THE TALEBAN – WHO AND WHAT?
Public enemy number one or “not all are bad people” in the words of the Taleban’s chief opponent, General Dostan of the Northern Alliance? The Taleban are better known in Afghanistan for doling out the Sharia, the Koranic Law, in its most crude and raw form. Public beheadings, mutilations and floggings in packed football stadiums have become commonplace. However, General Abdul Rachid Dostan of the Northern Alliance, the main armed opposition group fighting the Taleban regime in the north of the country, has declared that there are Taleban…and Taleban. “Not all the Taleban are bad people, there are many who can provide good services to the people. In general, they are Pashtun, a group which should be represented (in a future common government)”, he declared in an interview with Der Spiegel.
The Taleban were born in refugee camps in Pakistan during the intervention of Soviet forces, at the request of the beleaguered president of Afghanistan, Najibullah. Financed and trained by Osama Bin Laden, some say with the complicity and even active involvement of the CIA, the majority are from the Pashtun tribe, although there are several thousand Moslem fighters from other nations, from Saudis and Kuwaitis to Uzbeks and Pakistanis.
In 1994, they swept to victory against the Mujaheddin force Hezb-i-Islami, led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, after being initially used by the Pakistani authorities to protect a trade convoy to establish a route between Islamabad and Central Asia. Excellent fighters, they beat off attack after attack and captured Kabul in September, 1996.
Originally accepted as liberating heroes by a population oppressed by numerous drug and warlords, the Taleban began by fighting corruption and imposed a degree of normality to the daily lives of the citizens of Afghanistan. Aided by the Pakistani secret services and, some say, by money from the Pakistani mafia, the Taleban soon freed themselves from any yolk with Islamabad and became a force friendly with Pakistan, but strictly autonomous.
However, other Moslem states aided the Taleban as they swept across the country from south to north in a number of brilliant military successes. Saudi Arabia, for example, provided important quantities of arms and money until mid 2000. The ideology of the Taleban is based on an obscure sect which developed in India in the nineteenth century, mixed with Pashtun lore and Saudi Wahhabism. This is the western term for a sect founded within Islam by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703/92), which defends the position of a Unitarian God (Wahid), banning the use of praying to any prophet, angel or saint.
Wahhabism preaches a literal and strict interpretation of the noble Qu’ran and adherence to the doctrine of predestination. The fact that the Taleban are in their majority Pashtun is important, since the civil war in the country brought the northern minority Uzbek and Tajik warlords into Kabul, but their strongholds were, and are, isolated regions in the northern 10% of the territory which they hold today.
The advent of the Taleban, claiming back the Pashtun lands, was therefore a foregone conclusion. During the Clinton administration, the Taleban were seen as an important counterweight to Iran in the region but there was a diplomatic correction due to their policy on women, refusing to allow them access to education, forbidding girls from going to school and prohibiting women from working. This radicalism, mixed with violence, earned the Taleban mistrust even among some Pashtun tribespeople and open revolt in non-Pashtun areas since 1996. For example, women were recently denied the right to health care.
Today the regime faces its hardest test in what would logically appear to be its death throes. Isolated diplomatically, Pakistan being the only country to recognise this regime, and facing a massive military operation from within, and outside, its borders, its representative in the United Nations being former President Burhanuddin Rabbani, the Taleban now take to the mountains. This may be the worst nightmare for the international force intervening in the country, as the Soviet Union itself witnessed. Osama Bin Laden, who has issued declarations expressing surprise that the American troops are much worse than the Soviets, seems to be ready and waiting for phase three.
Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru LISBON PORTUGAL
(Bancroft – Hinchey) Pravda
22.10.01
Panglima tentera Pakatan Utara, Jeneral Dostan berpendapat, bukan semua orang Taliban itu tidak berguna. Di Afghanistan mereka lebih terkenal sebagai mengajar Syarie, Al Qur'an dan perundangan Islam mengikut cara ajaran dulu-dulu. Hukuman memenggal kepala dan menyebat di khalayak ramai di padang bola ataupun stadium merupakan amalan biasa buat mereka. Namun demikian, Jeneral Abdul Rachid Dostan berpendapat “Bukan semua Taliban itu orang yang jahat, ramai yang dapat memberikan khidmat yang baik kepada rakyat. Pada lazimnya mereka adalah kaum Pashtoun, dan kumpulan ini mesti mempunyai wakil dalam kerajaan yang akan datang.” Pendapatnya itu diberikannya kepada ‘Der Spiegel”
Kebanyakan anggota Taliban dilahirkan di khemah pelarian di Pakistan ketika penaklukan tentera Soviet, setelah diminta berbuat demikian oleh Presiden Afghanistan ketika itu Najibullah. Mereka telah dilatih dan diongkosi oleh Osama Bin Laden. Ada pihak yang menyebut latihan itu adalah dengan penglibatan cergas CIA. Majoriti yang dilatih oleh CIA itu adalah Pashtun, dan ramai juga pejuang daripada negara lain seperti Saudi, Kuwait, Uzbek dan hinggalah Pakistan.
Pada 1994, mereka menumpaskan pasukan mujahidin Hezbi-i-islami yang dipimpin oleh Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, setelah mereka berjaya menunaikan tugas kerajaan Pakistan melindungi satu konvoi perdagangan antara Islamabad dan Asia Tengah. Sebagai pejuang berani, mereka akhirnya berjaya menguasai Kabul pada September 1996.
Setelah diterima dengan hati terbuka oleh penduduk yang begitu lama tertekan oleh panglima perang dan raja dadah, pemerintahan Taliban telah memerangi korupsi dan mengenakan peraturan dalam atur hidup rakyat Afghanistan. Dengan sokongan pasukan perkhidmatan risikan Pakistan dan juga wang yang didermakan oleh kumpulan mafia Pakistan (ingat laporan ini datang daripada Pravda yang anti Taliban!!! - penterjemah) akhirnya Taliban telah merangsang kuasa Pakistan itu dan bergerak bebas sebagai satu kuasa yang mesra dengan Islamabad.
Banyak lagi negara Islam yang lain menyumbang bantuan kepada Taliban. Arab Saudi sebagai contohnya, menyumbang banyak kelengkapan perang dan wang sehingga pertengahan 2000.Ideologi Taliban dikatakan bermodelkan ajaran yang satu ketika dulu diwujudkan di India pada zaman abad ke 19, dan dicampurkan dengan budaya Pashtun serta ajaran Wahhabi.
Ajaran Wahhabi adalah syor Mohammad ibn Abdal Wahab (1703/92).Taliban merupakan satu pertubuhan yang ramai kaum Pashtun. Di awal perang saudara dulu uzbem dan Tajik telah berjaya menduduki Kabul sehinggalah mereka dihalau oleh Taliban Mereka kini menguasai sekitar 10 persen kawasan utara Afghanistan sahaja.
Kemenangan Taliban itu membolehkan kaum mereka mendapat balik tanah yang pernah dirampas dulu. Ketika pemerintahan Clinton, puak Taliban dilihat sebagai satu benteng terkuat menampan kekuatan Iran di rantau itu. Namun, Clinton pun mempunyai masalah untuk menyetujui fahaman Taliban yang menyekat kebebasan kaum wanita secara menafikan mereka kebebasan untuk berkerja dan kanak-kanak perempuan pergi bersekolah. Peraturan radikal ini yang membuatkan Taliban tidak disenangi oleh ramai penduduk Afghanistan. Sebagai contoh terbaru ini, kaum wanita tidak diberikan hak rawatan percuma
Kini, regim Taliban sedang meraung kerana diasak dan berkemungkinan tidak dapat bertahan lama. Hanya Pakistan yang terus mengiktiraf kerajaan Taliban Kini, regim ini sedang ditentang habis-habisan dari dalam dan luar. Wakil Afghanistan di PBB bekas presiden Burhanuddin Rabbani berkata Taliban kini melarikan diri ke pergunungan. Inilah masanya yang paling perit untuk pasukan antarabangsa yang mahu campur tangan dalam hal ehwal Afghanistan. Seperti yang pernah dialami oleh Russia dulu. Osama Laden yang menyatakan bahawa askar Amerika adalah lebih teruk daripada askar Soviet kini ternyata a sudah bersedia menantikan serangan Amerika mengikut rencana mereka yang nombor tiga.
Pravda Ru. Lisbon Portugal
Catatan: Pravda ada melaporkan sebuah helikopter Amerika yang membawa 25 penumpang telah ditembak jatuh dan Taliban kini sedang mengurung 11 komando yang masih bernyawa lagi. Kita mahu tunggu apakah penjelasan Amerika seterusnya. Apakah Taliban akan menyeret askar ini di jalan raya pada selepas Jumaat yang akan datang? - penterjemah.
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