HVK Archives: A bitter Afghan harvest awaits Pakistan, USA
A bitter Afghan harvest awaits Pakistan, USA - Sunday Observer
S K Singh
()
6-12 October 1996
Title : A bitter Afghan harvest awaits Pakistan, USA
Author : S K Singh
Publication : Sunday Observer
Date : October 6-12, 1996
The Taliban, created and backed by Pakistan, have stormed
into Kabul without any real fight. Their earlier takeo-
vers of Herat, Jalalabad and Sarobi were also without any
bloodshed. 'Silver bullets got them these victories', as
they say in traditional Afghani. But then the question
arises: who provided this silver? The answer, according
to the Afghans,is the United States of America, Pakis-
tan's backer.
The Mujahideen leaders of yesterday, then Pakistan's
darlings and US President Ronald Reagan's honoured call-
ers in the Oval office, are now proving inconvenient and
awkward. Both Sibghatullah Mojaddedi and Burhanuddin
Rabbani, as presidents of Afghanistan, refused to be
Pakistan's meek followers or favour seekers. And so all
of them - Mojaddedi, Sayyaf, Mohammadi, Rabbani and
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar - had to be brushed away.
The brush or the broom devised for this was the Taliban.
The Taliban too will soon have to go. A new group of
rulers of Afghanistan, pliable, peaceable, and bourgeiose
and respectable in international terms, will need to be
created.
The Taliban demand to return to the sharia law, and the
old untainted ways of seventh century Islam, is being
tolerated without overt criticism by the West. The brutal
execution of former president Najibullah and his brother,
the gory sight of their limp bodies hanging at the centre
of Kabul: an order to women not to appear in public
without the veil or burqa: the instructions to female
employees not to attend offices - all these are being
accepted by the West without much objection.
The Taliban health minister is busy personally amputating
the arms, wrists and legs of thieves and other miscre-
ants. Nobody in the USA is talking of brutality or human
rights. After all, these peculiar Islamic practices had
been abolished by the horrible communists. And if Isla-
mic fanaticism brings them back, so be it!
The now powerless Russians helplessly tried to push
through a resolution through the United Nations Security
Council on the developments in Afghanistan. This was
diluted into a statement which deplored but did not
'condemn' the barbaric acts of the Taliban.
The Russians also failed to get a clear pronouncement on
Pakistani interference in Afghanistan. Their statement
too failed to make a mention about the status of women or
human rights.
And now, the Americans have vaguely used the word 're-
gret' in the context of Najibullah's brutal killing and
the Taliban's violation of his sanctuary in the UN com-
pound. They have indicated that they would be happy to
open business with the Islamic militants. American
spokesmen are already nodding in agreement with the
Taliban announcement that all Afghans could return to
Kabul without fear, and that they intend to respect the
rights of all Afghans.
The Americans are talking piously about how much they are
looking forward to nation-wide reconciliation. Their
spokesman in Washington has gone on to state that "on the
face of it, there is nothing objectionable (in Kabul) at
this stage". They have also pronounced, in a judgmental
way, that the Taliban is "backed by the majority of the
Afghan people", and that Rabbani's government - in
Washington's view killed now. The war between - was
"totally ineffectual and the forces of modernization and
without backing among the population at large".
This amounts to clear evidence that the Pakistan-backed
Taliban has succeeded with the help of ,silver' bullets
provided by the USA. Also, that the USA is determined -
in the garb of peace in Afghanistan - to back the Tali-
ban.
But this does not mean the Taliban will not be ousted
once they have served their purpose. As of today, they
are being useful to the USA not merely for bolstering
Pakistan's clout in the region, but also for erasing
Iran's ability to help the Shias of Afghanistan.
Already, the Americans and the OECD countries are getting
the world community used to the thought that former king
Zahir Shah, now living in exile in Rome, may come back to
Afghanistan to mobilize normalcy and peace. Zahir Shah
and his party too appear agreeable to these ideas.
Pakistan had forgiven Zahir Shah last year for his earli-
er 'mistakes', one of which was to oppose Islamabad's
admission into the UN in 1947: the other being his
friendship with Jawaharlal Nehru.
One is reminded of the tricks played in 1929-30 by the
British imperial authority to rid Afghans of their na-
tionalist king Amanullah. They had, on that occasion,
created a ragtag Islamic army under a bhishti (water
carrier) called Bachha Saqao, who, for a brief time was
prompted as 'King' Habibullah.
Bachha Saqao's movement against King Amanullah was based
on canards about the king's wife, Queen Soraya, appearing
unveiled in European countries, and the rumour that
Amanullah was bringing European equipment and machinery
for making soap out of Afghan corpses. He also contended
that Amanullah had "turned against Allah and Islam".
Amanullah Khan and his chief adviser, Mehmood Tarzy, had
merely believed that Europe once existed in a Dark Age,
and that Islam carried the torch of learning. Now the
Muslims live in a Dark Age and must modernize quickly. If
Islam is worthwhile, they had said, it should be strong
enough to accept challenges.
All these are the very crimes for which Najibullah has
been killed now. The war between the forces of moderni-
zation and secularism in Afghanistan, and those of rigid,
backward-looking Islam continues.
This debate between secularism and rigid Islam continues
not only in Afghanistan but also involves neighbouring
Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Their politics
too are mixed up with Afghan politics and security: and
in those countries too, the Saudi and Pakistani mullahs
and secret services are active.
It suits the USA, which would like to acquire control
over the hydrocarbon resources of the pipelines from
Central Asian lands. The Russians are passing through a
period of decline and feebleness, and are unable to
provide a shield, or even protect their own interests.
Whether under King Zahir Shah or somebody else, a new
dispensation for Afghanistan is yet to emerge. It will
be programmed to pay more attention to Western economic
interests than to Islam. Unless Pakistan is cautious, it
will come a cropper because Afghan nationalism is bound
to reassert itself.
The Afghan will never agree to he subservient to outside
powers. The American objective of creating a peaceful,
secure and economically pliant and profit-oriented Afgha-
nistan through which gas and oil pipelines from Central
Asia reach out to Karachi is likely to clash with Pakis-
tan's desire to make Afghanistan a part of the Pakistani
Islamic system: a loosely knit, quasi-federal arrangement
providing Pakistan with its objective of territory and
acquiring strategic depth.
Pakistan's megalomaniacal hatred and suspicion of India
is bound to cause the American objectives some damage in
the next few years.
Much remains to unfold in Afghanistan. The Taliban have
not taken over Afghanistan fully, and the future of the
Afghans is still unclear. The Taliban have, however,
started consolidating its territory. The Quetta-Kandahar-
Herat road has been secured by them. So also the Kanda-
har-Ghazni-Kabul road, and now the Kabul-Jalalabad Pesha-
war road. Thus the flow of fresh and dry fruits to the
south Asian consumers, Pakistan and India, will be main-
tained, ensuring Afghanistan's export income.
The UN envoy in Kabul, Norbert Holl, was given a guard of
honour by Taliban troops, who already have a chief of
protocol. Holl and the UN have not insisted on any
apology for the violation of the UN compound in Kabul.
Holl is negotiating now with the current headman of the
Taliban in Kabul, Mullah Mohd Rabbani.
It will emerge in the next few weeks whether the mullah
acts more as a viceroy of Pakistan, or an agent of
Washington. Mullah Rabbani (quite confusing between the
two Rabbanis) has shrewdly ensured normalcy in the
streets of Kabul and easier availability of food. He is
also trying to restore water and power in Kabul, and
putting in efforts to reopen Kabul airport. It will be
interesting to watch whether they allow the Afghan
(Aryana) Airways to start flying to Palam at an early
date.
As Abu Shukur of Dalkh, a 10th century Afghan poet had
written:
A tree with a bitter seed
Fed with butter and sugar
Will still bear a bitter fruit.
>From it, you will taste no sweetness.
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