Organization: The American University - University Computing Center
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 12:36:18 EST
From: <OMARS@auvm.american.edu>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.afghanistan
Subject: A journalist's brief view

From: clarinews@clarinet.com (ANWAR IQBAL)
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 92 14:07:35 PST


Take note that the following is the wire service's "yearender" view; This means
it's open to interpretation. Enjoy.


                          _U_P_I _1_9_9_2 _Y_e_a_r_e_n_d_e_r

        ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (UPI) -- The triumph of the mujahideen guerrillas
and the fall of the Marxist regime in Kabul brought to an end the 13-
year Afghan jihad, or holy war, but did little to end fighting in the
strategic nation.
        As their communist foes quietly disappeared from the scene in April,
the mujahideen fighters turned their guns on each other. And without
communists to fight, some mujahideen groups have found an a new enemy
that can wear the communist tag: the Gleemjam militia.
        Raised by former Afghan President Mohammad Najibullah, the militia is
well known for its fierce fighters. The mujahideen say the Gleemjam
killed thousands of their comrades while the militia still was allied
with Najibullah.
        The Gleemjam, also known as the Dostum militia after its chief, Gen.
Rasheed Dostum, changed sides weeks before the collapse of Najibullah's
communist regime and joined the Jamiyat-i-Islami Party of Interim
President Burhanuddin Rabbani.
        Gulbadin Hekmatyar, leader of the rightist Hezb-i-Islami Party, heads
the campaign against the militia and has launched several rocket attacks
on Kabul to back up his demands.
        He wants all militias and communist troops and officials out of Kabul
in return for stopping his attacks. But some observers say his main
objective is to oust the current mujahideen government and replace it
with one controlled by his party.
        So far he has been able to achieve neither of the objectives. The
Gleemjam milita still is in Kabul and so are other communist forces and
officials.
        The collapse of the Soviet empire also restored Afghanistan's
historic role as the keystone of the area straddling the crossroads to
China, Central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent.
        Because of the continued fighting and the devastation of years of
war, Kabul is not yet in a position to exploit this historic
opportunity. But Afghan officials seem aware of its advantages.
        Afghanistan recently signed a deal with Pakistan, the neighbor that
aided the mujahideen rebels during their long war against the
communists, to build rail links from Kabul to the Pakistani border town
of Landikotal.
        Kabul believes the rail link, if and when completed, would play a key
role in promoting trade between the former Soviet Central Asia republics
and the Indian Subcontinent, greatly benefitting Afghanistan.
        The Central Asian republics, which do not have a seaport, also have
shown interest in building a road to Pakistan's southern port city of
Karachi, which also would pass through Afghanistan.
        Leaving behind the bitter past, the government in Kabul also is
trying to improve relations with Russia. Rabbani has urged Moscow to
occupy the old Soviet embassy in Kabul and provide much-needed oil to
Afghanistan.
        But most of these ambitious plans are subject to peace inside the
country which so far has been elusive.
        A continued power struggle could not only frustrate all such plans
for prosperity but also increase the sufferings of the Afghanis, who
lost over 1.5 million people in the war.
        The Gleemjam militia looks like the strongest armed group inside
Afghanistan, with thousands of battle-hardened fighters in its ranks.
Nothing short of a full-fledged war could oust them from Kabul, and
neither Hekmatyar nor his allies have the resources or the desire to
fight another war at this time.
        The current government also appears to be very much in command and is
putting its hopes on a Grand Consultative Assembly to decide the future
administrative setup for the country.
        Bringing together representatives from all regions, ethnic groups,
mujahideen parties as well as Afghan expatriates, Rabbani hopes to make
it difficult for anyone to reject the decisions of the council.
        At the same time he also has maintained his relations with the
militia and other elements of the former regime, including Najibullah's
military commanders, most of whom have been allowed to retain their old
jobs.
        In maintaining his relations with Dostum and other communist
generals, Rabbani said he was trying to avoid the posible breakup of the
country.
        Dostum and other generals of the former communist regime are mostly
Dari speakers from the north, while the mujahideen leadership is
dominated by the majority Pashtoon ethnic group.
        The northerners more than once have threatened to take a separate
path if they were not given their due share of power.
        Officials in Kabul believe it would not to be difficult for them to
revolt against the central government, possibly with the help of the
newly independent Central Asia republics of the former Soviet Union,
populated by the same ethnic Tajiks and Uzbaks as in northern
Afghanistan.
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