Reaping the Whirlwind: The Taliban Movement in Afghanistan

301 Pages·2000·1.43 MB·English

by  Michael Griffin

Reaping the Whirlwind
The Taliban Movement in Afghanistan
Michael Griffin
P
Pluto Press
LONDON • STERLING, VIRGINIA
First published 2001 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
and 22883 Quicksilver Drive,
Sterling, VA 20166–2012, USA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Michael Griffin 2001
The right of Michael Griffin to be identified as the author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Griffin, Michael.
Reaping the whirlwind : Afghanistan’s Taliban movement / Michael
Griffin.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0–7453–1274–8 (hbk)
1. Afghanistan—History—1973– 2. Taliban. 3. Islamic
fundamentalism—Afghanistan. 4. Islam and state—Afghanistan. 5. Islam
and politics—Afghanistan. I. Title.
DS371.2 .G74 2001b
958.104—dc21
2001000249
Rev.
ISBN 0 7453 1274 8 hardback
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Designed and produced for Pluto Press by
Chase Publishing Services, Fortescue, Sidmouth EX10 9QG
Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton
Printed in the European Union by TJ International, Padstow, England
Contents
Map viii
List of Abbreviations ix
Chronology xi
Preface xix
1. The Killing of Najibullah 1
2. City of Night 17
3. Warriors of God 33
4. Mission to Cleanse 53
5. Burning Down the House 69
6. The Zahir Option 85
7. The River Between 101
8. The New Emirates 114
9. Nest of Vipers 128
10. Oblivion’s Feast 141
11. Hostages 157
12. Ignoble Grave 174
13. A Fistful of Dollars 194
14. Satellites and Stars 211
15. The Bicycle Thieves 225
16. Mr Sam & the Food and Beverage Industry 239
Principal Characters 253
Notes 258
Index 278
For Liam,
navigating his own route through the Silk Gorge,
and born, happily,
on 25 September 1996,
while all of Kabul held its breath.
v
iii
Territorial control of Afghanistan (January 1996)
List of Abbreviations
ACBAR Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief
ACF Action Contre la Faim
AIG Afghan Interim Government
b/d Barrel per day
BJP Bharatiya Janata Party
BP British Petroleum
CDA Council for the Defence of Afghanistan
CIS Commonwealth of Independent States
DEA Drug Enforcement Agency
ECHO European Community Humanitarian Office
ECU European Currency Unit
FM Feminist Majority
GDD Geopolitical Drugs Despatch
GIA French acronym for Algeria’s Armed Islamic Group
HUA Harakat ul-Ansar
HUM Harakat ul-Mujahedin
IB Intelligence Bureau
ICRC International Committee of the Red Cross
IRP Islamic Revival Party
ISI Inter Services Intelligence
JI Jamaat-i Islami
JUI Jamiat ul-Ulama-i Islami
MSF Médecins Sans Frontières
NGOs Non-governmental organisations
NWFB North West Frontier Province
OMON Russian acronym for Special-Purpose Militia
Detachment
OPEC Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries
PDPA People’s Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
PEACE Poverty Eradication and Community Empowerment
PFLP Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
PKK Kurdish acronym for Kurdistan Workers Party
PPP Pakistan People’s Party
SCF Save the Children Fund
SLORC State Law and Order Restoration Council
ix
x Reaping the Whirlwind
SP Strategic Policymagazine
TAP Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan gas pipeline
TTA Transit Trade Agreement
UAE United Arab Emirates
UIFLA United Islamic Front for the Liberation of Afghanistan
UNDCP United Nations Drug Control Programme
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund
UNHCR United Nations High Commission for Refugees
UNITA Portuguese acronym for National Union for the Total
Independence of Angola
UNOCHA UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Assistance to Afghanistan
WFP World Food Programme
YWCA Young Women’s Christian Association
Chronology
17 July 1973 – King Zahir Shah is overthrown by his cousin, former
Prime Minister Mohammad Daoud, with Soviet backing.
Afghanistan is proclaimed a republic.
27 April 1978 – President Daoud is killed in a Marxist coup by the
People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). Attempts by the
new president, Noor Mohammad Taraki, to impose land reform and
compulsory education for women spark a nationwide jihad.
September 1979 – President Taraki is murdered by his deputy,
Hafizullah Amin. Amin is executed three months later.
24 December 1979 – Red Army units seize Kabul airport as four Soviet
motorised divisions roll across the northern border. Babrak Karmal,
exiled PDPA leader in Moscow, returns as president.
24 December 1979–February 1989 – The Soviet-Afghan War. Seven
mujahedin parties, based in Peshawar, are selected by Pakistan’s
President Zia ul-Haq to receive the military supplies pouring in from
western countries and the Islamic world.
February–April 1985 – Mikhail Gorbachev assumes power in
Moscow. Occupation forces rise to 140,000 men but entire regions,
such as the Hazarajat and Kunar valley, are virtual no-go areas to
Soviet and government troops. The US supplies the mujahedinwith
Stinger missiles, tipping the balance of power.
4 May 1986 – At Moscow’s behest, Maj-Gen Mohammad Najibullah
replaces Karmal as president. As Soviet casualties mount, Gorbachev
describes the Afghan imbroglio as ‘a bleeding wound’, but continues
to press for a military solution.
February 1988 – Gorbachev announces a 10-month phased
withdrawal of Soviet troops, beginning mid-May. The Geneva
Accords, signed on 14 April, allow both superpowers to continue to
supply arms to the combatants.
xi
xii Reaping the Whirlwind
14 February 1989 – In Peshawar, the ‘Seven-Party Alliance of Afghan
Mujahedin’ announces the establishment of an ‘Afghan Interim
Government’ (AIG), with Sibghatullah Mojadeddi as president. Shia
resistance groups and many key field commanders are excluded.
March-September 1989– Battle of Jalalabad. Mujahedin forces fail to
capture key eastern city after a siege claiming 10,000 lives.
29 August 1989 – Foreign Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, head of
the radical Hizb-i Islami, breaks with the AIG.
6–7 February 1990 – The US and the Soviet Union agree that
President Najibullah will remain in power until internationally-
supervised elections can be held.
29 May 1990 – Najibullah announces the introduction of a
multiparty system.
25 July 1990 – Refugees begin to return home under the UN’s
Voluntary Repatriation Scheme.
February–March 1991 – US discontinues military aid to the AIG and
announces it cannot guarantee humanitarian assistance for 1992.
21 May 1991 – UN Secretary-General Perez de Cuellar calls for an
end to arms supplies to all sides, a cessation of hostilities and
elections for a broadly-based democratic government. The AIG
rejects any compromise with the Najibullah government.
April 1992 – As mujahedin forces converge on Kabul, Najibullah is
removed by military officers and takes refuge in a UN compound.
Mujahedin leaders sign the Peshawar Accord, agreeing to a power-
sharing period of transitional rule leading to elections. Hekmatyar
is not a signatory.
24 June 1992 – Prof Burhanuddin Rabbani is declared transitional
president of the ‘Islamic State of Afghanistan’ for six months.
Hekmatyar’s forces fire missiles and rockets into Kabul.
July–August 1992 – Fighting erupts between rival mujahedin factions
in Kabul. The UN evacuates staff from the city and relocates its
offices to Islamabad.
Chronology xiii
30 December 1992 – In defiance of the Peshawar Accord, Rabbani is
confirmed as president for a further two years by a ‘Council of Wise
Men’. Five of the nine key party leaders boycott the council.
19 January 1993 – Government launches an offensive against
Hekmatyar, who responds with a month-long rocket bombardment
of the capital. Thousands of civilians perish.
February 1993 – Four UN staff are assassinated in Nangarhar Province
on the road to the Khyber Pass.
7 March 1993 – Under the Islamabad Accord, Rabbani’s term is
reduced to 18 months and Hekmatyar is brought in as prime
minister. Fighting resumes two days later over the unresolved status
of both Defence Minister Ahmad Shah Massoud and General
Dostum, the former communist who controls northern Afghanistan.
16 June 1993 – Hekmatyar is sworn in as prime minister, Massoud
resigns.
1 January 1994 – The Battle for Kabul intensifies as General Dostum
forms an alliance with Hekmatyar. Fighting continues throughout
the year but no clear winner emerges. A blockade halts the delivery
of relief food and medicine.
14 February 1994 – Ambassador Mahmoud Mestiri is named head of
a Special UN Mission with a mandate to restart the peace process.
He tables proposals for a ceasefire, the creation of a neutral security
force and the summoning of a Loya Jirga, or representative council,
to oversee the formation of a transitional government.
October 1994 – Kandahar falls to an obscure militia of religious
students, or taliban, led by Mullah Mohammad Omar, who calls for
4,000 volunteers from Pakistan.
11 November 1994 – The UN appeals for $106.4 million to meet the
humanitarian requirements of Afghanistan for the next twelve
months. Fighting during the year has killed 7,000, injured around
100,000 and made more than half a million people homeless,
according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.