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"Pakistan, Pakistan, pull out of Afghanistan!"
(Issue #479)
Washington, DC, June 20 (Omaid): In a rally organized by the Association for Peace and Democracy for Afghanistan, Afghans from the Washington, DC area protested outside of the National Press Club office during an afternoon appearance there today by Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar.
The APDA-initiated demonstration forced Abdul Sattar to avoid the main entrance of the National Press Club building, where Afghans were protesting Pakistan's direct involvement in Afghanistan. Protestors shouted, "Pakistani Taliban, out of Afghanistan!" and "Sattar, Sattar, Sattar, stop fighting Afghans, stop this war!"
The rally was another success for the APDA, the only Afghan political organization in the West, which has consistently held the largest and most organized protests in the US capital. The APDA has also held several seminars on Afghan culture and politics, and has been the most active Afghan organization in the West in its sincere efforts to help find a workable solution to the Afghan crisis. Since its inception in 1996, APDA efforts have also included several fact finding trips and peace missions to Afghanistan, neighboring countries, and to Italy to discuss the promising Rome initiative. The APDA manifesto, which promotes four key ideals -- namely a common homeland, national unity, democracy and social justice -- is seen by some as a foundation for any future Afghanistan constitution.
After speeches by Afghans, presentation of messages from US Congressmen, and spirited protesting, the Afghan rally ended with the reading of the following resolution, which was distributed to participants and media:
Resolution of the Afghan Rally Protesting Pakistan's Aggression Against Afghanistan
We, the participants of this rally, are gathered today to demand
from the military regime of Pakistan to immediately revise its
Afghan policy, and withdraw its armed forces and mercenaries from
Afghanistan.
Pakistan's military regime must now realize the failure and futility
of the policy hatched by its predecessors, desperate to access the
riches of Central Asia and acquire "Strategic Depth," to
rule over Afghanistan via the Taliban militia. But, Islamabad has
and continues to provide fighters, military supplies, funds, and
training to the Taliban militia. Pakistan's Armed Forces and
paramilitary troops are fighting alongside the Taliban militia, and
they are in charge of planning ruthless offensives against the
people of Afghanistan. Increasingly, Pakistan is joined by terrorist
organizations, most prominently Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaida
terrorist outfit, in coordinating and executing aggression against
Afghanistan.
Pakistan's successive regimes have deceived their own people and Ulema (Islamic religious scholars) to fight the Muslim Afghan nation and destroy Afghanistan -- its people, culture, traditions, heritage, and land. Islamabad has also fanned the flames of religious extremism and ethnic chauvinism in its aggression against Afghanistan. Pakistan has utilized ethnic strife to pit one ethnic group against others, leading to systematic ethnic cleansing campaigns, cultural genocide, and scorched earth policy to rob Afghanistan of its identity and its very means of survival. These atrocities, including the severe oppression of women, are intrinsic parts of an orchestrated scheme by Islamabad that is destined to doom Pakistan itself and the entire region into years of warfare and bloodshed.
If Pakistan's military regime has failed to grasp these realities, the people of Afghanistan -- Pashtoons, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras; Sunni, Shia, and even Hindu -- have now realized these bitter facts. The people of Afghanistan are vehemently against the Taliban's barbaric policies; they have suffered under the militia's numerous and unyielding atrocities; they know the truth about the Taliban's ultimate goal of turning Afghanistan into a terrorist hub and a Pakistani client state; and they are united in resisting the Taliban, their terrorist allies, and Pakistani masters.
During this critical time, we ask the United States, whose officials have called on and met this week with Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar, to reevaluate its regional policy, and develop and independent policy for Afghanistan that takes into account the enduring aspiration of the people of Afghanistan for freedom, independence, peace, democracy, and human rights in a truly Islamic country in harmony with the world community. ><
US obliged to help Afg resistance force
(Issue #480)
Editorial
US media was witness to a rare display of sound analysis and good reasoning relating to US policy on Afghanistan in the form of a an opinion piece by Oliver North on the front page of the commentary section in Sunday's edition of The Washington Times.
Mr. North, an outspoken conservative commentator, argues that the US has failed to take appropriate action against Saudi-born terrorist Osama bin Laden. Osama, who despite rehashed news reports is still living in Qandahar alongside his son-in-law, the Taliban's nominal leader Mulla Omar, is quoted in Mr. North's commentary as saying, "It's time to penetrate America...and hit them where it hurts." Mr. North also cites the conviction of four of Osama's henchmen in the August 1998 bombing of two US embassies in Africa that killed US State Department officials, other Americans, and many Muslims, but he argues that the courtroom and trial lawyers are a woefully insufficient means of dealing with the terrorist mastermind. And a few State Department travel warnings and two embassy closings after a recent threat by Osama for more terrorist action against the US "[is], at best, strange," Mr. North writes.
Unlike State Department officials who are treating Osama as a
nuisance in their pro-Taliban policy, Mr. North strongly asserts:
"[Osama] has declared war on the United States, and we should
give him what he wants: war. Those who aid and abet his cause,
like the Taliban in Afghanistan who have hidden him since 1996 and
Saparmurat Niyazov in neighboring Turkmenistan, should be put on
notice that we regard them to be his allies and treat them
accordingly."
Debunking current US policy on the Taliban and Osama, Mr. North
concludes in his commentary: "We ought to overcome our
reluctance to aiding resistance movements and start supporting
Ahmad Shah Masood's Afghan United Front, solicit their help in
pinpointing bin Laden and his fanatical followers and attack them
not with cruise missiles and not with lawyers. Instead, we should
employ our considerable US military power."
Bravo, Mr. North! True, similar to Mr. North's advice, the US would meet its national security concerns by reassessing its regional program and working to undue Pakistan's damaging policy of sustaining all-out war in Afghanistan by raising the specter of extremism and terrorism, nourishing the Taliban, and directly engaging in the battles. But, self-interest isn't the only reason Washington should stop its collusion with Pakistan by indirectly -- or directly, according to many -- abetting the Taliban, and thus helping along Osama on his promise of a murder-spree on Americans.
The US is obliged to help Afghanistan's United Front national resistance force, led by Commander Masood, for reasons stemming back to the tremendous and historic sacrifice of Afghans in defeating the Soviet Union.
While it may have been a simple trade of weapons for blood for Washington when the US sent arms to Afghanistan -- albeit, much of it was useless for its original intent since it went to Pakistani puppet Gulbudin Hekmatyar who used it to murder countless Mujahideen and Afghan intellectuals during the 1980s -- it wasn't that simple to Afghans. Mujahideen resistance fighters and the people who gave them food, shelter, cover, and their own sons, paid with their blood. No amount of material aid -- even the Stinger -- would have sufficed to defeat America's powerful foe if it weren't for the will of the people of Afghanistan, led by luminaries like Cmdr. Masood, to invest their own lives in battling a modern, mechanized army in order to preserve their faith, families, and country.
And how did the US respond when its vaunted rival was finally defeated in battle by the Afghans and eventually collapsed? Well, after already having given Pakistan a free hand in the distribution of billions of dollars of aid during the jihad to further Islamabad's own hegemonic designs, Washington let Pakistan take its turn at killing the battered and war-weary Afghans and trying to take over the land which they had just recently liberated.
US policy took on a whole new dimension when, among other things, Central Asian oil and gas was dangled before them by Pakistan. And so, countless more Afghans died during the early 1990s at the hands of Pakistani agent and CIA darling Hekmatyar, who rocketed Kabul to rubble, in an attempt to create a Pakistani satellite state, and consequently build pipelines that would benefit all except the Afghans themselves who would be doomed to fruitlessly toil like the suffering peoples in today's diamond mining African nations. When Hekmatyar failed, out came Pakistan's thought to be coup de grace: the Taliban. And once again, Washington was all too eager to help Islamabad in feeding its new Afghan killing machine. And so this tragic yet true story has been repeated in the columns of this newspaper for many years.
But now the US faces the real threat of death and destruction that has all but annihilated the Afghans, were it not for their continuing, valiant resistance. Pakistan's Taliban are providing the launching pad for an American killing machine: Osama's Al-Qaida terrorist organization.
Taking Mr. North's advice would help the US stave off this threat. Except this time, by sending aid directly to Afghanistan's national resistance force, the US can help to ensure that the Afghans will also, finally, benefit from Washington's entirely self-motivated and self-interested policies. And while that wouldn't completely repay the debt America owes to Afghanistan for its role in saving the free world from communism, it is, at the least, a step in the right direction -- helping the people of Afghanistan instead of helping to kill them.
US can, must pressure
Pakistan
Masood is Afghanistan's only hope
(Issue #479)
Continued from our previous two issues, following is the conclusion of Omaid Weekly's interview with Ms. Otilie English, the Public Affairs Representative of the Islamic State of Afghanistan in Washington, D.C., upon her arrival from a recent trip to Afghanistan.
Ms. English's background on Afghanistan includes a stint in 1987 at the American Security Council (ASC), a bi-partisan think tank on foreign policy issues. In that capacity she shot a video on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and traveled across the US speaking on the subject for ASC speaker's bureau. In 1989 she became Director of Public Relations for the Committee for a Free Afghanistan and returned to Qandahar with journalists from CNN. At the Committee she worked directly with the majority of Afghan political organizations in Peshawar, published a newsletter on Afghanistan, the Free Afghanistan Report, and advised journalists on conditions inside that country. Prior to her current position, she was an appointee of Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge.
Omaid Weekly: Have there been movements on Capitol Hill [eds: United States Congress] with regard to Afghanistan?
Otilie English: My main aim is to talk with Congressman and Senators. So far, this coming week, we [eds: Dr. Abdullah, Afghanistan's acting Foreign Affairs Minister, and Ms. English] will be meeting with key Congressman and Senators, both Republican and Democrat. This is an issue that they need to be united on. It's totally bipartisan. Everybody understands the humanitarian issues involved, the way women have been treated.
After the [Buddha] statues were blown up [by the Taliban], it makes it much easier [to lobby against the Taliban]. And now the wearing of the yellow ribbons [by US Congressman in support of Afghan Hindus now persecuted by the Taliban].
The [US] State Department is taking this attitude that there are wings in the Taliban, moderates and hardliners. If there were moderates, they have already been kicked out or killed. They are a totalitarian regime. There isn't room for dissention. What Mulla Omar says goes. If you disagree with it, you get shot. So there isn't any room for engagement. Yet, the State Department keeps thinking the opposite. But, Congressman and Senators need to know that the US will never be able to engage the Taliban.
OW: Have Senators and Congressman been more receptive [than the State Department]?
OE: Yes. They are very interested. Especially now that its quite obvious that certain things the US was doing in the past is not working. There is going to be a reevaluation and a real policy [on Afghanistan], hopefully.
I keep going up to Capitol Hill and telling them the US doesn't have [an Afghan] policy. Outside of [former US President] Bill Clinton getting caught with Monica Lewinsky and throwing a couple of rockets to divert attention; what did that do except irritate a few people. It's ridiculous.
The US needs a real, concrete policy. The US needs to come down hard on our allies, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and others in the Persian Gulf that are supplying tons of money [to the Taliban] -- and they all know this. [Saudi Prince and Intelligence chief] Turki Faisal's plane has been seen in Qandahar's [Taliban headquarters] airport. We all know what's going on there, there's no secret. And anyone who is trying to say that that isn't happening is either crazy or just outright lying. And the Pakistanis have really got to be raked over the coal by the US. And I hope that when [Pakistani Foreign Minister] Sattar comes to Washington all the Afghans will get together and demonstrate to call attention to this.
The Afghan community must understand something that is very important. They all have to band together and forget whether they're Pashtoon, Tajik, Uzbek or Hazara, and whatever feelings they might have had, for whatever reason, against Ahmad Shah Masood [eds: Afghanistan's national resistance leader]. Because right now, Ahmad Shah Masood is Afghanistan's only hope. And everyone realizes this.
OW: How can the US come down hard on its allies? The State Department, for many years and still today, adamantly says that it has no influence over Pakistan.
OE: I don't buy it for a second. The Pakistanis have been very smart. Until recently, there has been a tremendous lobby on their behalf, which had made headway. I don't think there is a will in the State Department; they're basically lazy. Years ago, the US held up F-16 [fighter jet] shipments to Pakistan. The US could do something similar again. The US can shut them off in a certain way. But more Americans have to go inside Afghanistan. ><
Obliteration of Afghanistan's national heritage
(Issue #479)
London, June 17 (Omaid): In an international conference held in the Centre for Asian and African Literatures at the University of London, Afghan and Western scholars discussed Afghanistan's rich national heritage that has been nearly completely destroyed by the Taliban militia.
Presentations included essays on various stages of Afghanistan's history, the country's heritage, the importance of preserving what remains, its Islamic context, and its continuing destruction at the hands of the Taliban. The presentations will be published at a later date in a single volume.
Below are excerpts from the opening speech by Mr. Ahmad Wali Masood, Afghanistan's Minister Counsellor and Charge d'Affaires of the Embassy of the Islamic State of Afghanistan in London:
In the Name of Almighty Allah
It is a privilege to open this conference and to discuss and elaborate about the past significance of the doomed Buddha statues and further to explore the best ways to safeguard and preserve our cultural heritage, which undoubtedly amounts to a very important part of the world's cultural heritage.
However, while fully acknowledging the historical and archaeological merit of this conference, it would be less than complete not to speak about the socio-political conditions affecting Afghanistan's culture. It is this prevalent condition, perpetuated by the world's apathy and indifference, that is responsible for the destruction of the colossal Buddha statues. It is the decision at the political level that is responsible for the obliteration of thousands of pieces of artifacts in Afghanistan, at the directive of the Pakistan-Taliban-Bin Laden axis that violently strike at the very heart of Afghanistan's identity.
Resorting to a series of deliberate violent destruction of statues in Herat, Ghazni, and Surkh Kotal, the obliteration of museums in Kabul as well as in Hadda, the destruction of famous Mashale artifacts, including his Zarnegar house, which contained some of the most world's most beautiful miniatures and paintings, are just a few examples of a long list of acts of cultural genocide at the hands of the Taliban.
Unfortunately the world, watching all these acts of cultural barbarism, did not move until the biggest cultural tragedy, the destruction of the Buddha statues in Bamyan, took them by surprise and shocked the world community. In the words of one scholar, "the Buddha was not destroyed, but collapsed in despair of the world's inertia…" This barbaric action, despite the outcry of the international community, including the whole of the Muslim world, was an affront to all civilized societies.
In this conference, distinguished guests and esteemed personalities with their diverse beliefs, views, and values are finding a common ground, which is the universal cultural ground that brings together people, countries, governments, and leaders from across the globe, to value and commemorate Afghanistan's heritage, which belongs not only to Afghans but to all of mankind.
Through this conference, we must convey our message to denounce the cultural barbarism of the Taliban, and to call upon the world community to unite and stop the Taliban from committing further atrocities.
Failing to do so will undermine the one important, universal factor that we all have in common: cultural heritage. And the world must make the vital and fundamental distinction that the Taliban are not personifying genuine Afghan character. ><
Live and let lie, motto for US-Paki relations
By Farhad Ahad
Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar’s June 16-21 visit to the United States, and his closed-door meetings with US officials, needs further examination.
In the press briefing following the discussion between the US Secretary of State Colin Powell and his Pakistani counterpart Abdul Sattar, a US State Department spokesperson revealed little in the way of content. The guarded public statement from the State Department went along the lines of “we emphasized that Pakistan’s Afghanistan policy is extremely important to our strategic interests in the region.” The statement, intended to answer a reporter’s question, itself breeds additional questions, such as (1) what was discussed, (2) what exactly is US policy in South Asia, and (3) how aware is the US of the extent of Pakistan’s involvement in Afghanistan?
What was discussed?
The exact comments of Sattar might remain a secret except, of course, to American and Pakistani officials present at the talks. However, one may conclude that Sattar’s assertions were no different from Pakistan’s otherwise standard answers -- those recited to the United Nations Assembly time and again by the Pakistani Ambassador: “We do not support the Taliban” and “we cannot influence or control the Taliban.” As is known, intelligence documents provided by France and Russia to the UN Security Council, together with non-Afghan POWs -- Pakistanis, Arabs, Malaysians, Uighurs, etc. -- captured by the United Front national resistance force, eyewitness accounts by UN officials, and independent testimonies offer a different story. Why then the Pakistani lies?
In Pakistan, there exists an ever-widening gap between the
official policies, as communicated to the world, and the actual
orders given by the Generals in charge. Indeed, lies seem all but
sanctioned in Pakistan’s constitution. In his memoirs, former US
Secretary of State George Shultz describes an instant when the
then Pakistani dictator Gen. Ziaul Haq told President Reagan, “Lies
are sanctioned in Islam as long as it helps Muslims.” While Gen.
Zia might be witnessing the truth to his interpretation of Islam
in his afterlife, Gen. Musharraf is displaying all the bells and
whistles of one of Gen. Zia’s finer protégés.
The only official Pakistani statement with some truth is the claim
that it “houses 2 million Afghan refugees.” That might be the
case. However the economic impact, contrary to what Pakistan says,
has actually benefited Pakistan tremendously. The benefit has
swelled both the government budget and the pockets of small and
big time Pakistani cronies. Regardless, the "housing of
refugees" response is not an appropriate line of defense, and
has no relevance to Pakistan’s blatant violation of UN
Resolution 1333, as it continues arming and reinforcing the
Taliban.
What exactly is US policy in South Asia?
US policy with regard to Afghanistan remains haphazard. The US suffers from not having independent, long-term, and separate doctrines for Pakistan and Afghanistan. Rather, the US continues to live by short-term policy decisions, ensuring that each does not result in the alienation of what it perceives as its regional allies, namely Pakistan, and more importantly Saudi Arabia. Further, it is moving “cautiously” so as not to infuriate zealots who seem to control much wealth -- largely petro-dollars and poppy trade cash -- and who have indirect links to Pakistan’s nuclear button. At the same time, however, US officials are touting human rights and terrorism as issues of great concern to Washington.
How aware is the US of the extent of Pakistan’s involvement in Afghanistan?
With the world’s best technology and intelligence networks, the US is more aware of the extent of Pakistan’s involvement in Afghanistan than Pakistan itself. Common sense, let alone US satellites, is not blind to the continuing flow of supplies, arms, and fighters crossing into Afghanistan from Pakistan.
It seems, therefore, that American and Pakistani relations remain at a standstill. Each side seems content in marketing lies and misinformation, both in their dealings with each other, and in their statements to the rest of the world. ><
*From this week's English-language page
of the hard-copy edition of
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