[It
is an English translation of a paper presented on 6th June 1997 at a
seminar organized by Council of Islamic Revolutionaries of Bangladesh
(CIRB-HEZBOLLAH). Dr. Khan did his Ph.D.
from Tashkent University, former USSR Afghanistan
More than two decades Afghanistan
occupies special place in international politics. The Russian forces have ruled greater land and people of Central
Asia for more than a century. But they
failed to keep Afghanistan under their rule even for a decade. In explanations, often Western military
assistance is highlighted and victory of the Muslim People is belittled.
Defeat of the Russians in Afghanistan
is definitely a victory of the Afghan people.
The internecine fights among Afghan groups and sub-groups for control of
Kabul was consistent with the interests of both Moscow and Washington, because
both are equally worried about the rise of Islamic Fundamentalist authority in
Afghanistan.
Afghanistan was an independent state
between Russian and British Empires.
Both the British and Lenin considered that occupation of Afghanistan
would be expensive. In the Spring of
1920 there was a battle between the Russians and the Afghans in the Marv-Kushk
region, which led to a truce between
Badsha Amanullah and Lenin in 1921.
Soviet border with Afghanistan was not much guarded - Muslims could travel across easily. In the December of 1925 the Russian soldiers crossed Afghan border
near Oxus River in the Penjdeh region.
Once again both sides signed a
peace treaty in 1926. On 15th October
1929 Mohammad Nadir Khan became the new King of Afghanistan. In June 1930 the Russian soldiers penetrated
40 miles inside Afghan border.
Afghanistan sought help of nearby Muslim states, and was frustrated as none responded. Thus Kabul gradually became dependent on
Moscow, and from 1936 started procuring Russian arms.
After the Second World War, Moscow was dreaming possibilities of peaceful socialist revolutions in Muslim
countries. With this aim groups of
Soviet experts were sent to Afghanistan.
In the 1952 Afghan Parliament Election,
50 members out of 120 were socialists.
In December 1955 Russian Leader Nikita Krushchev visited
Afghanistan. In 1960 Krushchev openly
supported Kabul for Pakhtunistan
issue.
In January 1955 Afghan socialists
formed the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), which due to internal conflicts was later on
divided into 2 groups : "Parcham"
and "Khalq". In 1973 Daud captured power in
Afghanistan and later on in 1977 he declared Socialism as
national ideology of Afghanistan. But
neither Kremlin nor hardline socialists of Afghanistan were happy
with Daud's slow progress towards
socialism. So, on the 27th April of
1978, Noor Mohammad Taraki was brought to power in Afghanistan. Kremlin now was claiming that establishment
of Socialism in Afghanistan was almost
at final stage. Kremlin was also expecting
victory of Tudeh Party in Iran. But the
Iranian Islamic Revolution bewildered them all.
Kremlim was very much frustrated by
the Iranian Islamic Revolution. Though
the Iranian Islamic Revolution was harshly anti-American yet the Iranian
socialists were the most hard-hit by it.
All Soviet research were proved futile.
At the end of 1979 Kremlin resorted to establish full control on
Afghanistan by dispatching Soviet Military forces into Afghanistan. Russians were still expecting that the rise
of Islamic Leadership in Iran was temporary,
and ultimately socialists would capture state power in
Iran.
On December 28th, 1979, the Soviet
Army moved inside Afghanistan. Large
numbers of Muslim civilian population of Central Asian Republics of Soviet
Union were also dispatched to Afghanistan.
At that time One Fifth of the Soviet population was Muslim. Russians were anxious to give the impression
that Muslims in the Soviet Union were living in happiness and prosperity along
with the Russians. Out of 15 Soviet
Republics, 6 were Muslim Republics.
Officially Afghanistan remained an independent state. But unofficially the Russians considered Afghanistan to the
their 16th Republic.
From the beginning, the Soviet Army
tried to give an impression that they were not occupation forces. But the Afghan masses were not
convinced. So, in 1985, Gorbachev after
becoming leader of the Soviet Union
brought some strategic changes in Afghan policy. In 1986
Nazibullah was installed to power in Kabul. He carefully avoided enthusiasm about
socialism, instead, started
speaking in favor of Islam. In December 1997 a new Constitution for
Afghanistan was approved. Islam was
declared as the State-Religion in the new Constitution. Nazibullah tried compromise formula with the
pro-Islamic forces. Moscow tried to keep
their sphere of influence over Afghanistan via Nazibullah. Their strategy was to promote differences and
internecine fights among various Afghan Mujahid groups & sub-groups. Soon after withdrawal of the Soviet troops
from Afghanistan, inter-group fighting
among Mujahids flared up, the differences over who will rule on what principles increased day by day. After complete withdrawal of Soviet troops
from Afghanistan, there were little
difference between the policies of American and Soviet Union regarding
Afghanistan. Both Washington and Kremlin
wanted continuation of tribal divisions and differences among various Mujahid
groups. Meanwhile, it became impossible
for the Soviet Union to survive. Gradually all the Republics of USSR became
independent. The victory of the Afghan
Mujahids is surely one of the various factors that led to the liquidation of
the Soviet Union.
The Mujahid groups that grew through
the fights against the Russians were mainly organized on regional and
tribal affiliations. The Tajik forces were led by Masud. The
Pashtu-Speaking Mujahids were led by Gulbuddin Hekmatian. The Uzbek forces were
left to Rashid Dostum. No major group
came forward to resolve the differences and animosity among the various Afghan
groups, nationalities and tribes - as
Muslims could not stop the Iran-Iraq and Iraq-Kuwait conflicts. The West was enjoying the internecine fights
in Afghanistan. The
"TALEBAN" have risen out of
this situation.
"TALEBAN" is not a political
party. Nor there was any Mujahid group
in this name. A drop has grown into an
ocean unimaginably. Such is impossible
without Divine Blessings. The
inception was with the resistance against some anti-Islamic activities in
Kandahar. This resistance movement grew into a mass uprising against the criminal activities of other
Mujahid groups and commanders. This mass
uprising was led by Mullah Omar. Mollah
Omar was a young teacher and majority of his followers were students, i.e.
"TALEBANS". One after another
region fell before the Taleban. Finally
they succeeded in occupying Kabul.
Many observers thought the
"Taleban Victory" would not last long. They thought Rabbani or Hekmatiar would soon
recapture Kabul. Reasons for such
apprehensions are probably : -
(a) There were no
stable government in Afghanistan since it was freed from Soviet occupation ;
(b) Whoever formed
government in Kabul tried to rule the country by arms.
The Taleban was with the masses and
they advanced with the masses from the very beginning. There was no scarcity of fighters in
Afghanistan. There was no scarcity of
skilled operators of arms in Afghanistan.
The only scarcity was of appropriate and organized leadership. Taleban has fulfilled that need. They led the
masses to defeat the deviated
warlords. The military units of
Taleban are not composed of members of any one tribe. Islam-loving committed fighters of all tribes
came together to form the "Taleban" military units. The battle field decided who would lead. On the other hand new forces came to prove
their efficiency in administration. In
this way the Talebans succeeded in establishing their authority over
Afghanistan including Kabul. After
military victory in any area, the Talebans were successful in establishing
peace and discipline in the area. They
successfully put an end to extortion and criminal violence. It may be mentioned that since the days
of Soviet occupation, various
non-government groups and
sub-groups were collecting tolls and
taxes parallel to government
collectors. Taleban has brought an end
to such dual collection system.
The West have aimed their propaganda
machinery against the "Talebans".
They are blaming that "Talebans" are "fundamentalists", "Talebans" are disregarding "human rights" ; "Talebans" have locked women inside their homes,
etc.
After occupying Kabul, the TALEBANS
for some days maintained intensive
watching on movement of people.
Maintaining control on movement of women is not easy. So, some novel measures were adopted. Irreligious women might work for the
enemies. So, women were asked not to
attend working places. The West
immediately raised such a hew and cry over this issue as if TALEBANS are
peculiar creatures who have no mother, no sister, no wife. TALEBANS have been criticized for putting end
to co-education. The West is orchestrating ANTI-TALEBAN propaganda as if TALEBANS are
enemies of Afghan people, and worse than
the Russians.
After the TALEBANS acquired control of
Kabul, they attracted the attention of the Muslim world. The anti-Taleban propaganda in Muslim
countries sponsored by government machinery is rare incident. The criticism faced by the Talebans is much
lighter than the criticism faced by the
Iranian Islamic Revolutionaries in their early days after the Revolution. Afghanistan is largely inhabited by Sunni
Muslims. There is a small Shia
population in Bamian region. The rise of
the Taleban is consistent with the awakening in the Muslim World. Therefore, few Muslim rulers raised voice
against Talebans. The intellectuals, of
course, are divided. Iran openly
criticized the Talebans. Iran argued
that hard line attitude of the Talebans might make others afraid of Islam itself.
Conceding to this argument would mean to accept that Talebans are driving the Afghans away from Islam. But this is not true.
For about 2 decades Iran has been
branded as an Islamic fundamentalist country.
So, Iran had to face big odds to
maintain external relationship.
By criticizing the Talebans Iran may have been able to raise her
acceptability to the West. On the other
hand Talebans have showed appreciable cautiousness. While the Iranian Islamic Revolutionaries
kept their Universities shut for several years,
the Talebans opened Kabul University
within few months after Kabul had fallen to the Talebans. After victory of the Talebans it has become
impossible to keep in currency any particular brand of "Islamic
Fundamentalism". It is a great
achievement for the Muslim World. Doors
of new opportunities have ushered for Islamic reforms in the Islamic World in
different methods and ways.
TALEBANS
AND THE CENTRAL ASIAN COUNTRIES
Talebans are still to consolidate
their authority over adjacent areas near the border with former Soviet
republics. Lackeys of Rabbani and Dostam
are getting arms and ammunition supplies from across those borders. Russians are convincing the Central Asian
Muslim governments that powerful Islamic Government in Afghanistan could
inspire Muslims of newly born Muslim countries of Central Asia to topple the
existing governments. Popularity of
Islam is rising day by day in Central Asia.
Russians are afraid of another Islamic Revolution in Central Asia. They
know what revolution means. They
know that socialists could not survive in Afghanistan because there was no
socialist revolution in Afghanistan.
Because the Russians succeeded in having a Socialist Revolution, the
Russian Empire survived for another 70 years after the First World War. Central Asian countries and people have
already rejected socialism. Russians are
being condemned and criticized for their past role in Central Asia. The Russians have not yet been benefited by
capitalist economy. So, the Central
Asian Muslim States do not consider capitalist system beneficial. Thus in those states half-socialist systems
are still practiced. So, the rulers of
those states are very much afraid of Taleban Victory. From the
reactions of the Central Asian
rulers it may appear that the Central
Asian Muslims consider the Talebans to be extremists. About a decade back, Iran was also treated in
the same way. But now-a-days there is no
question about Iran's acceptability in
Central Asia, though the people are
conscious about Shia-Sunni differences.
Iranian practice of "Hijab" or "Purdah" is
appreciated by Muslims of Central Asia.
But they are critical about "Taleban" policy towards
women. The reality is that the female
population of Afghanistan are not educationally as Western as the female
population of Iran and Central Asia. The
previous pro-Russian rulers of Afghanistan reared up a minority of female
population of Kabul for extreme non-Islamic lifestyle. They also introduced for females out-door
work culture in towns. But did not become mass culture of Afghanistan. So the policies adopted by the Talebans
are not unrealistic in view of
their own socio-politico perspective. Rather to protect the Taleban Revolution they
need to check the doors through which the bad elements may acquire power to
disrupt the revolution. Fortunately, common
Afghans are free from anti-Islamic ideologies. There is a mass consensus in favor of
Islamic system of life. Therefore, if
the Talebans can attain peace and uninterrupted authority over whole of
Afghanistan, they will definitely lead
Afghanistan towards a great future.
People of Central Asia understands Afghanistan, her great prospects.
TALEBAN
ADMINISTRATION
Talebans introduced very simple administrative
system. They did not try to re-build the
broken down previous system. They simply appointed new administrators for towns
and regions. Lifestyle of the leaders
and administrators is very simple - and to run an office they mean to directly
conduct the workforce. The Taleban
administration is meaningfully inexpensive and close to mass life. Islamic spirit and enthusiasm is visible in every sphere of Afghan life. Government employees are trying to serve the
people.
The people of Afghanistan
overwhelmingly welcomed Taleban authority.
Within Afghanistan Taleban authority received necessary
recognition. There have been problem
regarding external recognition. In the
absence of any powerful government in Afghanistan UNO and the West have seen how Afghanistan
turned into heaven for the traders of drugs and illegal arms. None of the previous Kabul Governments were
able to effectively control illegal trafficking of drugs, arms
and women. The law and order situation in the regions
controlled by Talebans has been excellent.
Scope for committing major vices & crimes have been effectively
shut. The situation is likely to improve
further as soon as the whole of Afghanistan comes under Taleban control. Peaceful Islamic Afghanistan will lay
positive impact on all the Central Asian Muslim states. It should
be remembered that the
capitalist world has
joined hand with
the Russians to destroy
the Islamic character of the Central Asian Muslim states. Because the Iranians are Shiiaites and the Central Asian Muslims are Sunni, Iran
has been able to play only a limited
role in that
region.
The West should
understand and concede to the realities in Afghanistan. The West may try to isolate Afghanistan by
imposing blockade and barriers. But we
know, blockade and barriers against Iran, Iraq
and Libya have not been fruitful. Instead,
these Muslim states learned to be
self-reliant. Afghans are accustomed to
very simple living. They were
never for long
in indignity or subjugation. Afghanistan
does not have any big
luxurious consumer class.
There is hardly any
class of Westernized
intellectuals of consumerist character.
All are equally
busy for survival.
It has created an unusual harmony
in Afghanistan. They are steadily
attainting sound national unity.
And because Islam
is the foundation and
the Talebans are simple
and committed, all
tribal and communal
differences are likely to be resolved quickly.
In fact, Talebans may become example
for the remaining Muslim world.
