Author: Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri
Publication: The Daily Excelsior
Date: April 5, 2002
When a group of former Taliban officials
decided to rerevive an Afghan political party, they held a news conference
in Islamabad on 12 December. Their choice of a venue for the December announcement
highlighted the presence of many ex-Taliban leaders who not only had sought
refuge in Pakistan but also intended to resume political activities. To
many analysts, the group's public presence in Pakistan understood this
country's long history of support for the Taliban and Islamabad's uneasiness
about the makeup of the new Afghan Government.
A number of top Taliban officials
dissociated themselves from the movement in December, after the fall of
the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, the last Taliban stronghold. The
disidents quickly announced that they planned to revive an old political
party called Jamiat Khudamul Furgan, or Association of the servants of
the Quran. The party had merged with the Taliban after the latter swept
into power in 1996.
The defectors, including three ex-Taliban
deputy ministers and several top diplomats, describe themselves as moderates
and say they support the United Nations-led peace process in Afghanistan
and the Government of interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai. But many in
Pakistan and in the new Afghan Government are highly sceptical of the defectors,
because they are operating out of Pakistan, which was the Taliban's Prime
backer until the 11 September terrorist attacks on the United States.
"If they want to form a new party,
they should do it on Afghan soil, not in Pakistan," said Ahmed Rashid,
a Pakistani author and expert on the Taliban. "There is a whole grid of
support for them here in Pakistan, but the question is: do they have support
in Afghanistan?
"It's extremely dangerous to keep
a second-tier level of Taliban leaders on Pakistani soil, who could at
some point could be reactivated and cause serious problems for Pakistan
and Afghanistan," Rashid said.
American officials say the group
could pose a serious challenge to Karzai's Government, which assumed power
in Kabul on 22 December and is struggling to exert its influence on parts
of the country in its six-month mandate. "The new Government is very wary
of them, and I doubt that it will see them as anything other than Taliban,"
said a US diplomat.
Leaders of the group said they support
Karzai and want a voice in a future Afghan Government which will be determined
by a loya jirga, or grand council of tribal elders and political figures.
The Pushtuns, composing 40 per cent of the country's 22 mn people, formed
the core support for the Taliban. "This is not an attempt to revive the
Taliban," said Abdul Hakeem Mujahid, he Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan
and one of the party's executive committee members. "We support Karzai
but we want to have a say in the new Government and to represent the interests
of Pushtuns."
At the news conference announcing
the party's revival, leaders criticised the Bonn conference that led to
the formation of the interim Government. Although they did not single out
Karzai, who is a Pushtun, they argued that ethnic Taziks and Uzbeks-minority
groups that joined the victorious Northern Alliance - are over-represented
in the new administration. "This cannot be allowed to continue," they warned.
This warning echoed Pakistan's concerns about the new Afghan Government.
Since 7 October, Pakistan! Leaders have been arguing that in any new Government
in 'Afghanistan the Pushtuns must play the dominant role. Pakistani officials
were also highly auspicious of the Northern Alliance, which received military
assistance from India - Pakistan arch rival.
Founded in 1966, Jamiat Khudamul
Furqan was one of the first Islamic movement in Afghanistan which changed
its name - Taliban - after entering into alliance with other groups during
the guerrilla war against the Soviet Union during the 1980s. Among the
party top leadership, only Ahmad Amin Mujadadi, an Islamic cleric, who
was in Pakistan since the 1980s, was not associated with the Taliban. Mujadadi,
who is the president of the group formed in December, acknowledged the
historical links of the new party to the Taliban. "Most of the members
of our party are former Taliban and many more are in close contact with
us."
The group's other leaders include
former Taliban deputy information minister Abdul Refrrani, deputy education
minister Arsala Rahmani, ex-deputy minister of refuge rehabilitation Rahman
Wahid Yar, ex-deputy chief justice Abdul Sattar Siddique and former ambassador
to Saudi Arabia 'Habibullah Fawzi.
"The group will have a difficult
time shedding its association with the Taliban. In fact, the group is Taliban
in a new name. The World will never accept any group which consists of
former Taliban officials. No matter how moderate views it professes, it
is going to be guilty by association," says a professor of strategic studies
at Quaid-I-Azam University in Islamabad.
Every member of the new group knows
that 'Taliban, is now a dirty word and this word must be eschewed in order
to fulfil their aim to recapture power in Afghanistan. It is no longer
a secret that after the decision of the Bonn conference, intensive negotiations
are under way between the country's new Prime Minister Hamid Karzai and
the spiritual leader of the Taliban Mullah Muhammed Omar who believes that
he is the man chosen to be Afghanistan's supreme leader. What is at issue
between their negotiations are not known.
"I have been in discussions with
very senior, the senior-most Taliban officials," said Karzai in a recent
satellite telephone call. "I have received a message from Mullah Omar asking
for amnesty for himself and some senior Taliban officials."
A senior Taliban official who is
now in Peshwar is acting as an intermediary between Karzai and Omar. "I'm
working on the peaceful transfer of power after the term of the six-month
interim Government is over. I hope the transfer of power will be peaceful."
Such optimism, however, is very unlikely, given frequently irreconcilable
personal, tribal and religious interests. But the Taliban leaders, under
the cover of a new name, is determined to return to power in Afghanistan.
Although Karzai is willing to provide
amnesty for regular Taliban fighters that would let them return to their
homes, the Bush Administration has expressed strong opposition to any deal
which would permit any follower of Omar or bin Laden to walk free. In such
a fluid and chaotic situation, the future of Afghanistan is far from certain.
