20 - 26 September 2001
Issue No.552
|
Al-Ahram Weekly Online 20 - 26 September 2001 Issue No.552 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
An Afghan scene
In Afghanistan, few are sure who will turn against whom, and when. But the result is usually the same: scores of dead. Yehia Ghanem writes
The longest day of my life came when I witnessed the vicious battle of the Panjshir Valley in the province of Kabul, in 1998. On that day, I was with a unit of the ruling Taliban movement's militia, right during their vicious war with Afghanistan's Northern Alliance forces. The Northern Alliance was made up of Afghan Tajik forces, led by the late legendary leader Ahmed Shah Masoud; the Afghan Uzbek forces, led by General Abdel--Rashid Dustom; and the Hazara forces of the Afghan Shi'a led by Karim Khalili.
The fighting took place on the low-slung slopes of the Hindu Kush, right where the mountain range that dissects Afghanistan from North to South dives almost to the plains. At first, came a bombardment with heavy artillery and lighter weapons; then the lines of confrontation drew so close to each other that the fighting turned hand-to-hand, with men wrestling men, clutching daggers and knives.
I crouched on the second floor of a large, wrecked house, a little behind the fighting and towards the capital Kabul. From there, I could easily watch the battle unfold. Farid, my young Taliban escort, squatted beside me. He commented on the unfolding events as matter-of-factly as if we were watching a soccer game. The fighting intensified for four straight hours, before gradually easing off. Orders had been given to the Northern Alliance forces to withdraw, and they raced behind the giant mountains that loom over the foothills for which the battles were fought.
The Taliban commander allowed us to descend to the battlegrounds. All around us was the unsightly theatre of death. Dozens of corpses lay sprawled among the tall trees that covered the hills. Who these bodies fought for before they became so much carrion was barely discernible. The only distinguishing marks were the different head coverings. Otherwise, the dead looked pretty much alike. I had seen dead men before: in wars in Bosnia, Croatia and Yemen. But what was different here was the freshness of the corpses. Moments before those same, twisted bags of meat had been bellowing the words: "Allahu Akbar!" God is great.
After an uneasy tour of the bodies and a short conversation with some Northern Alliance fighters who had been taken captive, the Taliban commander told me that four of those captured were Iranians fighting for the Afghan Shi'a Hazara forces. The cease-fire did not, naturally, end the fighting. It continues to this day.
I asked Farid, "How could these men fight each other so viciously when they cry out the same two words: Allahu Akbar?" Farid's face went suddenly dreamy, so out of place among the horrors we had just witnessed. Then he answered in perfect Arabic: "It is not enough to learn the history and geography of Afghanistan well, you must live in the Afghani society amidst all its different ethnic groups and cultures, before and after Islam, to find the answer."
In Afghanistan, the largest single ethnic group is the Pashtun, whose people represent 43 per cent of the population. Next comes the Tajik, who represent 11 per cent, the Uzbek at seven per cent, the Hazara Shi'a at four per cent, and the Turkoman at three. The rest are a mix of Tartars and smaller ethnic groups.
These many groups live in desolate isolation; from the world and from each other. But that has not always led to divisiveness. Afghanistan's mountainous terrain has kept the various ethnic groups apart, which has led over thousands of years to a strong culture of suspicion. But Mohamed Jailani, son of Jailani the elder, an Afghan political and spiritual leader, told Al-Ahram Weekly that this deep mistrust quickly dissipates when faced with a foreign threat, a quality the Soviets found to their cost. Though as soon as the Russian army was routed, the Afghan factions resumed fighting amongst themselves.
Another foreign power, the United States, hopes that Afghan divisiveness will persist long enough for it to enlist Afghanistan's Northern Alliance in a fight against the Taliban. The example of the Red army stands as a costly warning of mixing in Afghan politics.
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page