Karzai scrambles for
'friends' By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - The presidential elections scheduled
for October 9 in Afghanistan pit on the one side the
pro-US Afghan government and Washington, both
desperately keen to show that the writ of law has been
established in the country, against the Afghan
resistance, which is equally determined to disrupt the
polls.
However, away from the ongoing gun
battles, in a complex tribal society like Afghanistan
that has seen 30 years of political turmoil, civil
strife and war, the country is a minefield of
ever-shifting ideological complexities. The US,
nevertheless, regardless of the ground realities, is
bent on following its own agenda.
The United
States' overriding objective is to see the completion of
the polls in October - national elections have been
delayed until early next year - and the confirmation of
their man, Hamid Karzai, as the elected president. To
achieve this, which Washington hopes will justify it
heralding Afghanistan as "mission accomplished" after the
invasion of late 2001 to oust the Taliban, and ahead of
the US presidential elections in November, political
expediency will prevail over all else.
To date,
the US has failed miserably in attracting all mainstream
forces of the past back into the political process,
including former communist parties, warlords, the
Taliban and the Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA), besides
the Northern Alliance, which although participating in
the presidential elections is visibly working against US
interests.
The best that the US can do is go for
cosmetic appearances. The danger with such a policy,
though, is that looks are not everything - they only
flatter to deceive.
Friend or foe? The venerable Afghan jihadi HIA has for some time
been on the United States' list of terror organizations. Now
it has been allowed to reopen offices in Kabul - at a
prime location on the Charahe Shaheed (Martyrs'
Intersection) in the Shar-i-Now district. Members now drive around
in brand-new Land Cruisers, and the coffers are full,
thanks to US funding.
The HIA's change in fortunes
is due to a decision by Pakistan's Inter-Services
Intelligence and the US Central Intelligence Agency that
the reintegration of the HIA after a decade in the
political wilderness will lend critical weight to
Karzai's election campaign. HIA leader Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar is said to have tacitly agreed to the move,
even though his militant wing is still actively involved
in the Afghan resistance in its battle to rid the
country of foreign troops.
However, Daoud Abedi,
a prominent businessman, social worker and a former
representative of the HIA, an Afghan-American based in
the US who is still affiliated with the HIA, maintains
that Hekmatyar is still committed to his military
struggle and those who have established a political
office in Kabul now have nothing to do with the HIA.
Before
September 11, 2001, Daoud was an active member
of the HIA in the US and served as its political
representative based in Los Angeles. He was editor of
the Shafaq weekly newspaper of the HIA in the US,
besides being chief editor of Nawed-i-Haq, a monthly HIA
newspaper.
Speaking to Asia Times Online from
the US, Daoud commented, "Dr Qutubuddin Hilal, who looks
after HIA affairs in Peshawar [Pakistan] on behalf of
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, was invited to Kabul by Hamid
Karzai himself. The invitation was not personal, but to
the party. The party puts its demands in accordance with
Afghan national and Islamic interests, which Hamid
Karzai was in no position to deliver. As a result, the
talks were a failure. I tell you, the talks were
not approved by Mr Hekmatyar. Soon after the
talks, recently, a few HIA members, like Sarfraz Janbaz
from Peshawar and Qasim Hamat from Germany, flew to
Kabul and struck a deal with the Kabul administration.
It was their personal decision and they changed
loyalties purely for their own vested interests. Another
member, Arghandewal, changed his loyalties three years
ago, and these recent turncoats joined hands [with him]
and established an office in Kabul."
Daoud
insisted that the HIA has never been opposed to dialogue
or participation in the Afghan political process, but it
has been the US that has changed its mind on and off.
"The HIA has been in contact with the US. In
August and September of 2001 I was the negotiator, on
behalf of Mr Hekmatyar, with US authorities to work out
a political solution in Afghanistan [in 2001, after a
long exile, Hekmatyar left Iran and visited Peshawar to
meet with Pakistani officials, as well as different
Afghan delegates to work on a political solution].
Brother Hekmatyar didn't want any foreign interference
in Afghanistan. The negotiations continued until one
week before the [US] military attack. Hekmatyar was of
the opinion that no outsiders should get involved in the
internal affairs of Afghanistan. He was saying that
Afghans must be allowed to discuss the issue of their
country between themselves. We will not allow any kind
of military attack or other interference in our internal
affairs. I was even asked that if the US attacked, what
would the HIA do? The HIA's response was that we will
fight against anybody or any force attacking our
country. It does not matter who ruled the country, which
at that time was the Taliban. Ruling Afghanistan is
something that only the Afghan nation can decide, no one
else.
"Brother Hekmatyar was never contacted
directly and he has not talked to anyone directly. All
negotiations with the US went through myself. He was
being updated by me during that time. It was just after
we rejected the offer, which included all types of
assistance, militarily, financially, morally ... you
name it. What the Northern Alliance and others accepted
was offered to the HIA first, but the HIA didn't want to
be a puppet or accept a foreigner's patronage against
its own people, so the offer by the Bush administration
was rejected by Brother Hekmatyar. Brother Hekmatyar was
saying that the Bush administration should not attack
Afghanistan, and allow the Afghan people to negotiate
and talk among themselves and come up with a solution
which is first acceptable to the Afghan nation, and then
to the entire world body, but since the Bush
administration had its own ideas and plans and just
wanted to use the HIA like the Northern Alliance and
others, the HIA was not interested in the offer. The HIA
is an independent political party with its own ideas for
a peaceful, pure, Islamic Afghanistan, so our nation can
live in peace," said Daoud.
"Even after the US
invasion, when Mr Hekmatyar left Iran and came to
Afghanistan, his purpose was to find a political
solution to the problems, but it was the US Predator
aircraft which tried to target him near Logar [province
in Afghanistan] that forced him to wage war against the
US," Daoud added.
Subsequently, given the
political vacuum in the country and the fact that India,
Iran and Russia backed the Northern Alliance, the US had
little option but to woo "good" Taliban and HIA members.
However, considering the history of switching sides, it
is still not clear what kind of seeds the US has sown.
For instance, Waheedullah Sabaoon and Qazi Ameen
have been given powerful ministries in Karzai's
government to counter the Tajik (Northern Alliance)
influence in Kabul. Qazi left the HIA almost 20 years
ago. Then he rejoined, when Ahmed Shah Masoud of the
Northern Alliance was in power in the early 1990s, and
he was made minister of telecommunications. In Masoud's
government, the HIA was given the premiership
(Hekmatyar) plus three ministries. Then Qazi switched to
join Masoud. When Masoud's government was overthrown by
the Taliban in 1996, Qazi, with some other officials,
managed to escape Kabul for Peshawar by wearing women's
burqas (veils). The same Qazi is once again in
Kabul holding a ministerial portfolio.
A close
aide to Hekmatyar and his intelligence chief, Abdul
Waheed Sabaoon, was kicked out of the HIA in 1998 for
not halting his resistance to the Taliban, as ordered.
So he joined the Northern Alliance and became Masoud's
finance minister in the Panjshir Valley, from where the
Northern Alliance based its resistance to the Taliban.
When the Taliban retreated from Kabul and the Northern
Alliance moved in, Sabaoon also entered the capital. He
was arrested soon after by US forces when they found him
holding a meeting of 150 Afghan commanders, allegedly
conspiring a rebellion against US forces on the
instigation of Hekmatyar. He was subsequently released,
and some months later made an adviser to Karzai.
"None of these people are to be trusted and the
HIA has no connection with them. No one can be a traitor
and a revolutionary at the same time," commented Daoud.
However, independent sources told Asia Times
Online that both Sabaoon and Qazi had been in contact
with their former party (HIA) and it was only a matter
of time before they take new positions once again,
possibly with an anti-US outift, such as Hekmatyar's.
Apart from the HIA, there are many other
question marks concerning political allegiance. The
powerful and legendary ethnic Tajik mujahideen commander
Ismail Khan has been removed from Herat province as
governor, possibly over concerns over his loyalties.
"The last I heard, Ismail Khan is under house arrest at
the moment," informed Daoud, who is still in touch with
his party members in Peshawar.
"The
HIA is working to free Karzai himself also. The poor man
is a hostage in the hands of many people,
foreigners and local Afghans [Tajiks]. Mr Karzai owes the
HIA and especially Brother Hekmatyar a life. When
he [Karzai] was the No 2 in the Foreign Ministry at the time
when Masoud was in Kabul, the Northern Alliance tried to
physically hurt him. Our brothers [HIA] brought him to
Charasyab, to Brother Hekmatyar, we sent him to our
mobile hospital in Logar province and our doctors cured
him and safely we sent him to Peshawar. I witnessed all
this with my two eyes. The HIA thinks that Karzai needs
us again to release him from being taken hostage again
by his old friends [Northern Alliance]. He might have
forgotten that, but we have not," said Daoud.
Syed Saleem Shahzadis Bureau Chief,
Pakistan, Asia Times Online. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com.
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