Acceptance
Speech by
Ahmad Rashid, Journalist and the Author of the Taliban - Militant Islam,
Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia
On Receiving the
"Nisar Osmani Award" for Courage in Journalism, Awarded by the Human
Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on March 25, 2001
(The Institute for Afghan Studies
is grateful to Ahmad Rashid for his contributions to the IAS)
I am deeply grateful to the
Council of HRCP, its elected representatives and members for awarding me this
coveted prize. I would especially like to thank HRCP Chairperson Afrasiab
Khattak, General Secretary Hina Jilani, Director I.A.Rehman as well as Asma
Jehangir and Dr.Mobashir Hassan. I have no words to describe my feelings at the
moment because this is for the first time, after more than 20 years in
journalism, that a Pakistani organization with such enormous credibility as the
HRCP, has acknowledged my work on covering Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central
Asia. No amount of international recognition can make up for being acknowledged
in one’s own country, in one’s own home and by one’s own peers who I so
deeply respect. I am deeply moved and enormously grateful. HRCP’s work in
increasing awareness about human and minority rights, poverty and political and
press freedoms in Pakistan has no parallel.
I would also like to pay tribute
to Nisar Osmani, a journalist of impeccable credibility who faced down three
military regimes and who was a mentor and a friend to so many young, aspiring
journalists like myself for decades. We have every reason to remember him here
today as Pakistan goes through another period of turmoil and crisis. I would
also like to pay tribute to the other two recipients of this prize Zamir Niazi
and Razia Bhatti of Newsline who advanced the cause of a free press,
investigative journalism and support for the democratic process. I would also
like to thank my parents and my sisters who have been a constant source of
inspiration and especially my wife Angie and our two children who have put up
with my long absences from home.
I have covered the brutal, tragic
conflict in Afghanistan for the past 23 years. That conflict also took me to
Central Asia for the first time in 1988. My persistence has been due to the
enduring courage, warmth and formidable character of the freedom loving Afghan
people who today, even after all these years of war, are still facing an
unprecedented assault on their independence, culture, history and faith in Islam
as a religion of peace and equal rights for men and women. But my persistence in
sticking to this story for so long has also been my desire to journalistically
write about and unveil the secretive decision making process of Pakistan’s
Afghan policy over the past 23 years. During the past ten years Pakistan has
been involved in the war in Afghanistan alongside one or another of the Afghan
factions and most Pakistanis have been unaware of this involvement and the
implications it is having in the body politic of our country. This is what I
would briefly like to speak to you about today.
Much as I respect and admire the
Afghan people, as a Pakistani I can only want, first and foremost, the best for
my own country. For too long we have all stood as silent spectators and watched
as Pakistan’s political and economic development and progress is sacrificed on
the altar of a foreign policy wanting to support one or other Afghan faction and
committing excesses of interference, which has only encouraged other
neighbouring states to step up their interference in Afghanistan.
Pakistan played a heroic role in
supporting the Afghan people’s resistance to the invasion by Soviet troops in
1979. At great risk to its own integrity Pakistan hosted millions of Afghan
refugees, allowed its soil to be used for Western military supplies to the
Afghan Mujheddin and internationally advocated the territorial independence and
integrity of the Afghan state. Why is it today that every ordinary Afghan you
speak to has not a kind word to say about Pakistan ? In fact since Kabul fell to
the Mujheddin in 1992 our policies have created a wave of criticism and even
hatred for Pakistan amongst many Afghans. The majority of Afghans blame us for
being the single biggest contributor to the continuing war in their homeland.
Today we stand isolated in the community of nations due to our Afghan policy. We
stand isolated in the region as all our neighbours condemn our policies, while
they send munitions to opposing factions in Afghanistan.
Let us not beat around the bush
here. For the past ten years successive elected and non-elected governments in
Islamabad have poured munitions and logistic backing in support of first one and
then another Afghan faction. Quite separately during the past seven years,
between 50-60,000 young Pakistani militants have gone to fight in Afghanistan.
Many have died there never to return, many have participated in the worst ethnic
and sectarian massacres that have taken place in Afghanistan’s history.
Pakistani interference has contributed to the enormous human suffering in
Afghanistan. Pakistani munitions have helped destroy Afghan cities and villages
and given the justification for other neighbouring countries to do the same. I
ask you here today, with such policies have we embraced the Afghan people or
have we created more hatred for ourselves and tension in the region. As
Afghanistan’s largest neighbour, should Pakistan have a policy and a role as a
peace maker by treating all Afghan ethnic groups equally or should we continue
to take sides in their war ?
Today Afghanistan is utterly
destroyed, there is no functioning state, the humanitarian crisis there is the
gravest in the world, the country is the center for the export of Islamic
extemism across the region, terrorism, heroin and weapons. The reason is not the
fault of the poor Afghan people, but the ambitions of a handful of ambitious
warlords and the continued interference of outside powers who fuel this war. I
can safely tell you, cut the supplies of military equipment to all sides and the
war machines will dry up within months.
What has been the result of these
policies for Pakistan’s internal dynamics. In the 1980s we suffered from the
spread of what was then called ‘’the kalashnikov culture’’. Today I do
not need to tell you that the situation is much worse. For the past ten years
every single ministry in Islamabad, every single domestic policy programme, even
our desperately needed economic revival are partially being held hostage by our
Afghan policy - whether it is trying to encourage foreign investment, dealing
with the sectarian issue, promoting modern educational programmes or ending our
diplomatic isolation. As citizens don’t we have a right to know how much of
our money is being spent in Afghanistan intervening in a useless war ? We should
also remember that the much talked about process of the ‘’Talibanisation of
Pakistan’’ is not purely an Afghan phenomena. This process started in
Pakistan where some Afghans attended religious schools where they imbibed an
interpretation of Islam that was against the ethos of our founding fathers. I
have shown in my book how we exported this process to Afghanistan and now it is
being re-exported back to us. We should not blame the Afghans for this, we
should blame ourselves and correct our mistakes.
Why are we pursuing such policies
? We are told that we need a friendly regime in Kabul so that we can acquire
‘’strategic depth,’’ counter India in the region, promote Islam – but
what kind of Islam I ask you – and that the whole world is wrong by
criticizing us and we alone are right. I have consistently argued that
stability, progress and self-respect in Pakistan cannot come from pursuing the
chimera of strategic depth in foreign fields. That is first built at home with
modern, progressive policies and a foreign policy aimed at making friends and
creating new markets. We need peace on our borders, democracy, education, jobs
and a rock solid economy to give our people faith in the country. In the 1965
war against India, Iran provided us true strategic depth by allowing our war
planes and ships to use their ports and airbases, but today Iran is bitterly
antagonistic to Pakistan because of our Afghan policy. Today the Central Asian
Republics are busy extraditing all Pakistanis, be they businessmen, traders or
students accusing them – unjustifiably in most cases – of promoting radical
Islam and unrest in their countries. India has now fully jumped into the Afghan
fray by providing military equipment to an opposing Afghan faction. I ask you is
this the way to make friends or create new export markets for our goods or tame
the dangers of sectarianism and religious extremism or promote democracy ?
How can a country like Pakistan
faced with such monumental economic, ethnic, sectarian and political problems
justify its policy of involvement in the war next door? This has only been
possible because of the total silence and acquiescence of Pakistan’s
politicians, the partial silence from civil society and the media and the
insistence of the military in maintaining the status quo while refusing to
consider policy alternatives. These are the kind of issues I have been raising
for the past ten years. What is desperately needed today is courage by all
Pakistanis to question where these policies are taking us and to demand
information and debate of what they mean for us and the future of our children.
I would like to end now, but not
before offering an apology. In my personal and humble capacity I would like to
apologise to the brave Afghan people for the consequences of Pakistan’s recent
policies in Afghanistan. I would like to unconditionally apologize for the
deaths of countless Afghans, which have been caused by Pakistani interference. I
would like to apologize for the part that we have played in the destruction of
your cities, your culture, your traditions and your freedom to choose your own
government. As a small tribute to the Afghan people I would like to return this
award of Rupees 100,000 to the HRCP, with the stipulation that they use it for
the benefit of Afghanistan’s suffering women and children. This award is named
the courage in journalism award. Let me assure you that I am not particularly
courageous. I have just tried to do my job while covering a war, the end of
which I consider as vital to Pakistan’s stability, progress and self respect
in the international community. I hope you and other Pakistanis, in particular
the silent politicians, have the courage to speak out so that we make friends
not enemies beyond our borders and build a truly stable, democratic and
progressive homeland.
Thank you for your patience.