TALIBAN STRIKES BACK
by B.Raman
(To be read in continuation of the article titled
"Afghanistan: Pakistan's Black Hole" available at www.saag.org/papers3/paper228.html
)
There are two non-governmental organisations (NGOs),
both by the name Shelter Now International (SNI), which have been active
in the humanitarian field in Pakistan and Afghanistan since the Afghan war
of the 1980s.
One of these has its headquarters at Oshkosh, Wisconsin,
USA, and the other is believed to be part of a German organisation called
the Vision of Asia. The US-based organisation claims that the
Germany-based organisation, though operating under the same name, is not
connected with it.
Since the 1980s, there have been allegations in Pakistan
as well as Afghanistan that the Germany-based organisation has been
converting Muslims to Christianity by taking advantage of the plight of
poor Muslims. These allegations have been denied by the organisation.
In the late 1980s, the office of the organisation in the Kacha Garai
Refugee Camp near Peshawar in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) of
Pakistan was attacked by a group of Islamic extremists, who alleged that
the foreign workers belonging to it were propagating Christianity and
inducing the Muslim refugees to embrace Christianity in return for the
assistance given to them.
The SNI of Germany had opened an office in Kabul's once
posh Wazir Akbar Khan locality after the Taliban captured power in Kabul
in September,1996, for organising humanitarian relief to poor Afghans,
particularly children. It is not known exactly when this office
started functioning.
In view of past suspicions of this organisation
indulging in Christian missionary activity under the cover of humanitarian
relief, the religious police of the Taliban's Ministry for the Promotion
of Virtue and Prevention of Vice and its newly-created intelligence agency
in replacement of the Khad, had kept its activities under surveiilance.
While the religious police is largely staffed by Afghan and Pakistani
clerics, many of them belonging to the Jamaat-ul-Ulema Islam Pakistan (JUI)
of Maulana Fazlur Rahman, the new intelligence agency of the Taliban
Government functions under the guidance of serving and retired officers of
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate.
On August 3, the religious police raided a house in
Kabul during which it claimed to have caught two young American women
workers of the Germany-based SNI while they were allegedly showing films
based on the life of Jesus Christ to a group of Afghans with the help of a
computer on a monitor screen. It claimed to have seized the
equipment and some CD.ROMs containing pro-Christian propaganda.
During the next two days, the religious police raided
the office of the SNI, rounded up six other foreigners, Germans and
Australians, working for it, and 16 Afghan nationals, who were also
working for it. The religious police sealed the office of the SNI
after seizing all equipment and documents and other literature found
there. It claimed that the literature seized consisted of items such
as copies of the Holy Bible and other Christian propaganda material, most
of them in the local languages/dialects. It also claimed that the
two arrested American women had confessed that the foreign workers were
indulging in Christian missionary work under the cover of humanitarian
relief.
Sixty-five Afghan children, who were being looked after
by the Germany-based SNI, were also rounded up and shifted to a detention
centre for minors involved in crimes. The Taliban has announced that they
would be subjected to a re-education programme to remove the evil
influence of Christianity from their minds before being released.
Till the writing of this article (August 26), the
Taliban has resisted international pressure and appeals for the release of
the arrested foreign aid workers. A team of Pakistan-based diplomats
of the US, Germany and Australia, which went to Kabul, was not permitted
by the Taliban Foreign Ministry to meet the detained workers. The
Taliban also refused to extend their visas, following which they had to
return to Islamabad on August 21. The Taliban also rejected with
contempt an appeal from Mr.Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, on this
issue.
However, it has reportedly since agreed to let the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Geneva, the diplomats of
the three countries and the relatives of the detained foreigners to visit
them. While a representative of the ICRC has already visited them,
it is expected that the diplomats and the relatives would be allowed to
meet them this week.
The Taliban has not so far indicated whether it would
ultimately release the foreigners and, if so, when. It has taken up
the stand that the matter was still under investgation. According to it,
while there was conclusive evidence that the arrested workers were
indulging in Christian missionary work under the cover of humanitarian
relief, it was trying to establish whether the Germany-based organisation
was acting alone or whether it was part of a larger conspiracy against the
Taliban and Islam.
On August 20, an edict was issued by Mulla Mohammad
Omar, the Amir of the Taliban, on conversions. It is, however, not
yet clear whether this is a new edict or the re-issue of an edict on the
subject which already existed. It said as follows:
"All the citizens of the Islamic Emirate of
Afghanistan are strictly warned that if an Afghan Muslim turns away from
Islam and accepts the faith of the Christians and Jews or if he is caught
inviting people towards Christianity, Judaism or any other religion,
preaching in their favour or spreading books and broadcasts of their
faith, he shall be put to death.
"If in printing presses, such books are found which
contain "Kufriyyah aquaid" and beliefs or abusive matter against
the Sahaba-e-Keram, the owners of such printing presses shall be sentenced
to five years imprisonment.
"The enemies of the pious religion of Islam are
engaged throughout the world in making efforts to abolish the "deen-e-mubin".
"Dressed as Muslims, insinuating themselves among
them, through different strategies and material inducements, they strive
to lure the Muslims away from their sacred religion."
While the Taliban had been suspecting and alleging for
many months that some foreign NGOs were indulging in undesirable
anti-Islamic activities under the cover of humanitarian relief, the timing
of its action against the SNI workers is significant. It came in the
wake of the visit of Mrs.Christina Rocca, the US Assistant Secretary of
State for South Asia,to Pakistan during July-end/August-beginning.
During her visit, she met Taliban representatives in Islamabad and had
detailed discussions with Gen.Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's self-reinstated
Chief of the Army Staff, self-styled Chief Executive and self-promoted
President, and other members of the ruling military junta on various
issues.
One of these issues was Pakistani co-operation in
bringing Kandahar-based Osama bin Laden to justice for his involvement in
acts of terrorism against American nationals. Ever since coming to
office in January, the Bush Jr. Administration in the US is reported
to have repeatedly conveyed to the Taliban that if there was any future
bin Laden-inspired attack on US interests, the US would hold the Taliban
responsible, thereby hinting that future retaliatory strikes might be
directed at the Taliban itself and not just against bin Laden's terrorist
training camps in Taliban-controlled territory as it was in October,1998.
The Taliban has been extremely resentful of the fact
that international humanitarian assistance in the wake of last year's
drought was channelled to the affected Afghan people through the NGOs such
as the SNI and not through the Taliban. The Bush Administration too
has been routing its increased contributions for humanitarian relief and
opium eradication through the concerned UN agencies instead of giving the
money to the Taliban-controlled Government, which it does not recognise.
Another cause for resentment has been the UN imposed
sanctions and the decision to post UN monitors in Pakistani territory to
monitor the implementation of the sanctions.
Following the visit of Mrs.Rocca to Pakistan, there has
been intense speculation in Pakistan that Gen. Musharraf, who is keen for
a meeting with Mr.Bush at New York in September during his visit to attend
the UN General Assembly session, has succumbed to US pressure for
assistance in mounting a clandestine operation against bin Laden and
possibly the Taliban itself.
This speculation has been given currency by anti-Musharraf
elements in the junta led by Lt.Gen.Mohammed Aziz, a Corps Commander at
Lahore, who is also the clandestine Chief of Staff of Pakistan's Army of
Islam, consisting of bin Laden's Al Qaeda, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM),
the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM) and the Al Badr.
Lt.Gen.Aziz was unhappy over Gen.Musharraf's visit to
India in July for the Agra summit and reportedly suspects that Gen.
Musharraf, a Mohajir, has been playing a double game. According to
Lt.Gen.Aziz, while ostensibly supporting the jehadi organisations in their
activities against India, Gen.Musharraf has secretly given a commitment to
the US that he would rein in these organisations. Similarly, while
openly taking up the stand that the Pakistan Army cannot co-operate with
the US against bin Laden, he has secretly been doing so.
Lt.Gen.Aziz was reportedly instrumental in frustrating
the recent attempts of Gen.Musharraf and his Mohajir
colleague,Lt.Gen.Moinudeen Haider, the Interior Minister, to curb the fund
collection and other open activities of the jehadi organisations in
Pakistani territory. Lt.Gen.Aziz, who is responsible for monitoring
the work of the Punjab administration, avoided carrying out the
instructions of Gen.Musharraf in this regard in Punjab, the main base for
their activities.
However, Lt.Gen.Tariq Wasim Ghazi, the Corps Commander
of Karachi, who is responsible for monitoring the work of the Sindh
administration, initially carried out the instructions to act against the
jehadis. This led to an outcry against the military junta from the
religious extremist and jehadi organisations, forcing Gen.Musharraf to
order Lt.Gen.Ghazi to suspend operations against the jehadis.
Similarly, Lt.Gen.Aziz has been instigating the
religious organisations to agitate against the posting of UN monitors in
Pakistani territory and reportedly advising the Taliban to hold on to the
arrested aid workers as it might be able to use them to prevent any US
operations against bin Laden or the Taliban itself. It is said that
his advice to the Taliban is that even if it ultimately releases the
Germans and the Australians, it should keep the two American women under
detention in Kandahar to prevent a possible US air strike on the Taliban's
religious capital where the Amir and bin Laden live.
Circles close to Lt.Gen.Aziz have also been defending
and justifying the action of the Taliban against the foreign aid
workers. In an article in the "News" of Islamabad (August
23), Ms.Shireen M.Mazari,, Director-General of the Institute For Strategic
Studies, Islamabad, who is reputed to be close to Lt.Gen.Aziz, wrote:
" So now, there are going to be UN Monitors placed primarily in
Pakistan, supposedly to monitor enforcement of the sanctions - but a wider
agenda for these monitors cannot be ruled out. Two ominous
developments have taken place recently which all point to the possibility
of some form of US/international military action against the Taliban in
the near future.
"The first has been the bellicose statements coming
out of the US in response to the arrest of the Shelter Now International
personnel for trying to convert the local Afghans to Christianity.
While one may hold no brief for the Taliban's obscurantism, yet their laws
must be respected in their country. Proselytizing is a known crime
in Afghanistan and it is inexplicable why NGO personnel from the West feel
they can break local laws and get away with it. In any case, they
must be subject to the law of the land. In fact, it is not just NGO
personnel but also ordinary Western citizens who feel they are above the
law in developing countries. Remember the hysteria in the Western
press when Westerners were caught with drugs in Malaysia where there is a
death penalty for drug-related crimes? One may not approve of the laws of
other states but one cannot break them while in that state.
"Anyhow, what is worse is the brazenness with which
the US insists that its diplomats be allowed to visit the US citizens
under arrest in Kabul, given that they have no diplomatic relations with
Afghanistan. The US has called this denial a "violation of
international norms" which they insist require that "consular
officials be granted access to nationals who are detained."
Obviously, the US is relying on everyone else being ignorant on this
front. To begin with, where a country has no diplomatic relations,
it has no right to consular access to its nationals who happen to be in
that country. That is why, in such instances, a third country is
asked to look after the interests of a country that has no diplomatic
relations itself. But, in the case of Afghanistan, even this was not
done by the US. So, even the granting of a visa to its diplomat to
visit Kabul was a concession and favour on the part of the Taliban.
"It is ironic how quickly the US forgets its own
actions on these issues. Just recently, it denied consular access to
two Germans who were subsequently executed in the US in the state of
Texas. During the legal proceedings, which happened while the
present US President Bush was Governor of Texas, the two men were denied
consular access. This was despite the fact that Germany is a US
ally! The Germans went to the ICJ (the International Court of Justice) ,
which gave an opinion against the US, but the US chose to ignore
this. So much for observing international norms! Even earlier, to
take just one instance, the US bombing of the Libyan presidential palace,
with no declaration of war, was hardly in keeping with international
norms."
Gen.Musharraf has maintained a discreet silence on this
issue so far without exercising any pressure on the Taliban. He
similarly did not intervene when the Taliban dynamited the historic Buddha
statues of Bamiyan earlier this year.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet
Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute for
Topical Studies, Chennai. E-Mail: corde@vsnl.com
)
