 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 25 Nov. - 1 Dec. 1999 Issue No. 457 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
|
||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 25 Nov. - 1 Dec. 1999 Issue No. 457
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
|
||
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters An Afghan tragedy
By Sameh NaguibLast week the United Nations imposed sanctions on Afghanistan for refusing to hand over Osama Bin Laden, who is accused of having played a role in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
The sanctions include the freezing of the Taliban government's overseas bank accounts and a ban on international flights by the state airline Ariana. The aim is to put pressure on the Taliban to hand Bin Laden over to the US, or a third country, to stand trial on charges of terrorism.
The US, which imposed its own sanctions on the Taliban a year ago, has long been pushing for similar action from the UN. Within hours of implementation, thousands of protesters were on the streets of Kabul shouting "death to America" and "long live Osama", demanding the lifting of the sanctions and accusing the UN of being a "puppet to the United States".
This latest blow will only aggravate the state of the already shattered Afghan economy. Food prices have begun to climb steeply in Kabul, and last week the Afghan currency, the Afghani, plummeted from 43,000 to the dollar to 51,000. The price of one kilogram of flour meanwhile soared from around $1.50 to $3.50 in the last two weeks.
The sanctions also seem certain to confirm the country's economic dependence on opium. Afghanistan is already the second-largest opium producer in the world, and is responsible for more than one-third of the world's combined opium and heroin output.
Taliban leaders urged the 55-member Organisation of Islamic Conference to use its influence to break what they called its "silence over America's oppressive sanctions". Bin Laden was reported to have sent a letter to the leader of the Taliban, Mullah Mohamed Omar, offering to leave the country. His only condition was that his destination was kept secret. The Mullah in return offered to help Bin Laden if he insisted on leaving, but also promised to protect him if he preferred to stay. A spokesman for the Mullah stated that "it is a matter of life and death for us to look after him. We will never force Osama to leave."
Two days before the sanctions were imposed, six rockets were fired at the US embassy and UN offices in Islamabad, Pakistan. The rockets, launched from three vehicles in less than five minutes, failed to hit their intended targets. US officials stated that the attacks were probably linked to the UN sanctions against Afghanistan. Both Bin Laden and Mohamed Omar have issued statements denying any involvement in the attacks.
Bin Laden had been indicted by a federal grand jury in the US for his role in the bomb attacks that destroyed two US embassies in East Africa last year. The FBI has put a price of five million dollars on his head. In August 1998 the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were rocked by almost simultaneous blasts, killing over 200 people. The US retaliated by firing Tomahawk missiles at Bin Laden's alleged Al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan.
The Afghan people have experienced little besides war, poverty and devastation in their recent history. Since the Russian occupation ended in 1989, leaving one million Afghans dead, things have not improved. The Russian-backed government of Najibullah was overthrown in 1992, and an interim Islamic government installed, based on an alliance of seven Mujahideen factions. Before long, the alliance had broken down, giving way instead to a devastating civil war. The most serious fighting was that between Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and President Burhanuddin Rabbani, which resulted in the near total destruction of Kabul, Afghanistan's capital.
By 1994, as rival warlords competed for power creating a state of chaos throughout the country, the Taliban movement was sweeping through southern Afghanistan. The people offered little resistance, having grown tired of the never-ending war, corruption and terror that ceaselessly ravaged their country. By September 1996 the Taliban were in control of most of Afghanistan, and by 1998 90 per cent of the country had fallen into their hands. The remaining 10 per cent, centred on the Panjshir valley in the north of the country, is still defended by forces loyal to Ahmed Shah Massoud, former defence minister in the deposed Rabbani government.
The Taliban movement was founded in Pakistan. Most of its members were educated and trained in the Pakistani refugee camps set up during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. Islamabad actively supported the movement, which it thought could act as a strategic ally in its ongoing conflict with India, as well as stabilising the situation to the north. During the struggle against Russian occupation, the movement was initially financed by the US. Later it received aid from Saudi Arabia, which feared the growing Iranian influence over the Rabbani government.
There were economic interests involved as well. Executives of the American oil company UNOCAL had begun collaborating with Saudi Arabia to construct a major gas and oil pipeline from Central Asia through Afghanistan to Pakistan. This project had the full support of the US government, which saw it as a way to isolate Iran, by directing the main supply route to the east. For this plan to succeed, the Taliban would have to take over Afghanistan and bring stability to the region.
Another factor in the early US support for the Taliban movement was the belief that they would be able to eradicate the many so-called "terrorist" camps run by former fighters against the Russian occupation who had come from all over the Arab and Islamic world, and who now wished to direct their activities towards their home countries. And it was over this issue that the Taliban fell out with their American patrons. The refusal to hand Bin Laden over thus marks the final collapse of US-Taliban relations.
That is why the US now comes to be punishing twenty million Afghans for the policies of the Taliban army, which the US helped create and finance. Millions of people will be deprived of medicine and food, the production and smuggling of opium will become the only source of income and civil war will ravage the country yet again. At least in that minimal sense, US foreign policy has proven it is able to be consistent.
