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http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2002/569/in4.htm
Al-Ahram Weekly Online
17 - 23 January 2002
Issue No.569
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875
Current issue | Previous issue | Site map
Return to lawlessness
The security situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating as banditry,
car- jacking and cases of kidnapping soar. Absar Alam writes from
Islamabad
Afghan refugees peer from destroyed windows in a makeshift refugee
camp near Kabul
(photo: AFP)
The second batch of 30 Al- Qa'eda fighters, mostly Arabs, left the US
detention camp at Kandahar Airport in Afghanistan for a high security
facility at Guantanamo Bay in eastern Cuba, this week. Meanwhile, US
war planes c
ontinued to bomb suspected hideouts of Taliban and Al-Qa'eda fighters.
The first batch, consisting of 20 Al-Qa'eda members, departed for Cuba earlier this
week from Kandahar Airport, where US authorities have rounded up, so far, about 400
Taliban and Al- Qa'eda fighters from throughout Afgha
nistan. Unprecedented security measures have been taken to ferry these prisoners from
Afghanistan to Cuba because, the US authorities claim, these captives have been
trained to create safety problems or even potentially t
rigger suicide attacks on board.
Shackled, wearing white masks which covered their faces, in green clothes and orange
slippers, the prisoners were escorted by US troops to the C-17 transport plane. Each
prisoner was flanked by two US soldiers on board th
e flight to Cuba.
"They have no rights as prisoners of war," US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told a
press briefing this week, as the prisoners landed in Cuba following their 20-hour
flight.
The US forces are continuing their relentless chase of Al-Qa'eda and Taliban fighters
who are still holding on to pockets of resistance in some parts of Afghanistan. The US
has resumed, since 3 January, the bombing of the
Zhawar base in the Khost province, close to the Pakistani border town of Miran Shah.
The Zhawar base was originally a training camp run by Al-Qa'eda before 11 September,
and was vacated by the time the US bombing started on 7 October. The bombing has been
resumed after the US forces received intelligence
reports that Al- Qa'eda and Taliban fighters were returning to this base camp.
On the eastern side of the Afghan border the deployment of Pakistani troops continued,
even as India amassed its military might along Pakistan's western border. Pakistan is
continuing to deploy troops in order to prevent
fleeing Al- Qa'eda and Taliban fighters from infiltrating Pakistan.
Pakistan has already handed over to the US authorities dozens of arrested Al- Qa'eda
fighters, and they are currently being interrogated in a bid to unearth the complete
network of Al-Qa'eda cells, said to be situated in
up to 60 countries worldwide.
Crime rate in Afghanistan's cities and towns has climbed rapidly with the Taliban
administration's fall. The new government, despite its efforts, has so far failed to
reverse the rising tide in all kinds of crime -- from
murder, banditry and car- jacking to kidnapping for ransom, robberies, drug smuggling
and rape. The law and order situation has so deteriorated that in Jalalabad all
foreign journalists have left due to the increasing thr
eat to their life and property.
Only last week, the CNN staff in Jalalabad were not "allowed" to leave by the heavily
armed "fixers" who wanted extra "tips" from the American journalists. The CNN staff
had to pay a considerable sum in dollars to secure
their exit from Jalalabad to the Pakistani city of Peshawar. The US marines, earlier
posted in the same area, had already left as the law and order situation deteriorated
further. In the absence of US troops, and in view
of the CNN staff's misadventures, which went unreported in the press, all foreign
journalists who had gathered in Jalalabad to report on the bombing of the Tora Bora
complex, fled the city.
In other Afghan cities, such as Kabul, Kandahar and Mazar-i-Sharif, the situation is
just as bad. Although the new interim administration declared Kabul a weapon- free
city last week, peace and security are unlikely to re
turn to the citizens soon. The chaotic aftermath of Taliban rule, coupled with more
than two-decades of war, have brought insecurity to the people of this unfortunate
country.
At present, gun-toting soldiers of irregular militias, personal security guards
employed by various individuals and groups, Northern Alliance troops and common
citizens move around with their weapons. Although the governm
ent of Hamid Karzai has launched a campaign to recover weapons from the people, most
of them are unwilling to abandon them in the absence of a reliable police force to
protect them against crime.
Ironically the increasing proliferation of arms across all sections of society is the
main reason for the spike in crime, with fewer people using these weapons for
protection but, rather, have less fear of committing crim
e. No wonder then that cases of banditry, car- jacking and shooting are on the rise in
Kabul and elsewhere. All things considered, disarming Afghanistan's 25 million
populace appears an impossible job for an administratio
n that took charge of the country only last month.
Over the course of their five-year rule, the Taliban administration launched a
disarmament campaign which proved relatively successful. Law and order was restored
and greater security provided to the people. With the fall
of the Taliban government, however, criminals fear the law- enforcing forces, who are
assisting the US troops in tracking down the Al-Qa'eda and Taliban fighters.
The security issue has also disrupted UN efforts to ship food to
various parts of the country. With snowfall increasingly blocking off
main transport arteries, the situation is likely to deteriorate
further.
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