It was déjà vu all over again. A few weeks ago the Northern Alliance captured Kabul in the wake the Taliban’s hurried retreat from the city. Some reporters on the scene were so moved by the cheering crowds that they declared that the city had been liberated.
The reporters may be forgiven for their misplaced optimism on the rapidly unfolding events in Afghanistan. The spectacle of Northern Alliance tanks and soldiers entering the city was but a single snapshot in a long and often contradictory nature of things in Afghanistan. The same crowds had also welcomed the arrival of the Taliban five years ago. In the early nineties Kabul was ruled by the same elements that now constitute Northern Alliance. They had come to power in a broad-based government agreed upon by all the warring factions. All of them had sworn on the Qur’an to uphold the agreement.
For the next three years they set aside the Holy Book and took on each other. The city as well as the country was split in tiny fiefdoms ruled by warlords, petty chieftains and drug barons. In a twist of irony the same people who had defeated a superpower were now hell bent at destroying each other and their impoverished country in the process. Where were the Taliban at that time? They were tending to their mosques and their madrassas, the religious schools. They rose to get the country rid of the tyranny of the Mujahideen and in time imposed a repressive and brutal regime on the hapless people. All in the name of Islam.
There were several reasons why the Northern Alliance entered Kabul. They wanted to settle some scores by executing some Taliban, Pakistani and Arab fighters which they did but not to the level they had done a week earlier on entering the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif. In tribal warfare, feuds and grudges are settled not in a court of law or according to the rules of engagement, but in the public square. By controlling Kabul they also wanted an upper hand in dictating the terms of participation of other ethnic groups, particularly the Pushtun tribes, in the formation of a new government. In this regard they invited all factions, excluding the Taliban, to come to Kabul for talks. The UN saw the gimmick but did not buy it. Instead it forced the Northern Alliance to agree to such a meeting outside Afghanistan. The representatives of various factions have met in Bonn and have come up with an interim plan for six months. Already the predictable is happening. General Abdur Rashid Dostum, the wily Tajik warlord from Mazar-e-Sharif is not happy with the agreement and thus has refused to endorse it.
The Pushtun tribes, constituting 40% of the population, were at a distinct disadvantage going into the Bonn talks but have emerged well represented in the proposed interim government. Unlike the Northern Alliance who despite their own ethnic tensions, do have a coherent leadership, the Pushtuns did not have any leader of stature to speak for them. Abdul Haq, a promising Pushtun leader, was executed by the Taliban a few weeks ago. At this time Hamid Karzai, a Pushtun leader from the south of the country, has been appointed the interim prime minister. Pir Gilani, another Pushtun leader favored by Pakistan, in not in the cabinet but his western educated daughter will have a role. These are new faces of Pushtun leaders and they, unlike the Taliban, do have tribal support.
The Taliban arose from the mosques and madrassas and despite being Pushtuns did not represent the hierarchy of the Pushtun tribes. Under pressure from the UN, the conference also agreed to appoint a few women in the interim government. It is a refreshing departure from the past where women played little or no role in public life. The interim agreement in Bonn has set a timeframe for Afghanistan’s future. That is a good beginning. But before the euphoria of the fall of the Taliban get us all giddy, we must understand that Afghanistan has not been liberated. Instead it has entered in another unpredictable phase in its long and tortured history.
Dr. Hussain’s new book ‘The Taliban and Beyond - A Close Look at the Afghan Nightmare’ is scheduled for release this month by BWD Publishers.