DATE=10/10/00
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=The Taleban's Afghanistan (1 of 3)
NUMBER=5-47144
BYLINE=Ed Warner
DATELINE=Kabul
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: After years of fighting, the Taleban seem close to winning control of all of Afghanistan. That would consolidate their very strict Islamic rule of the country. But much of the world is repelled by this government, especially its treatment of women, and refuses to accept its legitimacy without substantial change. The Taleban, eager for international recognition and economic help, must now weigh religious conviction against societal needs. V-O-A's Ed Warner has been visiting Afghanistan, speaking both to those who support the Taleban and those who denounce its policies. // OPT // In this, the first of three reports // END OPT // From Kabul, he gives us an inside look at Afghanistan's people and their problems.
TEXT: The zoo in Kabul is all but empty. Children cluster around the cages of a few deer and wolves. In grand isolation, a blind lion sits staring into space, the victim of a soldier's grenade. Somehow this fallen majesty seems to symbolize his city's decline as well -- an immensely sad but still dignified sight, facing just about the worst that life can offer.
The decline, it is agreed, began with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. It aroused a fierce, united and ultimately successful Afghan resistance. But the war continued after the Soviet withdrawal, as various Afghan commanders fought among themselves, in the process destroying much of Kabul.
Out of this chaos, with a startling suddenness, emerged the Taleban, holy warriors determined to suppress the violence and impose a sweeping version of
the Sharia (Islamic law). Backed and armed by Pakistan, they have now won control of almost the entire country, with resistance waning in the northeast.
What inspired such unlikely conquerors untrained in battle and immersed in studies? Mawlana Samiul Haq, director of a madrassa, or religious school, in Pakistan, was a major influence on the Taleban. He urged his students to go fight for Islam in Afghanistan, and that they did. It is a matter of great pride for him and his school. Last year, there were 15-thousand applications for 400 places in the madrassa.
Hearty and forceful, Mr. Haq claims only a modest role in Afghanistan:
/// HAQ ACT, URDU FADING TO ENGLISH ///
We did not create the Taleban. Circumstances
did. They are not that happy to be in power.
They are students and would prefer to return to
their studies. But foreign powers continue to
fuel the war in Afghanistan, and give the
Taleban little choice.
/// END ACT ///
Why doesn't the west recognize the Taleban for what they are? asks Samiul Haq. He says the Taleban are the genuine rulers of a nation, yet they are denied a seat in the United Nations and banned from participating in the Olympics.
For good reason, reply many in the west, who find the Taleban baffling and repellent. They seem to have turned the clock back by centuries as they remove women from schools and jobs, patrol the country for infractions of dress and behavior, ban all forms of entertainment and conduct public executions to intimidate any opposition.
"That happens to be our culture," says the Minister of Culture, Mawlawi Qudratullah Jamal. "We do not tell the West how to behave. Why should they tell us? The Taleban have brought peace and security to war-torn Afghanistan. For this we are punished?"
/// JAMAL ACT, PASHTO FADING TO ENGLISH ///
The major problem in Afghanistan today is the
hardship resulting from the economic sanctions,
which have brought such pain and suffering to
the people. Afghans did not expect that after
the defeat of the Soviet Union, the world would
respond by damaging the Afghan economy instead
of helping it.
/// END ACT ///
Minister Jamal says it is difficult for the Taleban to deal with issues of peace as long as they remain at war. Once the conflict is over, they will be able to make the kind of progress that will be satisfactory to the west
"Meanwhile, we welcome western visitors," says the Taleban's urbane, under-stated foreign minister, Mawlawi Wakil Ahmad Mutawakil. A critic might note that the Taleban present three faces, (those of) warriors, zealots and diplomats. Mr. Mutawakil is the diplomatic presence.
At a press briefing in Kabul, he said the Taleban want to join the international community. "Recognize us as the legitimate government of Afghanistan," he asserted, "and we will provide you with some of the answers you seek."
/// MUTAWAKIL ACT, PASHTO FADING TO ENGLISH ///
We are saying that we are ready to talk to
people. We want to respond to the concerns of
people. We want to participate in world
affairs. We want to travel abroad, and we want
our airline to take us there. We want to work
together with the international community on a
variety of problems.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Mutawakil wonders why the west has not responded to the Taleban's pledge to stop the cultivation of poppies for the drug trade. In its place, the country needs foreign investment, to revive its collapsed economy.
But can the Taleban manage, even if they have peace and help from abroad? Many have their doubts. Over the stressful years, Afghanistan has lost much of its educated population and trained professionals. Life under the Taleban is not likely to lure them back. Nor is their expertise prized by the Taleban, for whom the Koran is sufficient.
Across the border in Pakistan, Rasul Amin is director of the Afghanistan Study Center in Peshawar and a former professor of political science in Afghanistan. He says the Taleban are ill equipped to govern a country:
/// AMIN ACT ///
They have come from the madrassas with a very
narrow-mindedness. They do not know about the
very complicated mechanism of the state. A
state requires policies -- economic policies and
political policies, social policy, cultural
policy, internal policy, external policy, a
thousand policies. But their policies are
confined to the beard.
/// END ACT ///
All Afghan men are required to have a full beard in emulation of the Prophet Mohammad.
Professor Amin says that is a major preoccupation of the Taleban, who neglect more pressing economic matters. Like others in Peshawar, he awaits the collapse of the Taleban and possibly the restoration of the aged king Zahir Shah, now in exile in Rome. They see him as a unifying figure who could rally support among diverse Afghans.
Pir Sayed Ishaq Gailani is the past president of the Council of Understanding for the National Unity of Afghanistan, a Peshawar-based organization that calls for a grand assembly of Afghans to determine the country's future.
He says Afghans are essentially moderate, in contrast to the Taleban:
/// GAILANI ACT ///
They are not representative of the people of
Afghanistan. This is the first time in the
history of Afghanistan that the mullahs came to
power, but I am not sure they will agree very
quickly to a transfer of power to the people of
Afghanistan.
/// END ACT ///
The Taleban have shed their blood and committed their lives to win control of Afghanistan and submit it to the true faith. Now that military victory is in sight, even firm opponents do not expect them to surrender their power. (Signed)
/// OPT OUTRO /// In the next of his reports from Afghanistan, Ed Warner tells how the Taleban's Islamic regime molds the daily life of the citizens of Kabul. /// END OPT ///
NEB/EW/WTW
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
