Abstract:
Reports of the return of Afghan communist elements to Afghanistan is not a good
omen for the nation, for the transitional government or the people of Afghanistan.
It was these elements who sold their souls and their soil to the Soviets and
began the misery Afghanistan finds itself today.
Even the optimists are worried about the state of affairs
in Afghanistan. Supposedly a
transitional government is in power there. Or is it? While an almost
5000 UN Security
Assistance Force operates in Kabul, security is breached every day.
The government
controlled media reported that in recent days some ten people were killed
in Kabul in
incidents involving robberies. Reports of US forces coming under attack
in different
parts of the country arrive almost daily.
There is a lot of complaints about the daily lives of the citizens
. Corruption abounds.
The routine consumes most of the budget leaving little time for development
and
reconstruction. Among the major reconstruction projects, only one, namely
the
resurfacing of the road going west from Kabul has started. The billions
of dollars in aid
promised still remain in the vaults of the donating countries.
The major tasks entrusted to the transitional government which included
establishment
of a national army, an independent judiciary, a draft for a new constitution
and wide scale
reconstruction, all remain in their embryonic stages with little or
no action regarding any
one of them.
The issue of ending warlordism has remained untouched. On the contrary,
warlords
thrive and have influenced heavily the central administration in addition
to their free hand
in their respective fiefdom.
To make things worse, the drought has continued in the country for
a fifth year and
agriculture requires urgent help and assistance. This becomes more important
everyday
as thousands of refugees return home and require housing, income and
employment.
The miracles expected from 'the man in the cloak', Mr. Karzai, have
not materialized. It
is important to note that he has optioned in his capacity as the chief
politician from
Afghanistan to attend a one day conference in Bonn, Germany on December
1st, 2002,
that discusses a progress report of the Afghan issue. It is expected
of him to perform
well as a politician blaming the country's ills on non-delivery of the
promised aid. But the
facts are that as days go by, he is losing slowly and gradually popularity
among his
nation beginning with the Pashtuns that supposedly had to provide major
support to his
administration. He has mentioned more than once that there is no ethnic
divide in
Afghanistan and that the Afghans are a united nation. Any reference
to ethnic
differences therefore, according to him, are the work of the enemies
of Afghanistan. As
politician, he would like others to share in his wishful thinking. The
fact that some
warlords, including those in his administration, still maintain their
heavily armed armies
and weapons including tanks, armored personnel carriers, assault weaponry
including
missiles, etc, remain unnoticed by many.
Recently a local Afghan radio station broadcasting in San Francisco
Bay Area reported
that Mahmoud Baryalai and many other of his communist comrades have
returned to
Afghanistan. Mahmoud is the brother of the top KGB agent and puppet
of the Soviet
Kremlin, Babrak Karmal. He died in infamy in Russia. Later, the Northern
Alliance had
consistently good relations with Russia and cooperation between it and
the former
communists were reported when the alliance was fighting the Taleban.
As a matter of
fact many communists held positions of importance in provincial administrations
during
the reign of the former President Rabbani.
If the report of the return of the communists prove to be true, the
transitional government
of Karzai would be further alienated from the masses. The pretense that
Afghanistan
today is a free and open country would not help in re-implanting the
real enemies of the
masses in Afghanistan. A desirable side effect, however, of the situation
would be an
awakening of the nation to the fact that at the international level
the fate of their country
is being played by world forces who would like to include Afghanistan,
by secret
alliances, under the scope of influence of one or the other power. Could
it be that the
US in order to appease Russia would have given a free hand to it in
the political affairs of
Afghanistan? May be not. But there is no prevention against the question
popping up.
In any case the return of the communists is not a good omen for the
nation, for the transitional government or the people of Afghanistan
socially at this stage that both the people and the international friends
of Afghanistan want peace, want reconstruction and want prosperity for
the Afghans who have suffered beyond measure for the past quarter of
a century from a war and conditions that were created by the communists
in the first place. 11/30/02