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Afghanistan: A nation at the crossroads
Even though the war has subsided, the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan is far from over, and the task of rebuilding the war-ravaged nation has hardly begun.
Little has arrived of the $4.5 billion reconstruction aid pledged to Afghanistan in January. Millions of Afghans continue to live in squalid poverty, and many are getting impatient - both with their own leaders and the international community that supports them.
How it is
The United Nations estimates
1.5 million Afghans have died, two million have been wounded and five million more made refugees in fighting that started in 1979 with the Soviet invasion. From 1992, when the Soviets withdrew, until 1996, rival war- lords fought a civil war. The chaos this caused allowed the Taliban to take over until they were driven out last December by U.S.-led forces.
How it was
Afghanistan has a long history of invasion and instability. Its location astride the land routes between Iran, China, Central Asia and the south Asian subcontinent has always
enticed conquerors. One of the first was Alexander the Great in the third century BC. His successors created wealthy kingdoms in Afghanistan that bridged the civilizations of East and West. In the early centuries of our era Afghanistan was the centre of the
vast Kushan empire which acted as intermediary in trade between India, China and Rome. The Kabul Valley was birthplace of Gandharan art, beautifully blending Greek stone-carving skills with Buddhist themes, while in the 15th century Herat, in northwestern Afghanistan, was
capital of the Timurid Empire and a verdant centre of art and learning.
How did it get so bad?
In the early 1970s Afghanistan was beset by serious economic problems, including long-term drought. Maintaining that King Muhammad Zahir Khan had mishandled the economic crisis and was stifling political reform, a group of young military officers overthrew the monarchy in July 1973 and proclaimed a republic. Lt. Gen. Muhammad Daoud Khan became president and prime minister, but in 1978 was himself deposed by a group led by Noor Mohammed Taraki, who aligned Afghanistan with the Soviet Union. In the late 1970s the government faced increasing popular opposition to its social policies, and by 1979 guerrilla opposition forces, popularly called mujahedeen, were active in much of the country. In September, 1979, Taraki was killed and Hafizullah Amin took power. Shortly thereafter, the Soviet Union sent troops into Afghanistan, Amin was executed, and the Soviet-supported Babrak Karmal became president.
The People
Although the continuous state of war in Afghanistan from 1979 onwards has caused substantial population displacement, regional ethnicity is still generally the same. Tajiks live around Herat in the northwest, Uzbeks live in the north, the nomadic Turkmen live in the Vakhan in the northeast. In the central mountains are the Hazaras, of Mongolian origin. In the east and south are the Pashtuns, the country’s largest ethnic group in a total populaion of about 22 million. Pashto and Dari (Afghan Persian), plus various Turkic tongues, mainly Uzbek and Turkmen, are the country’s principle languages. Almost all the inhabitants are Muslim; the large majority are Sunni, the minority, numbering over two million, Shiite.
The Future
The Loya Jirga, or grand council of tribal elders, meeting in Kabul in June, elected Hamid Karzai, the aristocratic Pashtun tribal leader as president of the Transitional Administration that will lead Afghanistan until elections in 2004. Outside of Kabul, however, the government’s writ does not run strong. Warlords, whose private armies control huge swathes of the country, pose perhaps the gravest danger to the fragile transitional government.
The Great Game
For almost a century Afghanistan was a pawn in the ‘Great Game’ played by European imperial powers as they vied for influence in Central Asia. Napoleon’s intrigues in Persia prompted the British in India to first open official relations with Kabul in 1809. Russia’s steady expansion southwards across Central Asia deepened their concern. Acutely aware of Afghanistan’s age-old position as a highway from Persia and Central Asia to India, the British took an active interest in the seating and unseating of princes on the throne of Kabul during the remainder of the 19th century. Twice this interest led to war: first in 1838-42, and again in 1878-80. Attempting to free Afghanistan from British influence, King Amanullah invaded India in 1919. This third Afghan War was ended by the Treaty of Rawalpindi, which gave Afghanistan full independence.
Khyber Pass
Throughout history Afghanistan served as a springboard for the conquest of the south Asian subcontinent, and the Khyber Pass, which links the two, was the gateway through which these invaders - Persians, Kushans, Turks, Timurids and Moghuls - poured. In recent times it was the main escape route for millions of refugees fleeing the fighting in Afghanistan. Now it is the main artery for aid to Kabul.
Photo No 1: © UNESCO
Photo No 2(a) et (b): © UNESCO
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The New Courier No 1
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