Foreign Correspondent Inside Track On World News By International Syndicated Columnist & Broadcaster Eric Margolis ,,ggddY"""Ybbgg,, ,agd888b,_ "Y8, ___`""Ybga, ,gdP""88888888baa,.""8b "888g, ,dP" ]888888888P' "Y `888Yb, ,dP" ,88888888P" db, "8P""Yb, ,8" ,888888888b, d8888a "8, ,8' d88888888888,88P"' a, `8, ,8' 88888888888888PP" "" `8, d' I88888888888P" `b 8 `8"88P""Y8P' 8 8 Y 8[ _ " 8 8 "Y8d8b "Y a 8 8 `""8d, __ 8 Y, `"8bd888b, ,P `8, ,d8888888baaa ,8' `8, 888888888888' ,8' `8a "8888888888I a8' `Yba `Y8888888P' adP' "Yba `888888P' adY" `"Yba, d8888P" ,adP"' `"Y8baa, ,d888P,ad8P"' ``""YYba8888P""'' DROWNING IN THEIR OWN BLOODY BY Eric Margolis 8 Jan 96 Watching Afghanistan enter its fourth year of brutal civil war fills me with the deepest anguish. After battling and defeating the might of the Soviet Union in a ten-year struggle, at a cost of 1.5 million dead, the fierce Afghans have turned on each other in a conflict that threatens to destabilize Central Asia. I met, befriended and admired many of the current Afghan leaders during the Great Jihad, or holy struggle, against Soviet invaders. Commanders like Burhanuddin Rabbani, Gulbudin Hekmatyar, Sibghatullah Mojadidi, Abdul Sayaff, Hadji Kadir - as fighters and men of character. I went into battle with the mujihadin, shared their sorrows, and savored their final, glorious victory over the Soviet invaders in 1989. Now, my old friends and comrades in arms are killing one another. President Rabbani, and his military chief, Ahmad Shah Masoud, hold the demolished capitol, Kabul. Rabbani refused to step down at the end of his term, as previously agreed, and hand power to Prime Minister Hekmatyar. Rabbani and most of his men are ethnic Tajiks from the northeast, who speak Dari, a Persian dialect. Hekmatyar is the main leader of the fabled Pathans, the world's largest tribal group that straddles the border between southern Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pathans, traditional rulers of Kabul, refused to allow the more sophisticated, but less warlike Tajiks to hold the capitol. Tajiks, backed by ethnic Uzbeks from the northwest, vowed never again to accept Pathan rule. Later, the Uzbek warlord, Gen. Rashid Dostam, backed the Pathan elader, Hekmatyar. Sunni Muslims battled Shia Muslims; local warlords fought for control of the nation's massive opium trade and smuggling routes. For centuries, the ethnic mosaic of Afghanistan had held together under weak kings in Kabul whose power rarely extended beyond city walls. The 1979 Soviet invasion fatally shattered Afghanistan's modus vivendi. Using divide and conquer tactics patterned after British rule in India, the KGB launched a campaign of ethnic destabilization, pitting tribes, clans, religions and ethnic groups against one another. This, plus the endemic bellicosity of the Afghans, and the drug trade, tore the fragile nation apart. Last year, a new group of insurgents appeared out of thin air: Taliban. They were supposedly devout seminary students, mainly Pathan, who had taken up arms to end the war. The fact that these `religious students' were amply equipped with tanks, artillery and fighter-bombers strongly suggested they had been organized and fielded by my old acquaintances at Pakistan's crack intelligence service, ISI, which played a key role in defeating the Soviets in Afghanistan. ISI, had previously backed Hekmatyar, but when he failed to take Kabul, it may have launched Taliban. ISI, however, denies involvement. Today, Taliban has taken about a third of the country and is besieging Kabul from the south. Rabbani is fighting back. So far, 25,000 civilians have died in this ongoing madness. All sides have ruthlessly shelled civilians. Behind the scenes, Afghanistan's hostile neighbors are becoming more involved by the day. Russia secretly supplies its old foe Rabbani with arms and munitions in order to keep the more extreme Islamic forces of Hekmatyar and Taliban at bay. Moscow rightly fears consolidation of Islamic government in Afghanistan would threaten its control over the former Soviet republics, and now quasi-independent, Muslim states, of Central Asia: Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kirghizstan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. The economies and infrastructure of the landlocked Central Asian states remain shackled to Russia. Peace in Afghanistan would reopen the major north-south trade route from Central Asia to the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean: Tashkent-Kabul- Peshawar-Karachi. This would allow the Central Asian states to export their resources through Pakistan rather than through Russia. Russia thus fuels the Afghan war to keep its Central Asian satrapies isolated. Iran, similarly, keeps stirring the Afghan pot to ensure the main north-south trade route remains shut. Tehran wants Central Asian gas, oil and mineral exports to go through its rail and pipelines to the Persian Gulf, rather than through neighboring Pakistan. In another bloody sideshow, Saudi Arabia and Iran continue a proxy war through their factions in Afghanistan. India, which backed the defunct communist regime in Kabul, supplies arms, munitions, spare parts, pilots and technicians to the Rabbani regime. India's aim is to thwart Pakistani influence over Afghanistan, and hinder Islamic support of the Muslim rebellion in Indian-ruled Kashmir. The still-communist regimes of Central Asia are also backing Rabbani, as well as Afghan Tajiks and Uzbeks, to prevent Islamic forces from threatening them. The KGB and its Central Asian `little brother services' are increasingly involved in the new, Great Game in Afghanistan. Last, but hardly least, CIA continues to back Rabbani, and is trying to block more militant Islamic groups, notably Hekmatyar. He claimed to me that CIA had tried to assassinate him at least three times. The US, prodded by Israel, also continues to strongarm Pakistan and ISI to stop backing Islamic forces. Meanwhile, as warlords and foreign powers fight over the bleeding carcass of Afghanistan, its civilians suffer horribly. No one seems capable of stopping the demented butchery. After 17 years of ceaseless war, the Afghans, one of the world's bravest and most noble people, are drowning in their own blood. copyright Eric Margolis Jan 1996 ************************************************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- To receive Foreign Correspondent via email send a note to Majordomo@lglobal.com with the message in the body: subscribe foreignc To get off the list, send to the same address but write: unsubscribe foreignc Back Issues can be obtained from: ftp.lglobal.com/pub/foreignc For Syndication Information please contact: Email: emargolis@lglobal.com FAX: (416) 960-4803 Smail: Eric Margolis c/o Editorial Department The Toronto Sun 333 King St. East Toronto Ontario Canada M5A 3X5 ---------------------------------------------------------------