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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
56 — village july 2009
Afghanistan
three decades, Washington
has empowered fundamentalist and violent
groups in Afghanistan, but neglected progres-
sive, democratic and peaceful ones. After -,
the US routed the Taliban but brought back
another evil: the warlords.
In the s, the US, its West European
allies, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran sup-
ported various mujahideen factions opposing
Soviet troops in Afghanistan. Those fighters
flouted human rights , but that didn’t stop out-
side powers from assisting them: what count-
ed was to make the Soviets bleed, and violent
fanatics were useful for that.
In the s, after the Soviet withdrawal,
mujahideen groupings started fighting each
other for the control of the country and all fac-
tions committed atrocities. Kabul was shelled
repeatedly and tens of thousands of innocent
civilians were killed.
The Taliban eventually took power, but
were soon toppled by the US in . Wash-
ington then made a fateful decision that would
prolong Afghans’ suffering up to this day: in-
stead of supporting progressive groups, the
US allied itself with some of the same warlords
and mujahideen leaders who had killed, raped
and tortured over the previous two decades.
Those warlords are still in power today and
control much of Afghanistan. Examples of past
abuses for which they are responsible abound,
but the following story related by Amnesty In-
ternational makes the point:
In Kabul in , a young woman whose
husband had been killed in a bomb attack left
her three small children at home to go find
some food. Two Mujahideen armed guards ar-
rested her in the street and took her to their
base in a house where men raped her for
three days. She was then allowed to go. When
she reached her home she found her three chil-
dren had died of hypothermia.
The perpetrators of such atrocities−warlords
and mujahideen commanders − were showered
with millions of dollars by the US in the wake
of the invasion. Journalist Ahmed Rashid
Warlords and the Taliban
should be disarmed, US/NATO
forces should withdraw, and
progressives should be supported.
j u l i e n m e r c i l l e
57
reports that the warlords were then “all on the
CIA’s extensive payroll” and considered to be
American allies, in addition to drawing sub-
stantial funds from the drug trade.
American support in the form of weap-
ons and cash allowed the warlords to divide
the country into personal fiefdoms: General
Rashid Dostum in the north, General Daud
in the northeast, Abdul Qadir in the east, Gul
Agha Sherzai in the south, Ismael Khan in the
west, and Karim Khalili, Syed Akbari and Mo-
hammed Mohaqiq in the center of the country,
among others.
Human Rights Watch reported that war-
lords subverted the national electoral process
that took place in the years following the inva-
sion “through threats, beatings, imprisonment
and intimidation,” resulting in them maintain-
ing a “stranglehold on Afghan politics.” As a
result, they dominated the parliament elected
in : % of deputies in the lower house
were directly or indirectly connected to cur-
rent and past human rights abuses.
This cast a shadow over some positive de-
velopments, such as the fact that women were
guaranteed a substantial number of seats in
the parliament.
Upcoming elections
Today, warlords have positions in govern-
ment, the police, the army and in business.
Though they have largely relinquished their
tanks and heavy artillery, most have main-
tained their militias in the form of private se-
curity companies, political parties or loose
business networks, exerting control through
a mafia-like system.
According to the Wall Street Journal, war-
lords currently co-operating with the US in
Afghanistan include Gul Agha Shirzai (gov-
ernor of Nangarhar province), Ismail Khan
(previously governor of Heart province, now
Minister of Energy in Karzai’s cabinet) and
Atta Mohammed Noor (governor of Balkh
province).
Amnesty International recently stated
that “millions” of Afghans are still “terror-
ised” by “local militias ostensibly allied with
the government” as well as by the Taliban and
that “only a handful” of those responsible for
atrocities over the last three decades have
been brought to justice. NATO and US forces
keep handing over detainees to Afghanistan’s
intelligence service, which practices torture
and arbitrary detention.
Presidential elections are set for August
. Hamid Karzai is the front-runner, but war-
lords remain the main power-brokers.
Indeed, Karzai has recently announced
that his two running-mates were notable for-
mer mujahideen commanders Muhammad Fa-
him and Muhammad Khalili. According to Hu-
man Rights Watch, Fahim has “the blood of
many Afghans on his hands”.
This continues Karzai’s record of appease-
ment of a rogues’ gallery of human rights
abusers to maintain their allegiance.
In particular, with US support, Karzai may
attempt to make peace with Gulbuddin Hek-
matyar and some “moderate” Taliban. They
could be given positions in the government in
return for abandoning the insurgency.
Hekmatyar was a leading mujahideen
recipient of US aid in the s; during the
s, his soldiers fired rockets and shells
into Kabul that devastated the city and killed
thousands of people. To top it all off, he’s also
known for allegedly throwing acid in wom-
en’s faces.
Karzai is said to be offering General Dos-
tum to come back to Afghanistan from Tur-
key, where he went recently after he allegedly
kidnapped and tortured a political rival. This
could lead to his formal reintegration into Af-
ghan politics.
Human rights groups have reported that
Dostum once ordered hundreds of prisoners
packed into shipping crates and left them suf-
focating under the sun.
The way forward
Violent and anti-democratic groups and indi-
viduals have been put in positions of power by
foreign governments, but progressive actors
have been relegated to the margins.
The way forward for Afghanistan is to re-
verse this situation. Warlords and the Taliban
should be disarmed, US/NATO forces should
withdraw, and progressives such as Malalai
Joya and RAWA (Revolutionary Association
of the Women of Afghanistan) should be sup-
ported.
Malalai Joya is an Afghan member of par-
liament who has been very vocal in opposing
warlords and fundamentalists. She has been
suspended from parliament after declaring
that “a stable or a zoo is better, at least there
you have a donkey that carries a load and a cow
that provides milk. This parliament is worse
than a stable or a zoo.” Clips of her heated ex-
changes with Afghan politicians can be found
on Youtube.
RAWA has been active in Afghanistan and
Pakistan since and is one of the most im-
portant women’s organizations there. It has
consistently opposed the warlords, the Tal-
iban, and the NATO occupation, fought for
women’s rights, worked with Afghan refugees,
and provided health care and education.
So why then has RAWA never been offered
any aid from the US government (or any other
government), whereas warlords received mil-
lions of dollars?
The answer has to do with Washington’s
goal in attacking Afghanistan. The objec-
tive was not to promote progressive social
change, in which case RAWA would surely
have received help. The point was rather to
demonstrate to the world that America would
respond forcefully to the - attacks and to
those who challenge its hegemony. Warlords
proved useful in this task, helping to remove
the Taliban from power, and so were support-
ed.
Washington’s priorities are also revealed
by comparing the amount spent by the US mil-
itary alone in Afghanistan− $ million every
day −with the ludicrous amount provided by
international donors for reconstruction and
development−a meager $ million per day.
No wonder Afghans are still suffering.
“Instead of supporting progressive groups,
the US allied itself with some of the same
warlords and mujahideen leaders who had
killed, raped and tortured”
