Should International Powers Build a National Government for Afghanistan?

By Dr. G. Rauf Roashan

November 16, 2001

Abstract:  The international community is busy working on the establishment of a national government for Afghanistan ignoring the Afghan nation’s right to self determination.  While there is an urgent need for the United Nations peacekeeping force to be established soon and sent in to prevent further loss of life and abuses due to vengeance and a vacuum in leadership, it is strongly suggested that the mechanism for the choice of a government for Afghanistan by the people should be taken seriously.

The miracle has happened and the Taleban are soon to be nothing more than a dark page in the history of Afghanistan.  Only over five weeks ago, the defeat of Taleban was viewed as an indomitable job.  Northern Alliance helped by Russia, Iran, India and some other Afghan neighbors had failed to score any major success against the Taleban forces. Then the attack on the United States by terrorists occurred.  This cowardly attempt at killing of innocent people in the heart of the free world prompted the military intervention by the United States in Afghanistan.  In one of the heaviest bombardments on record, the Taleban suffered greatly.  Their Pakistani supporters too, sold them out to the United States for their own national interests.  They were rewarded lavishly by the lifting of sanctions and extension of much needed financial help for the use of two bases in Pakistan and for diplomatic support uttered by its leaders to the US military undertaking.

This caused the fall of Taleban, which took place at a stupendous pace last week.  Their area of influence in Afghanistan shrank considerably so much so that their stronghold in Kandahar became their only sanctuary and that too may not last long. The latest news talks of a deal between Taleban ruler Mullah Omar and Pashtun tribal leaders who have agreed to allow him safe passage out of Kandahar into the mountains.  This will leave the city to be led by two Pashtun commanders Mullah Naqibullah and Haji Basher the latter belonging to the party of Mawlawi Khalis, who has taken over Jalal Abad from the Taleban administration.

Facts to date are that resistance by Taleban and especially their Pakistani and Arab military personnel continues in Kunduz.  Jalal Abad is liberated and is in the hands of Mawlawi Khalis a former Mujahedin leader.  Kabul awaits the arrival of Burhanuddin Rabbani of the Northern Alliance, Mazar-e-Sharif is under Dostum and Herat is ruled by Ismail Khan.  Gulbuddin Hikmatyar, now in exile in Iran is trying his best to enter Afghanistan via Pakistan, but so far has not received the required visa from the Pakistani authorities.  He has requested permission to enter Afghanistan from Pakistan so that according to him he would play his role in consultations for the establishment of a broad based government in Afghanistan.

Differences of opinion have emerged between the former king’s camp and the Northern Alliance.  The former King is still in Rome and a recent message by him to be read over Radio waves in Afghanistan promises that he will return to Afghanistan, “not today, not tomorrow, but soon.”  Although he is considered an important unifying factor at this juncture of their lives by the Afghans and even by the international community, he seems to play his old slow, indecisive personality awaiting a golden carriage to bring him to the land of his ancestors, a land he left in infamy and a land he wants to return to in glory. His hesitation to take a more active part in the affairs of his country would help the former Mujahidin and warlords consolidate their hold on power.  This at a time that the nation would like a fundamental change especially when it does not have good memories of the days the Mujahidin government was in power.

In the meantime, the United States, French and British troops are in Afghanistan and engaged in direct and indirect fighting with the remnants of Taleban with an objective of uprooting of Alqaida network of Osama the son of Laden.  Osama is still illusive, a needle in the haystack of Afghan mountainous terrain.

On the other hand, the government of Britain has appointed an envoy to Afghanistan to work from the British Embassy in Kabul and help build a government for the Afghans. Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN special envoy, who believes that the Afghans have a right to ask the international community for help in keeping peace in their country and helping them find a diplomatic solution is busy, very busy to find his own way in the maze of Afghan politics that include Afghan elements inside the country and in Rome and Afghanistan’s neighbors as well as regional and world powers, not to mention the United Nations Security Council.  The United States that holds the key to the affairs in Afghanistan at this time, favors a broad-based government representing all ethnic groups in the country.  What has not been worked upon so far, and this column has consistently referred to the gap, is a definition of what is a broad-based, but functioning government in the context of the present conditions in Afghanistan?

But the most important question of all, namely the right of the Afghan nation to determine its own fate is overshadowed by efforts of the Western world and Russia and even India to play a role in the making of an Afghan government.  A national government to be established by an international group! Victors in wars do stranger things.