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Assalamu'alaikum,
Many Afghans haunted by Northern Alliance's past
by DAN CHAPMAN
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
November 12, 2001
http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/
Chaman, Pakistan --- Haji Abdul Ghani placed a forefinger in his
mouth, and cocked his thumb like a pistol.
"They put the nozzle of the gun in the baby's mouth," said Ghani, an
Afghan refugee. "The baby began sucking it like the nipple of his
mother's breast. Then they fired." Ghani, a truck driver, swore his
story was true. It happened, he said, three weeks ago in Central
Afghanistan. A fighter with the Northern Alliance pulled the
trigger, he added.
Beyond its abject horror, the story told by Ghani --- who has no
love for the Taliban either --- illustrates the anger and fear many
Afghans harbor for the Northern Alliance.
Far from the underdog militia trying to overthrow the despotic
Taliban regime, Northern Alliance troops are reviled across much of
Afghanistan for their brutality.
They are also despised because they are primarily Uzbeks, Hazaras,
Tajiks. Pashtuns comprise the main Afghan ethnic group in a country
whose ethnic stew never stops boiling.
Strange bedfellows
The United States is the Northern Alliance's main benefactor,
providing materiel, advisers and an intensive bombing campaign aimed
at weakening Taliban resistance.
The Northern Alliance has taken advantage of heavy bombardments to
advance into the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, a key military
target.
Kabul would be next in Northern Alliance sights. While the United
States, at Pakistani insistence, suggests that the Northern Alliance
won't be allowed to single-handedly run Afghanistan, refugees and
others remain wary of any leadership role for the mujahedeen.
"We have lived under them before and they were not good rulers,"
said Sayed Noor, an Afghan farmer who arrived last week at Killi
Faizo refugee camp along Pakistan's border. "They cannot rule
Afghanistan again because we had such bitter experiences with them.
They are vicious."
Many of the mujahedeen, or holy warriors, now fighting for the
Northern Alliance are war veterans who served in the decadelong
battle against the Soviets. Northern Alliance commanders also filled
key government positions after the Soviets withdrew in 1989.
General Abdul Rashid Dostum was --- and is again today --- a top
mujahedeen leader. The Uzbek warlord's mutiny in 1992 led directly
to the downfall and execution of Najibullah, the last Communist
ruler. It also ensured the mujahedeen would roll into Kabul.
Michael Griffin, in his book "Reaping The Whirlwind: The Taliban
Movement in Afghanistan," labeled Dostum "a backwater Saddam Hussein
. . . ruthless . . . cunning."
Return from exile
Although included in a succession of Afghan governments, Dostum
never garnered the power he so coveted. Ethnic hatred between
Uzbeks, Hazaras, Tajiks and the majority Pashtun also scuttled any
chance at real peace.
In January 1994, Dostum's 20,000-man strong militia laid siege to
Kabul. Two months of back-and-forth rocket and artillery fire led to
the deaths of 4,000 Kabul residents and the exodus of 200,000 more.
Of Dostum's troops, Griffin wrote: "These Uzbek fighters inspired
even greater fear among civilians who named them galamjam --- or
carpet-thieves --- a term that Afghans diversified to embrace anyone
with bad intentions."
Dostum eventually retreated to Mazar-e-Sharif, until losses to the
Taliban pushed him over the border and eventually into exile in
Turkey. But Dostum returned this year to lead one of the main
Northern Alliance factions.
"Listen to me carefully," warned Haji Abdul Ghani. "Those opposed to
the Northern Alliance are not on the side of the Taliban or
al-Qaida. We just want our children's survival, our women's
survival. If the Northern Alliance comes, we will all be killed."
Ghani and other Afghans also fear a return to lawlessness. When the
mujahedeen ran Afghanistan from 1992 to 1996, life was cheap. Rape
was common. Truckers like Ghani paid tolls to bandits on virtually
every roadway.
The horror of the past
The Taliban's Pashtun rulers restored order to Afghanistan, albeit a
harsh and twisted Islamic version of order. A Northern Alliance
victory, even with the United States looking over its shoulder,
scares many Afghans.
"The Americans can't save us from the Northern Alliance," said Noor,
25, the farmer. "I'm from northern Afghanistan and I've seen Dostum
rule. His brand of justice [favored] the people of his tribe and
everyone else was neglected, beaten or killed before the Taliban
came."
Noor threw a pebble he was fingering into the sand.
"I have no doubt it will be no different if the Northern Alliance
comes to power again."
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