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Life After Rome |
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Reportedly
life in Afghanistan is difficult. The
war continues even in the face of the oncoming harsh winter. Infighting has also been reported among the
loose opposition alliance against Taleban.
Osama still lives in Afghanistan.
In major cities especially in Kabul the more than 20 year-old curfew
is still in place. United Nations
sanctions have made life more expensive and food items scarcer for the
civilian population. Iran’s opening
of the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan’s consideration of selling
flour to Afghanistan, welcome steps in themselves, are grossly inadequate
to meet the needs of the people. Economy
is in its shattered form. Traders
face more difficulty due to sanctions.
Schools still need to open and or expand, hospitals are still in
need of medicine and manpower, and human rights are still to be upheld
in many instances. A lot is needed to be done for setting the
agricultural infrastructure right. Not
only the irrigation systems have been destroyed by the war but also there
are reports of intentional destruction of farms, farmland, orchards and
irrigation canals by the warring parties especially the Taleban who reportedly
follow a starched earth policy in line with those of the Soviet invading
forces. Overall life in all its aspects is difficult
in the cities as well as in the countryside.
Now,
an Italian government initiative called “Democracy for Peace” and consisting
of a preparatory meeting under the former king of Afghanistan in Rome
has ended. One of the brains behind
this initiative was Italian Ambassador to Pakistan Enrico de Maio. He told a select gathering of journalists at
his residence in Islamabad last week that the Italian government which
has for long been concerned at the plight of the common Afghan who has
nothing to gain from the continuing civil war sponsored the meeting. "Democracy
for peace is what my government is looking at and basically our role here
in Islamabad was to explain and prove to Rome that there was a need to
have such a meeting somewhere. Italy does not traditionally have a role
in Afghanistan but today we are only looking for peace there and have
no other interest," the ambassador explained. This
showed a new interest in Europe who like the Afghans themselves have become
frustrated with the futile efforts of the United Nations and the several
other groups involved in finding a solution to the Afghan problem. These groups include the group of “six-plus-two”
the OIC and the many envoys of the United Nations. For
the Italian government to take this initiative there was great help in
the person of the former king of Afghanistan Mohammad Zahir who has lived
in Rome for the past twenty five years..
The deposed monarch had been hatching for quite some time an old
traditional plan for solving of the Afghan crisis namely the convening
of the Grand National Assembly known in Afghanistan as the Loya Jirga. This
three-day meeting brought the former king for the first time to the fore.
It made him preside over an Afghan meeting for the first time in more
than quarter of a century. The
55 participants chosen to attend the Rome meeting were royalists and included
both Pukhtun and non-Pukhtun besides giving reasonable representation
to Afghan women. The six females invited to the meeting included Ms. F.
Gillani, Khanum Fakhria, Khanum Tajwar Kakar, Khanum Surraya Siddiq, Khanum
Seema Samar and Khanum Balkhi. The participants also included intellectuals,
businessmen and former mujahideen commanders. Prominent amongst those
invited to the meeting were former Afghan president Prof Sibghatullah
Mujaddadi, leader of National Islamic Front of Afghanistan, Pir Syed Ahmad
Gillani, Zahir Shah's cousin and brother-in-law Sardar Wali, Sultan Mehmood
Ghazi, Abdul Sattar Seerat, Commander Abdul Haq and a former Taliban leader
Maulvi Abdul Razzaq. The Taliban had not been invited to the meeting.
But reportedly a 104 people of which some eighty were Afghans attended
the meeting. The participants
included an observer of the United Nations.
That how popular are the Mujahideen leaders and the king’s cousins
is open for debate. The
agenda of the meeting was to decide on the convening of an emergency Loya
Jirga. It was also to talk about
the participants for the Jirga as well as establishing of delegations
to sell the idea to both the Afghans and some countries of the world including
Europe, United States and Afghanistan’s neighbors.
The
outcome of the deliberations was predictable.
The plan seems attractive and has historical and cultural roots
in Afghan traditions. What was
not clear and unfortunately still remains unclear is what next? In other words now that the eighty royalists and their deposed king
have decided on the convening of the Loya Jirga what would life be like
in Afghanistan. Can this decision
in Rome influence the conduct of the Taleban who were not even invited
to the meeting? Can this make
their opposition more vociferous because from their weak position they
did have to go along with the former king’s suggestion of the Loya Jirga? And suppose that the West, the United Nations and Afghanistan’s
self-serving neighbors did agree with the plan, then what? Can the corps group of some eighty royalists
force the powerful Taleban out of power?
Can
this decision in Rome make Kofi Annan so happy that he would propose to
the Security Council the next day to lift the sanctions for the benefit
of the Afghan civilians? What
happens to Osama? And what happens
to the strong position the United States has taken about him? And
what happens to the king during and after the Loya Jirga? Does he become president or remain king and
what happens to the system of government in Afghanistan? Italian envoy had clarified that the participation
of deposed King Zahir Shah, living in Italy for the past 25 years, in
the meeting was to let him play the role of a catalyst and not to suggest
that attempts are being made to put him back on the throne. It is true that the Afghans are fed up with all those who took power after the Afghan nation drove the invading forces of the Soviet Union out. It is true that the Afghan nation is in want of a way out of the present situation where the national honor of the country is at stake. It is true that the former king can and should play a great role in bringing about a national reconciliation to the Afghans. He is in a position to serve as a facilitator or a catalyst in order to bring an end to all hostilities in the country and to finding of a mechanism to pave the way for a representative government in Afghanistan. But can he do all of that with the help of a few royalists who are mostly based outside the country and who lack tribal support inside? Can he do this without the involvement of the Taleban? And if not has he taken any positive initiative to involve them in the whole process? Even the Italian Ambassador to Pakistan was of the opinion that a majority role could be given to the Taleban in the settlement of the Afghan disputes. What is the stand of the royalists in this regard? Are they predicting that an uprising against the Taleban will install a new transitional government in Afghanistan? And how trustworthy and respectable are some of the people who have surrounded the former king? How does the Afghan nation look upon the king’s son-in-law who is at the same time his cousin and who seems to be the main adviser to him in his immediate family? Where are his sons, the eldest of whom used to act as regent when the monarch was in power? Many
Afghans wish the above were in one way or another answered by the person
of the former king before the nation supported him once again in his plans. Furthermore many would like to know the answer
to this simple question: Is there a new life after Rome for the Afghans?
11/27/99 Please send comments & questions regarding this page to: Dr. G. Rauf Roashan
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