IS IT FAIR . .TO BEAT UP A FALLEN FRIEND?

by: Mohammad Khalid Roashan

We have just heard that Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi the UN special representative for Afghanistan is calling it quits saying that his two years of efforts to bring peace to Afghanistan has produced no result. According to him, as long as Afghanistan's neighbors are supplying the two warring parties with all kinds of articles of warfare, there is no hope for peace.

Mr. Brahimi mentioned Pakistan and Iran as the main supporters of the two groups of Afghans that are killing each other and destroying, however gradually, their entire country. He decided not to mention Russia and Tajikistan and others who also willingly and purposefully supply arms of all kinds to the Northern Alliance.

Just a few days ago, a spokesman of the Northern Alliance (NA) told some reporters that some 60,000 refugees from Kohdaman - just north of Kabul-are faced with dire hunger in the Panjsher Valley. His aim was to attract some attention for aid givers for the Panjsheris. The rest of the world does not know it, but the Panjsher Valley is barely able to support the people who traditionally live there. People of the Kohdaman region know it perfectly and would not take refuge in Panjsher unless they were assured of enough food supplies for some considerable time. And who would encourage so many refugees, but the forces of the "Lion of Panjsher" in the hope of getting more food supplies from the outside world by such a ploy. This writer believes that very few people, if any, have gone to Panjsher in order to be outside the line of fire of both warring sides. But it is possible that the Panjsheris, like the rest of the people of Afghanistan are facing shortages of food commodities in the months ahead. And if the war is not ended by a realistic study of the situation by all sides, there may come about many deaths by hunger, as well as by disease in all of Afghanistan and not only in Panjsher.

On the other hand, it has been reported recently that wheat flour, is in very short supply in Kabul, and indeed in the rest of the country, this year. The Taliban expected to solve this problem by importing wheat flour from Pakistan in preparation for the winter season which is now upon the Afghans. The new Military government of Pakistan has been reported to have blocked the export of this commodity and many other foods to Afghanistan. This action will surely trouble all sides of the Afghan war, especially the poor residents of cities who have always looked toward the government in times of food shortages. Someone said the other day that recently prices of most food items, especially wheat and wheat flour have sky-rocketed in Kabul. It will become more and more expensive as the months of winter continue.

Reports have reached some Afghan families in the US that Pakistani police inspectors have begun to get as much cash as they can from Afghan nationals upon arrival at the Karachi and even Islamabad airports for a visit with some family members who are still in Pakistan. They ask the new arrivals for an inspection of their passports and when they get it, they tell them to come back for their passports in 24 to 72 hours. Those who do so, may or may not get their travel documents back. The police will refuse to remember they got them in the first place. Those who pay bribes, will have no problem in recovering their documents. This has now reached a point that new arrivals, upon demand to hand in their passports, enclose American dollars in hundred dollar bills prior to handing them over and they in return get their passports stamped on the spot and returned to them. It is to wondered if the new military regime in Pakistan is aware of this business and if it is doing something about stopping this kind of highway robbery.

To top it all, now the US and the UN are attempting to impose sanctions of all kinds on Taliban under the threat of their handing Osama ben Ladin over to them for trial or throwing him out of Afghanistan to fend for himself as best he can. I have already mentioned in another article that the Taliban may not deliver him into anybody's hands. The question to ask the US and the UN is if they consider it just and fair to hurt the entire Afghan nation for one person's alleged intransigence especially when that person is Not An Afghan but a foreign refugee.

America itself was created by people who left their homelands because of problems beyond their abilities and power to bear them. In a way, they took refuge in America where they and millions more like them have now developed the greatest democracy in the world. Right now there are tens of thousands of Afghans who are living lives of refugees in the US. There are also some Afghans who have productive jobs and who are working hard in an effort to conduct a mutually profitable life within the social environment that they have chosen as their home away from home and among friends, if not fellow citizens. Would the US throw all refugees out of its territory? Would the US not prosecute wrongdoers in accordance with the laws of the land? Should the US object to the people of other countries for giving refuge to foreigners? And if, and when, a refugee commits a crime, does something which is wrong in the eye of, and in accordance with the laws of the host country, should it not be within the right of the host country to prosecute the wrongdoer? Why should such a host country be threatened with aerial bombardment and sanctions?

If there is ground for a case - and there may very well be - against Ben Ladin, then is it not possible that he may be prosecuted in Afghanistan where he now resides, or even, under Islamic law, in a third country which the Taliban seem to have proposed ?

This writer has himself an axe to grind with the Taliban. They have crushed the women's emancipation in Afghanistan. They have not only stopped girls' education throughout the areas they control, but they have also cut short boys and young men's education everywhere. Afghan women doctors, teachers, university professors, civil workers and women in the labor force have all been barred from performing their duties for which they had been trained and who had served their country and countrymen for scores of years. These are the strongest reasons for Taliban's condemnation. I know of no Afghan, whether in exile anywhere in the world, or even at home in their almost totally destroyed land, who will not want them criticized by any legitimate authority and who will not oppose harsh treatment of them until Taliban are forced to give up these cruel and inhumane acts.

The UN and the US would do very well to observe the codes of ethics, more' s and special cultural characteristics of different peoples. Taliban are a main body of the Afghan nation and they value their traditions. Giving shelter to a Muslim brother who has sought refuge among them is one of their traditions. Please do not allow anyone to destroy positive characteristics of the Afghans and, in so doing, further damage the almost irrevocable destruction brought upon them by many years of foreign and domestic wars. Instead, please help the Afghans rebuild their country from the foundation up and give them a chance to proudly look upon Afghanistan as their beloved land, the land of their ancestors, and, once again, a flourishing, peaceful member of the family of nations.