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[Of course there was, or would have been, peace as well as an inspiring cultural and national renaissance for one of the world's most ancient and venerable cultures - in the interregnum between the US-UK-institgated Basmachi to Mujehedin uprisings - but for the 'humanitarian' intervention of Zbigniew Brzezinski and his fellow chess masters in Washington and Brussels. But the social criminals responsible for the degradation and depredation of Afghanistan will never be prosecuted in any supposed international criminal court. That goes without saying.] Wave of Violence Hits Afghanistan By Steven Gutkin Associated Press Writer Thursday, April 11, 2002; 2:55 PM KABUL, Afghanistan –– Not a day goes by without more news of a bombing, weapons seizure, rocket attack, assassination attempt or shooting in this devastated nation seeking to end decades of war. The interim government is blaming Taliban and al-Qaida remnants, a former prime minister and Pakistani intelligence officers for most of the violence. But in a political culture long dominated by intrigue, it's safe to assume the official line tells only part of the story. And the violence may be a harbinger of what's ahead for Afghanistan. When Afghan officials discuss villains these days, the name most often mentioned is not Osama bin Laden or Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, but former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a vocal opponent of the interim government and the U.S. presence in Afghanistan. Last week, authorities arrested at least 160 people accused of plotting to undermine the government of Prime Minister Hamid Karzai – most of them members of Hekmatyar's Hezb-e-Islami party. As of Thursday, about 100 remained in jail, officials said. The arrests are likely to inflame tensions between Hekmatyar's mostly ethnic Pashtun followers and the former northern alliance, which is dominated by Tajiks and controls key ministries. "In Afghanistan there are still a lot of different groups trying to make trouble. I think most of them are holdouts from the Taliban and al-Qaida, plus small groups linked to Hekmatyar," said Agriculture Minister Saeed Hussein Anwari, who is also the leader of a key Shiite Muslim party. In the past week, the defense minister was targeted by a bomb that killed five people and wounded more than 50. Chinese-made missiles were fired at international peacekeepers. Two pro-U.S. Afghan troops were killed in a grenade attack. Foreign peacekeepers working with local police said Thursday they confiscated a cache of 151 Chinese-made rockets. In a separate sweep, police killed one man and arrested two others while seizing two American-made Stinger anti-aircraft missiles among other weapons, the government's Bakhtar news agency said. Hekmatyar fled to Iran after the Taliban took the capital in 1996, but the Iranian government recently closed his offices in Tehran and he has reportedly returned to Afghanistan. Hekmatyar isn't the only one the new government says wishes it ill. One of his former deputies, Wahidullah Sabaoon, was among those targeted in the crackdown on Hezb-e-Islami. And then there is Abdur Rassool Sayyaf, a former northern alliance official who was shut out of the interim administration and who has been a strong opponent of international peacekeepers. When two rockets were fired at a peacekeepers' compound last weekend, injuring no one but provoking deep concern, peacekeepers blamed the attack on Afghans seeking to destabilize the interim administration ahead of the loya jirga, a national council that will begin choosing a new government for Afghanistan in June. "Everybody is making their maneuverings at the moment prior to the loya jirga. Some of them are following the democratic path and some of them may be carrying out additional activities," said Lt. Col. Neal Peckham, the British military spokesman for the peacekeeping force responsible for security in Kabul. Some Afghans believe the violence can be explained in part by fissures inside Karzai's administration. Nowhere is this alleged rift more starkly illustrated than in February's killing of the aviation minister, Abdul Rahman, slain at the Kabul airport during a riot by would-be Islamic pilgrims awaiting flights to Mecca. Karzai blamed the killing on senior members of his own administration. According to Gen. Din Muhammad Jurat, an Interior Ministry official, eight suspects – including three senior officials – are in custody. Jurat insisted the investigation is going well, but a senior Karzai aide said the probe was "going nowhere." After the killing, Jurat himself was briefly detained and accused of being an accomplice. Like Karzai, Rahman was part of a clique known as the Rome Group – people who spent most of the Taliban years in exile and who are supporters of the former king, Mohammad Zaher Shah. Some have pointed to an alleged rift between the Rome Group and former northern alliance members, mostly ethnic Tajiks, who stayed in Afghanistan to fight the Taliban. The latter group controls the powerful defense, interior and foreign ministries. "Karzai is just a front man. The real power is with the northern alliance," said Agha Gul, a 43-year-old tile maker in Kabul. Many Afghans agree with him, although officials deny the claim. Jurat, the Interior Ministry official, insisted that harmony reigns in the interim administration. He said the culprits behind much of the recent violence are members of Pakistan's intelligence agency. Karzai, however, has sought to mend relations with Pakistan, which supported the Taliban before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. Despite the violence, Karzai's administration has held up. And since the fall of the Taliban, Afghans have expressed hope that their nation's 23-year descent into chaos, poverty and fanaticism can now be reversed. Still, the almost daily attacks on government interests serve as reminders of the turmoil that could prevail when international peacekeepers and U.S. forces fighting Taliban and al-Qaida holdouts withdraw. "We have suffered a lot in past years and we cannot suffer anymore," said Shirin Gul, a 40-year-old woman who begs on the streets of Kabul. "For those who are against Afghanistan, we ask God to destroy them." __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
