Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Opinioni sulla guerra di un'Afghano morto

Quanto sotto e' un'articolo, in Inglese, di uno dei leader dell'opposizione
Afghana, Abdul Haq.   Haq e' stato catturato e giustiziato dai Taliban due
giorni fa.  L'articolo e' basato su un'intervista data da Haq a Harold
Lieven, del Carnegie Endowment for international peace.
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 Probably the US has already made up its mind what to do, and any
recommendations by me will be too late. However, military action by itself
in the present circumstances is only making things more difficult -
especially if this war goes on a long time and many civilians are killed.
The best thing would be for the US to work for a united political solution
involving all the Afghan groups. Otherwise there will be an encouragement
of deep divisions between different groups, backed by different countries
and badly affecting the whole region.
I am not sure that the air campaign will work. Before the attacks started,
the Taliban's people were very nervous, and their support in the
population was very low. Everyone was afraid. But once the bombing
started, people began to say: "Well, it's not so bad. We have known worse.
We can stand it." This is something I have often seen in battle. The
soldier runs away, terrified. Then he realizes he is not in immediate
danger. He stops and faces the enemy, and his courage comes back.
So in these last weeks I have seen more support for the Taliban than
before. We have been trying to create a revolt within the Taliban, but the
US hasn't given us the chance. They seem to have been determined to
attack, even if someone came up with the best proposal in the world to
avoid this. This has been a big setback for me.
The US should keep up the pressure, above all with money, but should not
bomb. The top leadership of the Taliban is impossible to change by bombing
or talking. Instead I have been talking with second-level Taliban
commanders, ex-mojahedin and tribal elders. What I am working for is that
these should make a statement saying that the Taliban must go, and that
anyone who rejects this can be fought.
However, what everyone is telling me is that for this to happen, there
must be some alternative structure for Taliban people to come over to.
Most won't go over to the Northern Alliance, and the Alliance must not be
allowed to take power, because they would take revenge on anyone who had
ever fought them and drive people back to the Taliban. And the Northern
Alliance must not be allowed to launch attacks, at least against Kabul and
to the east and south [ie into core Pashtun territories].
If this is followed, then, many Taliban people have told me, they will be
prepared to abandon the Taliban.
I have said all this to US officials, and so have others. But it's
impossible to find anyone beneath the level of the president who is
willing to take responsibility for a decision. If the US keeps bombing and
helps the Northern Alliance, then our work will be much more difficult.
The problem is that the Americans cannot control Alliance commanders on
the ground if they decide to attack Kabul or massacre people. How can they
control them? By threatening to bomb them too?
The Taliban is mostly from Pashtun areas and Pashtuns are the key to
getting rid of them. Whenever the Taliban is weak, it turns to Pashtun
nationalism, and it does have a certain effect. The anti-Taliban campaign
needs two stages: a military strategy to split and remove the Taliban,
which should be carried out by Afghans themselves, not the US; and a Loya
Jirga [grand national assembly] to create a future government, including
representatives of all ethnic groups and tribes.
We should be concentrating on avoiding bloodshed as far as possible. The
Taliban are like a crystal ball. They are very hard, but brittle. If they
are hit in the right way, they will shatter into a million pieces. But
bombing the whole of Afghanistan is not the right way. Instead, we should
undermine the central leadership, which is a very small and closed group
and the only thing which holds them all together. If they are destroyed,
every Taliban fighter will pick up his gun and blanket and disappear back
home, and that will be the end of the Taliban.
But the US is trying to show its muscle, score a victory and scare
everyone in the world. They don't care about the suffering of the Afghans
or how many people we will lose. And we don't like that. Because Afghans
are now being made to suffer for these Arab fanatics, but we all know who
brought these Arabs to Afghanistan in the 1980s, armed them and gave them
a base. It was the Americans and the CIA. And the Americans who did this
all got medals and good careers, while all these years Afghans suffered
from these Arabs and their allies. Now, when America is attacked, instead
of punishing the Americans who did this, it punishes the Afghans.

, Giorgio
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