reigned upon our people. *From this week's English-language page
of the hard-copy edition of
Omaid Weekly. Visit the Subscription page for details on how to
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National
Geographic EXPLORER joins The Perfect Storm author Sebastian
Junger and renowned National Geographic photographer Reza on an
extraordinary journey into Armageddon to meet a guerrilla warrior
on the mountainous battlefields of Afghanistan in "Into the
Forbidden Zone" on Sunday, March 4 at 8 PM ET/PT on CNBC.