Is Afghanistan Free? Independent?
Dr. G. Rauf Roashan
Applied to the Afghan scenario, words such as freedom, independence and liberty acquire dire meanings. With thousands of foreign troops actively engaged in a war against a shadowy enemy in Afghanistan and with foreign interests and objectives enjoying priority in military and political action in the country, the question has been raised, time and again, of whether Afghanistan is truly free or independent.
Afghanistan, under its last monarch, Mohammad Zahir Shah was an independent country recognized by the community of nations and commanded relative respect in world forums. The Afghan nation, however, during the same period was not considered free as the person of the monarch and his family monopolized all powers and decisions regarding the national life.
When in 1973 Mohammad Daoud, toppled the monarchy with a white coup, Afghanistan continued to be recognized as an independent country with its nation finding its fate in the hands of a strongman who had been named President, not through general elections, but by a partially handpicked Loya Jirga.
Then came the great invasion from the north. The Soviets first installed a puppet regime through a coup d’etat and later by direct invasion and occupation of the country by the Red Army. The world, notwithstanding the expressed will of the nation that rejected both the regime and the forces of occupation by engaging in a war of freedom against the invaders and by taking refuge en-mass and in millions in neighboring countries, still recognized the country as an independent nation and gave the puppet regime a voice in the United Nations. This was probably because the invader was a superpower and a “big brother” nation. This time however, not only the peoples’ freedoms were taken away but also alien values were imposed on them negating their long standing cultural and religious values and threatening their world famous spirit of love for freedom.
Eventually as it has been with all invaders of Afghanistan, the invader was forced to leave, leaving behind physical and moral destruction.
The Mujahidin government that followed failed drastically in organizing to let the country recover or rebuild. Instead, the new volatile government fell into rivalries for personal power endangering the country’s independence as well as the nation’s freedom. Further destructions resulted from the futility of personal desires of the so-called Mujahidin leaders.
Situations in the country acquired tragic proportions and the nation was desperately looking for a way out of the abyss it had been led into by those it considered its liberators. The grounds were paved for foreign intervention and interference and thus a group was formed out of a very unlikely source, namely students of religious schools. This group had no political experience, no information and no knowledge of anything outside their purely religious curricula. The group had no appreciation of civic life, no respect for political desires of the nation and would allow no liberties in deed or thought. It took the nation hostage and imposed its own dictatorial narrow-minded perception of life. The country lost its recognition as an independent nation and the nation lost its freedom. Afghanistan turned into a jungle in which Arab terrorists, hidden under the canopy provided by religious zealots, prospered and multiplied.
At this time, Afghanistan was to pay for the sins of its so-called Arab guests who had invoked the wrath of the leader of the only superpower left on earth. The Afghan nation for the most part welcomed the “big brother’s” helping hand in driving the oppressive Taleban regime out. The advanced war technology of the US supported by remnants of the so-called Mujahidin groups was able to defeat Taleban swiftly and provide the grounds for installation of a new regime concocted at a meeting in Bonn, Germany to deliver Afghanistan from tyranny.
The new regime was thus installed and its transitional government’s head selected. At the time the newborn Afghan government needed outside help as she did not have any instrument of power of its own; she had no army, no police and the government infrastructure was in shambles. The world siding with the “big brother” pledged to help Afghanistan change into a democracy in the heart of Asia. It required military support by the United States and its allies, the United Nations and lastly the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Politically emerging movements increasingly engaged in a discussion of whether in the face of all the foreign military presence in Afghanistan and the expressed objective of the United States military to fight terror in any way she deemed necessary, Afghanistan could still be called independent. The arguments said that when an alien military has free hand in its operation in another country without coordination and or direct involvement of that country’s government, could that country still be called independent? The question gained legitimacy when the US military ran prisons for Afghan detainees in their own land and invaded homes and hamlets at will carrying searches on its own and violating not only the privacy but the rights of the citizens of this other country. Others argued that Afghanistan indeed was an independent country recognized by the United Nations. She had a democratically elected president and a government that tried to patch up a governmental system on the ashes of a protracted war that had consumed much of the country’s infrastructure. She had a voice in the international community’s forums. Nevertheless, the argument continued without any final resolution especially when the country’s leader had employed foreign bodyguards to look after his security.
On the other hand, on the issue of the rights it is to be reported that great strides have already been taken to secure them for the benefit of the nation. Great examples are the exercises in democracy in Afghanistan through presidential and recently parliamentary elections. These were great political showcases benefiting the images of the United States, its allies and the country’s first elected president.
Beyond that the Afghans are in dire need of security, of the basic human rights of health and well being, the right to education and other essential basic needs such as food and shelter. Excesses reportedly have occurred against human rights in Afghanistan. Human rights groups, Amnesty International and others have recorded some of these human rights violations in detail.
It is only recently that the national leader in Afghanistan has tried to claim certain freedoms in expressing his views that contradict the expressed and manifest objectives of the US military. For example, President Karzai has questioned the further need for the use of air power in his country that has caused, on several occasions, civilian casualties. He has called also for bringing all foreign military in Afghanistan under one command. And in order to boost his image as an independent national leader, he only last week decided to replace his American bodyguards with national security officers. All of this shows an attempt on the part of the Afghan government to tell the world that Afghanistan is an independent country free of the dictates of the superpower that has a strong military presence there. And the nation still yearns for freedom, freedom from fear, and freedom from the grip of warlords, drug smugglers and gunmen. She further is in need to be able to tell the world that US and NATO forces on its territory were forces of liberation and not of occupation. To do this there is a great need for the United States to reshape its policy in Afghanistan. For doing this more mature diplomacy on the part of all concerned is required. Such diplomacy is lacking at the present time. Therefore, the perception in many third world countries is that Afghanistan is not fully independent and that foreign military forces operate independent of the Afghan government in that country much like forces of occupation rather than liberation. 10/14/05
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