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Afghan plea falls on deaf US
ears
By Seema Sirohi
WASHINGTON - Two years ago, the ousting of the
Taliban from Afghanistan was welcomed around the world,
for they had come to symbolize a backward, fanatical and
profoundly disturbing vision of life, using Islam to
justify their twisted ideas and their barbaric form of
justice.
Now, despite being forced out of Kabul
by United States warplanes and the Northern Alliance
following September 11, 2001, they are making a
determined comeback, riding some of the same roads to
success that start inside Pakistan and lead to
Afghanistan. The slow and steady creep back has been
noticed by all who decide on the policy for the
landlocked and war-ravaged country. However, few counter
measures are in sight.
Last week, Afghan Foreign
Minister Abdullah Abdullah made a passionate plea for
help to US policy makers during a visit to Washington,
outlining in detail the threat to the government from a
resurgent Taliban. He said the Taliban have reorganized,
rearmed and were plotting without fear or hindrance from
safe havens in Pakistan. He called for action against
Taliban leaders, who are openly announcing their plans
to take over Kabul once again and declare victory.
Abdullah told his US audience how the Taliban
were crossing from Pakistan in large numbers, launching
attacks and then disappearing into mosques and
madrassas (religious schools) in Quetta, the
southwestern Pakistani city which doubles as their new
headquarters. They were even so bold as to hold press
conferences and cabinet-style meetings.
"These
people are not hiding. They are not afraid," Abdullah
said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Anyone with any doubt simply had to call these leaders
on the phone and listen to their future plans. "Where
are they getting their ammunition? Where are they
treating their wounded?" he asked exasperatedly. He
pointed the finger squarely at Pakistan, America's
troubled ally and a frontline state in the "war against
terrorism".
He said Pakistan has failed to
accept the changes in Afghanistan and has done little to
clamp down on the Taliban. When asked to name some, he
listed three leaders - Mullah Asadullah, Mullah Kabir
and former Taliban defense minister Mullah Ubaidullah.
They were just a phone call away, he said.
Abdullah is not alone in painting a stark
picture of the situation. For nearly a year, the press
has been full of reports about Pakistan's failure to
crack down on the Taliban and now Pakistani papers have
begun detailing the emerging scene in Quetta where
Taliban leaders on the "wanted" list roam freely talking
of jihad. According to a recent report in Pakistani
magazine Newsline, the Taliban are on a recruitment
drive. Nearly 5,000 youth, including former Taliban
fighters from religious seminaries in Balochistan, have
gone across the border to help fight the "infidel army"
- a reference to US troops. It said Mullah Omar, the
fugitive Taliban chief, was involved in the
reorganization of these forces. The report quoted a
Taliban leader who bragged about taking back Kabul.
The situation on the Afghan-Pakistan border has
grown alarmingly dangerous, as the Afghan army and US
troops come under sustained attacks from the Taliban
remnants and new recruits. The grim reality has the
Afghan government worried, as it prepares to hold
elections next year to try to take the country towards a
semblance of stability.
Abdullah tried to build
public opinion in Washington for a stronger US policy,
but in the end all he got was a patient hearing from the
Bush administration and not much more. He was publicly
contradicted by official US spokesmen and even forced to
temper his criticism of Pakistan. After a meeting
between Abdullah and US Secretary of State Colin Powell,
the State Department's deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said:
"We think that Pakistan is committed to the fight
against terror and is doing everything that it can to
effectively fight against terror ... Systemically,
institutionally, Pakistan is on board and doing what
needs to be done."
When a reporter asked him
about Abdullah's accusation that Pakistan was giving the
Taliban a free rein, Ereli simply said: "I think
Pakistan's intent and effort is commendable." He added
that Pakistan's determination to counter terrorism had
not faltered. An endorsement to that effect was given by
none other than Deputy Secretary of State Richard
Armitage during a visit to Pakistan this summer.
Armitage had praised Pakistan's efforts and its
"stepped-up determination and energy" to address this
issue. "Obviously, everything is not perfect. We think
that Pakistan is committed to the fight against terror,
and is doing everything that they can to effectively
fight terror."
It was clear that despite
Abdullah's pleas and a real danger of the government
falling, the Americans are unwilling to exert pressure
on Pakistan because of a belief that Pakistani President
General Pervez Musharraf's political position is
precarious. Critics of the administration's South Asia
policy, of whom there are many, say the State
Department's refusal to put any public pressure on
Musharraf will have a deep and lasting impact not only
on Afghanistan but also on Pakistan. The Pakistani army
is increasingly entrenched and there are no signs of a
return of real democracy. The more the US policy
accommodates Musharraf's wishes, the more difficult it
would be to separate the army's self-serving policies
from what is good for the stability of the region.
Pakistan appears to be using the Taliban as a
constant threat against Afghanistan and to keep the pot
boiling in much the same way it sends militants across
the border into India.
Indian analysts, who view
Pakistan's tactics with a cynical eye, said that
Musharraf is much too useful for the Americans at this
moment as Washington goes into election mode. "He has
been producing al-Qaeda operatives at regular intervals
and he may produce Osama bin Laden just before the US
election. It will be the kind of success that will
ensure Bush's reelection," an Indian analyst speculated.
Pakistan has also attempted to wrap the Taliban
issue in ethnic colors by linking the alleged lack of
representation of Pashtuns in the current Afghan
government to the resurgence of the radical movement.
Unless Pashtuns get an adequate voice in the Afghan
dispensation, there will be no real peace. Since
Pakistan also has a large Pashtun population, it claims
to have a legitimate interest in the matter. When asked
about this line of reasoning, Abdullah was categorical
in his response. "This is not a debate for a neighboring
country. It is an issue of representation of our own
people to which we are committed. It is being taken care
of in the process. But no one should try to distract
from the actual problem that exists - the security of
Afghanistan," he said.
The bottom line is that
the Taliban are running raids inside Afghanistan and
killing people. "When a Talib kills an aid worker on the
streets of Afghanistan, it is not because of inadequate
representation. It is being deliberately mixed up
through a campaign of disinformation. The Taliban are
not for Pashtun rights," Abdullah asserted.
The
puzzle that remains unsolved is why the Bush
administration is refraining from taking more steps to
stop the Taliban in their tracks. Is it because elements
in the US, Afghan and Pakistani governments are working
on a strategy to isolate Taliban hardliners and work
with the "moderates" to increase support for the Hamid
Karzai-led Afghan government? Abdullah denied there was
any such thing as a "moderate" Taliban and said his
government was not negotiating with them.
(Copyright 2003 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
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