Pakistan’s border region labelled as the “most dangerous place in the world” was declared by the President of the United States of America flanked by his top political figures and the military top brass at a press conference on Friday, in Washington.
The long awaited prescription from the world to deal with the aftermath of the void left behind after the defeat of the notorious Taliban regime in 2001 was well received by all accounts. These must have been received by President Karzai in Kabul with open arms especially as he has seen off several assassination attempts on his life since being elected in 2005. He did suffer the humiliation of the courts who threw out his proposal to go to the country in April for the second democratic elections. He will have to wait for the normal scheduled date in August and in the interim will need to focus on the challenges posed by the resurgent of the Taliban across the country and especially south of the Country.
The world has been anticipating a shift in tactics to deal with the growth in the militancy in Afghanistan and the cross border terrorism with its neighbour Pakistan. President Karzai has demonstrated bold leadership in the face of recent challenges with threats to Pakistan, to deal with the increased terrorist activity in Afghanistan by the militants’ trained and based in Pakistan. He has threaded its neighbour Pakistan to send in the Afghan army, to deal with the increasing terrorist activity in Afghanistan in the recent months. This is in stark contrast to Pakistan under the leadership of the President (General) Musharraf, modelled himself on M. Kemal Ataturk and his reforms. For all Musharraf failings he was able to hold the militants at bay during his watch in a secular democratic Pakistan. What is remarkable since is that the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in 2007 and the removal of Musharraf from office and now forced into exile, Pakistan has become a far lawless unbridled state in the hands of reactionary elements. The country has been dragged into the quagmire and into the hands of the western interests.
The actions of the President Karzai have not been restricted to Pakistan alone. In December 2007, he personally expelled two senior envoys from the European Union and United Nations for meddling into the domestic affairs of the country for holding secret talks with the Taliban.
Afghanistan’s history is littered by forces from the West trying to seize control over this strategic region, from the British Empire to the Soviet Empire, all have succumbed to the masterful tactics and skills of groups like the Pushtuns and Mujahideen. Most recently the divisive nature of the politics in the region armed these groups to fight the communist treat of the 1980’s led by the US, Pakistan, China, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
The withdrawal of the Soviet troops left behind a vacuum for the Taliban to exert their influence and take charge of the country that saw the maternity mortality figures rise to one of the highest in the world today, the life expectancy has fallen to meagre 43 years, one of the lowest in the world and a country where 2 out of 3 children over the age of 15 cannot read or write, in particular girls have fared the worst.
The reforms introduced by the reformist monarch King Zahir Shah (a Pashtu) in 1933 were all reversed over the decades which resulted in women being barred from taking employment and forced to wear burkhas. Other minority women forced to cover up and wear visible tags distinguishing them as non Afghans. Girls refused education in schools as was ban on listening to music. Football stadiums became home to public executions by stoning or beheadings and amputations introduced for petty crimes. The world silently watched for many years as human rights were trampled all over by the Taliban.
The top it all the Taliban from seizing control in 1996 and exactly to the day in 2001, they blew up giant Buddha statues in defiance of international efforts to save them.
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were the only two international states to recognise Taliban as a legitimate Government in 1997, whilst the rest of the world recognised the deposed President Burhanuddin Rabbani as the ruler. Rabbani had fled to join the alliance of anti- Taliban forces and was never to return.
The impact of United Nation sanctions failed to deter the Taliban and by 1998 the United States was in hot pursuit of Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan after the attacks on its country.
The economic sanction had very little impact on the effectiveness of the Taliban regime as ordinary Afghans suffered. In October, USA and UK jointly launched air strikes against the Taliban and finally the regime fell in 2001, with USA backed pushtun Karzai installed as the head of an interim Government.
The exiled King returned soon after and died aged 92 in July 2007, without making a claim to the Afghan throne. The government of President Karzai based on the new constitution continues to rule to this day with the support primarily of the NATO led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
By far the largest country represented in ISAF is the USA with a total troop commitment of over 33000; UK with 8300; Germany with 4500; Canada with 2500; France 2700, Poland 2400 and Italy with 2300. All the counties are further strengthening the numbers with the exception of Italy.
It would be falsely to state that the country is being governed from the capital. Kabul itself is under attack and is in the hands of the NATO led ISAF and as is the south Hemland province. An area that saw the deployment of Prince Harry in February 2008 for a 10 week period before the UK press leaked the storey and he was hastily pulled out of the Hemland area. Afghanistan has been treated by the western interests as playground for its purposes.
The soldiers on the ground are dependent on a 100% imported diet at a cost of over $2000 per day. Military hardware like the helicopters are used as Taxi service to connect the bases with the capital for civilian visitors as well as for the local business. The situation in the last 7 years has not improved as the threat of Taliban strikes grows by the day. The Taliban are looking at a 20 year time frame to ‘rid the enemy’ from the land, since the thaw of the winter snows in the recent weeks.
The situation in Helmand and other areas of Afghanistan continue to claim the lives of innocent civilians with routine wrongly targeted areas or residential areas for ‘militant fighters’. Drones have been adapted to shrike across border militants. US Special Forces in their night raids have been responsible for many civilian deaths. In 2008, over 2111 civilians were killed over 50% were by the actions of the ISAF and the rest by suicide bombings by the Taliban. Pakistan has been involved in rounds of fire fights against the US military for breaching its air space and borders to pursue militants.
It is no surprise that the President Obama has sought to include Pakistan in the strategic push to deal with militants as well as the civilian challenges of the region. This has been welcomed by both nations and offer to deal with the growing influence of the militant Islam in Pakistan ( madrasa and training camps), with the recognition that the social issues such as education have to be give a priority. The break from the Bush era is clear as it does away from the rhetoric of the ‘gung ho’ and ‘yaboo’ politics of the past to a new engaging tone that has development of the two nations at its heart. The poppy fields of Afghanistan, largely controlled by the Taliban to finance its activities, have thrived in recent years in producing bumper harvests of illegal opium intended for Western markets. This is not the only challenge and must not be the only focus. The actions of the US to take resources away from Afghanistan during the early part of the newly emerging Afghanistan left them vulnerable as the US and its allies focus shifted to Iraq.
The result of inaction is all too clear for many to recognise. The recent attacks in Mumbai where a handful of terrorists trained in Pakistan caused unbelievable carnage of innocent civilians. The attacks in London in July 2007 were also orchestrated by terrorists trained in Pakistan camps and it is common knowledge in the UK that some 200 Pakistan trained young people are at large. They, we are told by the security services have all received training in the madras’s and training camps in Pakistan in the last few years. So the action proposed to deal with the lure of this madras’s for UK and other young in Pakistan must be addressed through co-ordained international efforts. This is not a Pakistan problem but one that transcends borders and nationalities. Effort such as having an open and constructive dialogue in the UK amongst its minority youth must be a priority. Deal with the issues that lead to the radicalisation of these young people to become the mules of the leaders of militant Islam. The silent decent law abiding Muslims and the wider community must also open up a positive dialogue and reach out to address some of the social ills and inequality issues such as underachievement in education in the UK.
This focus on a multi lateral basis can only add to the good work of building capacity in Afghanistan and Pakistan to fight such negative forces.
Russia, India and other nations stand ready to assist the US led plan and to ensure it deal with the militant threats from this region.
The social and political and now the economic challenges are too large for the two countries to deal with alone and they must foster strategic alliances. The aid tap on which the Karzai Government has relied since 2001 is about to run dry as NGOs rethink their strategies in light of increased abductions and bombings by the militants.
20 August, is a key test of whether the US led new policy for the region is working. President Karzai cannot afford to outsource the success of their strategy to a third country and must be bold in his actions in pursuing the prize of a second term as President of Afghanistan. However it is a tragedy to note that President Karzai in his attempts to bolster support for his re-election, according to the UN, has backed a law that legalised rape within marriage and ban wives stepping outside their houses without husband’s permission. This measure would even put some of the worst excesses of the Taliban regime to shame.
What is even worse worrying to note is the strategic interests of the US and its allies in toe for a greater influence in the region as the Obama regime makes plans to extricate itself out of Iraq. No mention of the lack of any kind of ‘weapons of mass destruction’ to date. The west pushes its ambition, to empower the people of Afghanistan to build a society more civilised and human than that which the Taliban and al-Qaida seek. The question is how are all these new troops numbers are going to help restore democracy and rule of law when all others who have tried this strategy have left with mission unaccomplished many times before them. No lessons have been learned from the past of ill-judged US policies which supported Afghan mujahedeen during the cold war era.
As the well versed Turkish proverb goes, ‘the snake that does not bite me can live a long life’, isn’t this exactly the position, the West had adopted in the recent times towards this region whilst it got involved in Iraq, and before that in Afghanistan. The opportunistic policies are now forced to confront the snake as it has turned its gaze towards the West and its interests. As they say in the West, ‘what goes around comes around’.
Semra Eren-Nijhar 