Thursday, the 18th day of April 2002, Mohammad Zahir Shah, the former King of Afghanistan is due to end his exile of 29 years in Italy and returns to Kabul, his capital of 40 years. Hamed Kerzai, the current leader of the interim government, will be accompanying him.

May they have a triumphant and peaceful arrival !

Great measures have been taken to protect him from harm by elements which have expressed opposition to the former King's return in the past. The most outspoken person in this respect has been Mr. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of a group of Mujahedeen calling themselves Hezb -e-Islami (Islamic Party). Mr. Hekmatyar was sheltered by the Iranian government for more than two years. When recently that government pronounced him persona non grate, he apparently went to Pakistan, his old time protectors and helpers. It is said that he now is somewhere in the Independent Tribal Zone, between Afghanistan and Pakistan. About ten days ago the Kerzai government apparently took some two hundred people prisoners as elements who were going to attack both the former King upon his arrival and Hamed Kerzai. It was also said that the group had been ordered to carry out their plan by Mr. Hekmatyar.

In the past, members of the Jamiat-e-Islami, followers of Burhan Uddin Rabbani, were also known as opposing the return of the former King to Afghanistan in any capacity. However, right now there are more members of the Jamiat party in the Cabinet of Hamed Kerzai than the other ethnic groups. Thus, maybe the Jamiat followers will not attempt to harm the former King when he lands in Kabul.

The Afghan nation as a whole, want him back because, in contrast to the unfortunate human slaughter and destruction wrought by the Afghan communists, the Russians, the few self-aggrandizing Mujahedeen leaders, and the Taliban, his rule was quite peaceful. Now that he is on his way to his home country and his nation, there certainly is a sense of jubilation wherever Afghans hear about it.

The main purpose of the former Afghan Monarch's return home is the part that he is expected to play in the reunification of the diverse elements in the nation that the propaganda of the former Soviet Union had stirred up for the country's breakdown into many "nationalities".

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Afghanistan, like many other countries, has had a history of a country composed of several tribal elements such as Pushtoons, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Nooristanis, Hazaras and others. These elements have lived unified as one Afghan nation for hundreds of years to say the least. And they would have continued to remain so, if the enemies of Afghanistan had not interfered and given rise to the idea that each tribe was actually a nation in itself and Afghanistan was a country of many nations under kings, and it was time that each nation be the governor of its destiny like the defunct Social Republics of the former Soviet Union. If Afghanistan had survived for centuries as one nation, why could it not continue to do so in the twenty first century also?

Now that the Soviet Union and its propaganda is no more, and there is a chance to begin to bring back a constitutional democracy, it is high time that the returning former King undertake to recreate the one nation of Afghans within the boundaries of the country known as Afghanistan. Again, when the Loya Jarga --grand assembly-- is convened and a new constitution for Afghanistan is drafted and passed by the Loya Jarga, there will come about a government, which will smooth the way for a general and democratic election throughout Afghanistan and select the form of government acceptable to all elements in the nation. The former King has at one time stated that if the Loya Jarga wants him to lead the nation, he will cooperate, but he is not there to become a King or a Head of State on his own accord.

Another hurdle that the former King may have to surmount in the process of reunification, is various war lords who know themselves as the Ameers of the enclaves they think they now control. A few have already accepted the rule of the interim Government in Kabul. Would all of them give up their grasped titles in favor of the Government in the capital of Afghanistan? How would the former King coax them to accept the central government rule without a fight? This could be a major problem and we hope the entire nation demands and gets what a unified Afghanistan has to be: The democratic rule of the entire country from the one capital, Kabul.

We welcome the former King, and wish him success in his attempts to unify the country and the nation under one central government. We wish the world at large to help in the reconstruction of what the last quarter century has destroyed in Afghanistan's infrastructure and make it possible for the nation to start a new, peaceful and prosperous life that it deserves. We strongly call upon President Bush and the American people to fulfill their promise to rebuild Afghanistan as the Americans rebuilt Germany after the War. 04/18/2002