Posted at: http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/AWorldToWinNewsService/
Afghanistan report: demonstrations against the occupation
17 January 2005. A World to Win News Service. Special to AWTWNS from a reporter
for Sholeh Jawid, newspaper of the Communist Party (Maoist) of Afghanistan.
US imperialism and its puppet regime have been trying to prettify the ugly face
of the real life people of Afghanistan face every day. The peak of that was the
election deception in last October mainly meant to boost the Bush election
campaign. The big noise about democracy and the liberation of women was just
empty talk. Apart from the cheating by President Hamid Karzai, many of the
people did not take part in that election, especially in the southern and
eastern regions. Many who did have been disappointed. Sholeh Jawid reporters
talked to voters in the central area of Afghanistan who have come to the
conclusion that it was just a trick to elect Karzai and legitimise his rule.
They said that voting was a mistake and that those who refused to take part in
the election did the right thing. Two recent events show how discontent with
the US invaders and their puppet regime is rising and taking different forms of
_expression.
Demonstrations against the invaders in Nangerhar
A mass demonstration against the US broke out in Nangerhar (south-east
province) on 27 November. American troops had begun searching people�s homes
the night before in what they claimed was a hunt for �terrorists�. When they
couldn�t find anything after entering many houses, they arrested three men and
a woman and took them away. Tens of thousands of people staged an angry
protest. Demonstrators closed down the main highway between Jalalabad and
Torkham (the major artery connecting Kabul to Peshawar in Pakistan, where many
Afghanistan refugees still live). They chanted slogans against the occupation
troops and the puppet regime. The protestors were particularly indignant about
the invaders coming into their homes and the arrest of the woman, who was taken
away not because she was suspected of being a Taleban � that group�s
reactionary ideology does not allow them to recruit women � but because, the
Americans said, they wanted to find out more about her husband.
The regional security forces of the puppet regime attempted to prevent the
demonstration and open the motorway. In the subsequent clashes between
demonstrators and security forces, a teenage girl was killed and several other
demonstrators injured.
What was specific about this demonstration was that a considerable number of
women took part. Many sat down on the Jalalabad-Torkham highway and blocked
traffic to demand the release of those arrested. They kept the highway closed
from early morning on the 27th until noon on the 28th. When the security forces
failed to break up the demonstration, the protest spread through the whole
region east of Jalalabad up to Torkham. Finally, fearing that the actions would
spread even further, the occupiers and their puppets freed the arrested men and
the woman and promised the demonstrators that US forces would no longer search
the people�s houses unless accompanied by Afghanistan government forces. But
the demonstrators did not accept this and demanded an end to the brutal
house-searching as a whole.
On 3 December 2004, puppet regime officials in Nangerhar province held a joint
meeting with the so-called tribal leaders who depend on them. Later in a
statement they announced that if the people of the region wanted an end to the
searches and the operations of US forces there, they would have to prevent the
�terrorists� from being active in their area. The majority of the people of the
region cannot tolerate the presence of American and other foreign invader
forces in Afghanistan, and they don�t want to accept their conditions. How can
puppet regime officials expect these people to help the invaders and prevent
armed activities against them?
Demonstration at Kabul University
In November 2004, Kabul University was the scene of a student demonstration
against the regime�s security forces. It started after student Habibulah
Heidari was stabbed to death by a gang at the university widely believed to be
linked to Marshal Fahim, the former Defence Minster and an important warlord.
This gang was making trouble for the students, and Habibulah Heidari did not
yield to their threats. University security guards closed their eyes when the
gang knifed Habibulah to death and let them ride away on their motorcycles.
Many students believe that the police were involved in this killing.
The day after, students protested with the slogans �Death to the security
forces� and �Heidari�s killer should be prosecuted�. They marched from the
university towards the Interior Ministry. Officials promised to follow the case
but did nothing. The students demonstrated again. This time the security forces
tried to suppress the demonstration. But the students counter-attacked,
throwing stones, and eventually chased away the police force. At this point the
police opened fired on the demonstrators. Several students were injured and
many more were arrested.
Ironically, the puppet regime, whose existence depends on imperialist
occupation forces, shamelessly accused the students of letting themselves be
provoked by foreign elements.
Students in Afghanistan who were unhappy with the invasion and occupation of
their country and with the puppet regime were quick to raise their opposition.
This is not their first demonstration. In the last two years they have been
demonstrating and raising their voices against the authorities but their
protests have received little publicity. When security forces shot and killed
several students protesting against the unbearably cold and miserable
conditions in their dormitory at Kabul University during the last academic
year, this was reported in the world media, but they were slandered as Taleban
supporters. The students have been seizing every opportunity to express their
discontent with their situation at the university and with the puppet regime
and the presence of the US and other imperialist invaders.
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