From: imnet@u.washington.edu (The Islamic Movement Network)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: ISLAMIC WORLD NEWS (18th)
Date: 19 Aug 92 11:11:29 GMT
Article-I.D.: life.26758
Reply-To: imnet@u.washington.edu (The Islamic Movement Network)
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Originator: gwydion@wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu

****************************************************************************
*   IN THIS ISSUE:                                                         *
*                 - NEWS UPDATE (Afghanistan, Kashmir, Bosnia)             *
*                 - SOMALIA;  VICTIMS OF POLITICS                          *
*                                       By Zafar Bangash                   *
*                 - READERS' COMMENTS                                      *
*                 - ANNOUNCEMENTS                                          *
****************************************************************************
************************** NEWS UPDATE:
AFGHANISTAN
Fighting continues in Kabul, the Afghan capital, as attitudes harden
on both sides of the divide.
On August 15, a spokesman for the interim government headed by
professor Burhanuddin Rabbani said that all members of the Hizb-e Islami,
the group led by Gulbuddin Hikmatyar, have been expelled from the
government.
Abdul Sabour Farid, prime minister in the interim government and a
member of the Hizb-e Islami, had already left Kabul on August 7 for
Pakistan. Later he visited Iran.
Meanwhile, the interim president called an emergency meeting of the
Leadership council to consider the challenge from Hikmatyar's forces
in the south of the capital.
Accusations from both sides have also become strident. Kabul Radio quoted
president Rabbani as calling Hikmatyar "the enemy" and vowed to
crush him. Hikmatyar on his part responded that he would continue
his attacks until the militias headed by general Abdul Rashid Dostam
are driven out of Kabul.
This appears increasingly unlikely but the people of the city have had
to pay a heavy price.
Since the road to Pakistan is controlled by Hikmatyar's forces, civilians
fleeing the fighting have had to go north or seek refuge in the 
Pol-i Charki prison 20 miles south of Kabul.
On August 16, prime minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan also condemned
Hikmatyar's attacks and said that Pakistan was suspending food aid to
Afghanistan because the flow was being controlled by the Hizb-e Islami
since it passed throught their territory.
Hundreds of people have been killed since the latest round of fighting
flared up on August 10 in and around Kabul. Thousands of others have been
injured.

OCCUPIED KASHMIR
A rocket slammed into the Bakhshi Stadium where the Indian occupation
forces were holding an independence day parade in Srinagar, the Kashmiri
capital, on August 15.
While the rocket missed the soldiers, Garesh Saxena, the Hindu governor of
the Muslim State, had to abandon the flag-raising ceremony.
According to reports from Srinagar, at least 17 people were killed in
various parts of the State on August 15.
Muslims in Kashmir have historically celebrated Pakistan's independence
day on August 14 and raised black flags the following day, in protest over
India's independence day.
This year was no exception despite the fact that the Indian occupation
forces had imposed a curfew and intensified house to house searches in
an attempt to frustrate the Kashmiris' celebration of Pakistan
independence day on August 14.
Instead, the following day, the mujahideen called for a complete shut down
of the city and the State in protest over the continued presence of the
Indian occupation forces.
The August 15 call by the freedom fighters was extremely successful.
News has also emerged from Srinagar that RAW, the Indian intelligence
agency, is now working in close tandem with MOSSAD, the Israeli secret
service, to try to crush the uprising in Kashmir.
The zionists in Palestine and the Hindus in Kashmir face a similar problem.
Both are alien occupiers brutalizing an indigenous population. Both are
confronted by a determined resistance from the people.
The zionists' collaboration with the Hindus first came to light in
June 1991 when a number of Mossad agents were captured by the 
mujahideen in Srinagar. In the skirmishes, one mujahid was martyred. A zionist
agent was also killed. Another was seriously injured.
Had the skirmishes not taken place, the matter may have been hushed
up.
At that time, India and Israel had no diplomatic relations so the presence
of the Israelis even if disguised as tourists, aroused immediate suspicions.
Since then, the Israeli involvement has increased manifold.

BOSNIA-HERCEGOVINA
Only the Serbs are capable of such barbaric acts: two mortars struck the
Europa Hotel in downtown Sarajevo, the besiege Bosnian capital, on
August 17. The mortars struck just before dusk when thousands of
refugees herded into the hotel, were getting ready for the
night.
The refugees were old men and women and children. They have been sheltered
in the hotel to keep them out of harm's way. Yet the Serbs found them
there too.
That the attack was a deliberate act was confirmed by the fact that
two hours later, when the fire brigade was busy putting out the
fire, the Serbs fired more mortar rounds.
The screaming civilians fleeing from the hotel were also hit by
sniper fire.
The Serbs, who have now finessed the techniques employed by the Nazis,
are proving worthy successors of the earlier European monsters.
The indifference of the rest of the world, however, is making the
Serbs even bolder in their criminal activities.
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EVENT SCAN ###############################################################
                    SOMALIA; VICTIMS OF POLITICS
By Zafar Bangash

  Acording to Muhammad Sahnun, UN special representative to Somalia, 5,000
people die of starvation and war every day while a total of 3.5 million
others are at immediate risk in Somalia.
One third of the country's population - estimated at between 4.5 to 6
million - are likely to die in the next six months, unless more food
is imported, according to Red Cross officials.
Although the international media has focused attention on Mogadishu, which
is by far the worst scene of the tragedy, thousands of people are being
massacred daily by the effects of war and famine throughout the south.
In Baidoa, a remote bush town about 250 kilometres northwest of
Mogadishu, 7,000 people died of hunger in June alone, as confirmed by
Red Cross figures.
Like others in Mogadishu, Baidao's often shifting population of
40,000 are forced to eat grass and, some say, corpses to stay alive. Even
when meals are provided at outdoor kitchens by non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), hundreds of people, too weak to eat, drop dead
in queues.
Throughout Somalia, there are hundreds of thousands of displaced people
who have escaped fighting and bandits to inaccessible areas only to
die of starvation.
They do not even have the prospect of receiving meagre meals periodically
provided by the NGOs. especially the Red Cross.
In Mogadishu, two warlords, general Muhammad Farah Aideed and the
self-appointed president, Ali Mahdi, both belonging to the same
Hawiyeh clan, have reduced the city to rubble in a bloody confrontation
that makes no clan or national sense.
Ali Mahdi and his Abgal sub-clan believe that Mogadishu is their
city because of their numerical strength there, while Aideed maintains
that he was the one who brought Barre's expulsion from
Mogadishu.
Aideed has a point. As the chairman and military commander of the
United Somali congress (USC), which represents the whole of the
Hawiyeh clan, colonel Aideed was instrumental in ousting the 80-year-old
former dictator -- first from Mogadishu in January and then out of the
country into Kenya. 
He also has the support of the Rahanweign clans and a section of the
Ogaden clan which are concentrated in the areas south of Mogadishu. The
USC, the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), supported by the Ogaden, and
the Southern Somali National Movement (SSNM), backed by the Rahanweign,
formed the Somali Liberation Army, which was responsible for finally
driving Siyad Barre and his allies out of the country.
Ali Mahdi can claim no such credit. While Aideed was pursuing Barre
and his clan stronghold last January, some former civilian leaders and
senior civil servants backed by Italy met in Mogadishu and appointed
Ali Mahdi interim president of Somalia.
Omar Arteh Ghalib, an Issak from Somaliland and Barre's last prime
minister, was re-appointed premier.
Neither Ali Mahdi, a hotelier who had prospered under Barre, nor Arteh,
contributed to the overthrow of the ex-dictator. The appointment of
a corrupt and obscure hotelier, a man whose clan has declared a separate
republic to lead the post-Barre re-construction era, was irresponsible,
a farce and a virtual invitation to trouble.
Despite this, a conference convened in Jibouti in May and July 1991,
reconfirmed Ali Mahdi as interim president and Arteh as his prime minister.
Former civilian politicians and Somali exiles were invited to attend
but the actual guerrilla groups who had been fighting Barre did not
attend.
The Jibouti conference had no political legitimacy as the so-called
Somali leaders had no influence on events in the war-torn country.
However, it had the support of Italy, Egypt and Jibouti, and was
financed by Saudi Arabia.
Egypt influenced the Organization of African Unity and the Arab League
to back the Jibouti conference while Saudi Arabia manoeuvred the
Organization of Islamic Conference to do the same.
The United Nations under the secretary-general Boutros-Boutros Ghali,
naturally backed it.
After the conference, the delegates visited king Fahd in Jeddah who
reportedly paid 8,000 Saudi riyals to each of them and promised to
provide all the financial aid necessary to put Somalia back on its
feet.
Fahd has yet to deliver on his promise.
Omar Arteh formed a cabinet of 80 members, saying that he had to include
all the clans to satisfy them. Though he knew he had no authority
on the ground yet he hoped Saudi oil wealth and international backing
would force him on the Somali people.
This has not happened and he himself has been out of the country since
October 1991, mostly in Saudi Arabia. His so-called president, Ali
Mahdi, is holed-up in the Karan district in north Mogadishu.
But for Arab backing, both Ali Mahdi and Omar Arteh would have stopped
their farcical posturing. Not being men of principles, they are
motivated by self-interest; as such they would have been convinced that
their cause was a hopeless one.
The way out is to withdraw support from Ali Mahdi and Arteh and to allow
the clans of the south to organize their own reconciliation conferences.
The second step is to rush food to all peaceful areas to save the
starving populations.
In fact, the current fighting is sometimes over scarce food, as was
demonstrated by the looting of a food convoy on August 16.
                              __________________

*********** READERS' COMMENT:

Dear brothers and Sisters in Islam,
Salam Al-aykum
The horrible news that we are hearing about in Bosnia-
Hercegovina bring sorrow and grieve to every Muslim's heart and tears 
from every eye. To know that innocent people are being expossed
to such barbarism and nothing is done about it is barbarism itself. 
The muslim Ummah has lost all its abilities to hear, see or feel. 
It is a dead nation filled with suffering and degradation. Humiliation after
another in every spot of the Muslim world and we are busy fighting each other
and killing each other. I feel what we are missing as people is dignity. We
have lost it completely to subordination and the easy life. We are closing 
our eyes to the fact that we are at the bottom of the scale. I think we 
are not the third world countries, rather we are the filth of the world.
Nobody gives a "damn" whether we live or die. I feel that I am just
like that insect that I smashed with my feet at home "just because". This is
what we are right now, nothing more than insects all-right to be stepped on 
by anybody. I will not blame the "West' nor the "Tyrannical regimes". I 
will not blame the "Colonialists" nor will I conjure a "Conspiracy Theory".
It is only the constipated minds that preclude another understanding of our
misfortunes. I implore you to seek the answers for our misfortunes. I beg
you to wake up from our long sleep and see the killings of innocent brothers
and sisters everywhere. Don't be the hands that wrapps the rope around your
brothers and sisters neck by brushing aside the horrible pictures of
the Muslims in Concentration Camps. Manahim Begin was right afterall, never
again will the Jews be the victims of the Holocaust. Is it now the Muslim's
turn to get a taste of a Muslim Holocaust. Ever again and again , another 
Muslim people will be exterminated. I don't know what the Islamic Republic
is doing about all of this. Have the economic problems and western's threats
scared our brave soldiers of Islam? What are they waiting for? Muslims should
put all the pressure to get the Islamic Republic to the rescue. I wonder what
the late Imam would have done? I am sure he would have inspired the Ummah
with his wisdom and passed a Fatwa to defend the muslims in Bosnia at any
cost. Brothers and sisters I am not but another Muslim that is crying his
heart out because he sees that no one will help our brothers and sisters in 
Bosnia and other places in the Muslim world.
I pray to Allah to give all the suffering Muslims the gift of
either Mortyrdom or Victory.

      H.C.           
____________________________________
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                     SOC.CULTURE.BOSNA-HERZGVNA
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