From: "aiaif" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Puppet Administration Installed in Afghanistan The following article has been published in Proletarian Era English Organ Of SOCIALIST UNITY CENTRE OF INDIA December 15, 2001 Vol. 35 No. 9 Puppet Administration Installed in Afghanistan The Afghan factions holding talks at Koenigswinter, Bonn, Germany for a week signed a pact on December 5 last setting up an interim administration for Afghanistan that will rule the country for six months, paving the way for a transitional government that will assume power for the next two years. Zahir Shah, the ex-king of Afghanistan, now in exile, will return to convene a meeting of the council of tribal elders (loya jirga) that will form the transitional government. The pact also provides for a UN force to be stationed in Afghanistan. The interim administration will be headed by Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun commander who is slated to take over power from the present de-facto Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani of Northern Alliance (NA) at Kabul on 22nd December. The Bonn Meet : US imperialist objectives It was the United Nations that had proposed a quick setting up of an interim administration in Kabul and announced a meet of the Afghan factions in Bonn. How did the UN get involved and whence did it derive the authority so that when it called for the meet, the Afghan factions meekly complied ? Nobody had referred the issue to the UN, nor had asked it to mediate. This can be explained only if it is realized that the UN acted as the facade from behind which the USA operated and it is the pressure of the US military strength that swayed the events. This should surprise nobody who is familiar with how the USA has been making use of UN over the years to rubber stamp its nefarious designs. The ground reality has been that while the USA carried out widespread devastating bomb and rocket attacks indiscriminately all over Afghanistan to lay the country waste, it was the NA that bore the brunt of actual fighting and captured large areas from the Taliban including Kabul. So, in the normal course of things, either feud and fighting between the NA and the other Afghan factions would have continued or else, in case of a consensus being arrived at by them, the NA could well have preponderance in the resultant set up. This does not suit US imperialism at all. Shelter given by the Taliban to Osama bin Laden provided a handy pretext to US imperialism to invade Afghanistan. In doing so, the USA has been guided by the multiple imperialist objective of strongly establishing its presence in central Asia thus destabilizing both Russia and China, extending its hegemony in the oil-rich Caspian-central Asian regions, gaining control over the vast untapped oil and natural gas resource of Afghanistan itself and over the very lucrative drug traffic in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Moreover, a specific immediate objective is to establish a pipeline route for transporting central Asian oil through Afghanistan and Pakistan to an export terminal on the coast of Arabian Sea to reap superprofits by selling it in Asian markets. To achieve this, it is essential that the USA must install its puppet government in Afghanistan and not one in which the NA, with its close linkage with Russia, predominated. That is why the USA counseled the NA not to enter Kabul even as the NA forces were closing in on the city, in order to gain time to have a more advantageous alternative worked out. The NA did not oblige and that queered the pitch somewhat. This had now to be offset at the negotiation table. US machinations carry the day at Bonn The first step was to dilute the strong NA presence by ensuring that supporters of Zahir Shah, the long-deposed king of Afghanistan in exile in Italy, attend the Bonn meet in strength. There was lobbying by the western world, especially by Britain, in favour of Zahir Shah as being the only figurehead who could unite the Afghan factions. In the event, four delegations met and conferred at Bonn. Besides the NA delegation, the other major one was a 8-member delegation sent by Zahir Shah. The remaining two represented exiled groups in Cyprus and Peshawar. Press reports have it that from the very beginning, the delegations were under strong pressure from the UN, the US and the neighbouring countries of Afghanistan to agree to a formula for an interim administration and the stationing of a UN security force in the country. The USA and the neighbouring countries posted observers at the talks, while Lakhdar Brahimi, UN special envoy for Afghanistan, conducted and piloted the proceedings. For long had the NA been in close relationship with Russia and enjoyed its support. Now, with the talks on, Russia pledged support to Rabbani's de-facto NA government in Kabul against US pressure to the contrary. But the Russian effort failed ultimately, firstly because the NA itself is not a monolithic whole but a combination of factions not working in unison but exerting pulls and counter pulls in different directions. There is the Wahdat faction composed of Hazaras from central Afghanistan who are of the shia sect as against the majority Sunnis. Then there is the Uzbek faction led by the warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum. And of course, there are the followers of Rabbani. Secondly, the NA factions represent just some of the ethnic minorities of Afghanistan. It is the ethnic Pashtuns inhabiting southern Afghanistan who are the majority, constituting 40% of the total population. And the Pashtuns constitutes about 15% of the total Pakistani population too. It is to be remembered that the bulk of the Afghan Talibans were Pashtuns, that Pakistani Army officers and military advisers had been for long guiding the Taliban operations against the NA forces and that many Pashtun Taliban supporters from Pakistan went over to Afghanistan after the US bombardments began there, to fight jihad alongside the Taliban. So, Pakistan naturally exerted the not inconsiderable leverage it has with the USA to ensure safety of the Pakistani Talibans and proper Pashtun representation in the interim Afghan administration to be chalked out. It appears that this concern of Pakistan came handy to the USA and the USA made use of the Pak pull to block the dominance of NA in the proposed interim administration, while allowing numerous Pakistanis fighting alongside the Taliban, now trapped and besieged by NA forces, to be airlifted to safety by Pakistan. After all, the USA had to ensure that its puppet and not Russia's would head the interim set up. And of course, a puppet can serve its master better if it is seen to be representing the majority ethnic group rather than the minorities. Thirdly, given the present geo-politico scenario, any Russian attempt to sponsor and promote its prot�g�s was bound to be a nonstarter in the face of far superior US economic and military might. So, Rabbani's bid to become head of the new administration petered out. As a last minute attempt, he tried to enlist the support of even Pakistan, NA's enemy of long standing, and expressed willingness to meet Pakistan President General Musharraf. But all this came to naught. Rabbani said on 30.11.01 that his delegation had been pressured to agree to name members of interim bodies and accept an international security force. (The Statesman,1.12.01), The NA delegation eventually agreed to an interim administration without Rabbani as its head and was pressurized into accepting a UN peace keeping force. As a sign of growing fissures within the NA, Abdul Quadir, NA governor of the Pashtun province of Nangarhar, walked out of the talks to protest against the lack of Pashtun representation. It cannot be ruled out that Russia and India struck a deal with the USA to gain some advantages from it in exchange for withdrawing support to the NA. At any rate, Russia and India were not found in a strong supporting role to Rabbani and the NA at the decisive hour. Diplomats of advanced imperialist capitalist countries, notably the USA, monitoring (actually pressurizing) the talks, let it be known that Rabbani "was not seen as an unifying force" and that the former king Zahir Shah as the administrative head was not considered a "practical option" (Report in The Statesman, 2.12.01) After tough bargaining over power sharing, the participating Afghan factions finalized composition of the 30-member cabinet of the interim administration headed by Hamid Karzai. USA installs puppet administration : voices of dissent So far, the USA has secured, in essence, what it wanted, Karzai is a Pashtun, but not a Taliban. What is more, he is something of a US creation. Karzai, who had been a deputy foreign minister in a pre-Taliban government in Kabul, entered Afghanistan soon after the US strikes began in Afghanistan on October 7. His mission was to organise a revolt among Pashtun tribal supporting the Taliban. At the same time, another anti-Taliban tribal leader Abdul Haq was engaged in a similar mission further north in Afghanistan. Haq was captured and executed by the Taliban. Karzai too came close to being captured during a gun fight while he was being chased by the Taliban inside Uruzgan province in Afghanistan. But he escaped Haq's fate. How ? The US defence secretary Donald Rumsfield has "announced that US helicopters had rescued him and ferried him to safety in Pakistan before depositing him back inside Afghanistan for another try at raising a revolt". (Report in The Statesman, dated 9.12.01.) The same report says that diplomatic sources hold that Pakistan has accepted Karzai as the Afghan head not just because he is a Pashtun but also from the realization that Karzai has strong backing from Washington. There is no doubt whatsoever that Karzai is a US puppet, placed into position by US pressure and diplomatic manoeuvres taking advantage of tribal, ethnic, factional feuds in Afghanistan. His strength stems from his US links. How secure is the US hold on Karzai has already been demonstrated within just the few days that have passed since the accord. On December 6, for whatever reason, Karzai reportedly told the CNN about the Taliban chief Mullah Omar: "If he doesn't (renounce terrorism), then he won't be safe. If he does, he would be afforded protection." But the former Taliban envoy to Pakistan, Mullah Zaeef, said the Taliban militia had agreed to surrender Kandahar on condition that Mullah Omar would not be put on trial. "They've promised us that Mullah Omar will live in his home and there'll be no fighting with him. They'll protect the honour and life of every Taliban fighter." The US defence secretary Rumsfeld reacted sharply. "He iterated the USA's stand that Omar and other senior Taliban leaders, as well as Osama bin Laden shouldn't be allowed to escape accountability for their support to terrorism. And he warned that if such a deal was struck by Omar and its opponents, the USA's ties with the anti-militia groups would `take a turn to the south', implying a halt to the military and economic cooperation." (Reports in The Statesman, 7.12. & 9.12.01) This cut Karzai to size and on the very next day, echoing the US statement, he vowed that Mullah Omar would have to face trial! It is not that the various Afghan factions are reconciled to Karzai leadership and none of them have seen through the US game. Some of them have already spoken out against the accord. Uzbek warlord General Dostum has charged that his faction has not been fairly represented in the cabinet and announced a boycott of the new administration. He has gone on record saying that like him, the shia Hazara leader Khalili too has objections to the new administration. Ethnic Pashtun spiritual leader Gailani has also charged that the Bonn accord was unjust. (Report in The Times of India, 7.12.01) Gulbuddin Hikmatyar, leader of a faction that was not invited to the Bonn meet, has said that the accord is a US solution imposed on the Afghans; the meet was organized by the UN only in name; it is the USA which has pulled the strings from behind to install a puppet government. (Report in The Ananda Bazar Patrika, 7.12.2001) The Afghan situation is in a flux and may continue to remain so. But the fact is that the USA has got itself firmly entrenched in Afghan politics and, with the installation of Karzai at the helm of affairs, has taken a decisive step towards establishing a full-fledged puppet government in Afghanistan in pursuance of its imperialist objectives. NA, India Government's favourite, no better than Taliban The Indian government, following its hegemonistic design of gaining a foothold in Afghan affairs, has for long been maintaining close relationship with the NA and aiding it as a counter to Pakistani backing provided to the Taliban. Taking the cue from this, there has been a tendency in Indian monopoly press to paint the NA as a body of angels. But nothing could be farther from the truth. The NA and the Taliban both are given to medieval tribal factionalism, obscurantism and bigotry and represent different hues of fanatic fundamentalism. This is what Saher Saba of the Revolutionary Association for the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) had to say about the NA in Calcutta on 29.11.01: "Alliance is only another face of the Taliban. ... The whole truth is that the Northern Alliance leaders are as fundamentalist, criminal and anti-democratic as their Taliban counterparts. They were in power between 1992 and 1996 and perpetrated the worst crimes against Afghan women." (Report in The Statesman, 30.11.01). Even after the recent capture of Kabul by the NA, women were not allowed to go to cinema halls for "security reasons". Members of Women In Afghanistan have twice been refused permission to take out procession celebrating freedom. Younus Qanooni, interior minister of the NA who now continues to hold the same post in the presently formed interim administration, said that the processions were prohibited due to "security reasons!" Amnesty International Report No. ASA ll/003/1995 dated 18.5.200l has stated that the NA, during its rule between 1992 and 1996 considered rape and sexual torture means of striking the ultimate terror in the defeated and as just rewards for the soldiers. Wearing of (veil) was made compulsory in Afghanistan in 1994. Debarring women from education began even before the Taliban came into power. There were numerous instances of flogging of women and many women were stoned to death on charge of adultery. There were instances of a teacher being killed by soldiers because he taught girl students, of soldiers raping the daughter after killing the father, of mass raping by Mujahids and much worse. (Article in Ananda Bazar Patrika, 11.12.01) The same Younus Qanooni referred to above came on a 3-day official visit to India on December 7 last, met union ministers Advani and Jaswant Singh and lauded the BJP-led government's role in Afghanistan! Task of the hour US imperialism has now made decisive inroads into Afghanistan, taking advantage of the Afghan factional feuds. A fragmented Afghanistan is what is desirable to US imperialism to attain its imperialist objectives. Through adjustments with the Afghan factional warlords, the path has now been cleared for stationing a multi-national imperialist force in their country under the banner of the UNO. The Afghan people should realize that it is the USA that nurtured and strengthened the Taliban and Osama bin Laden for long. Now that the USA has fallen out with Laden, it has used Afghans to kill Afghans in a fratricidal war in the name of fighting terrorism, devastated the whole country turning it into a desert, brought it down upon its knees before the USA, utterly dependent on the USA for food, relief, shelter and medicine, and has now foisted a puppet government on their country. For ages, the Afghans suffered under the rule of one set of tyrants after another. Through the present puppet government, the USA is about to impose slavery on the Afghan nation in a new form. Freedom and democracy remain far cries. The path to emancipation lies in a thorough democratization of the Afghan society and for this, the only course is to organise democratic movements on Afghan soil under correct leadership and to develop it from strength to strength. And it is only a correct Marxist-Leninist party that can provide this leadership. END _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ______________
