30.05.2008
May 06, 2008 (the date of publication in Russian)
Konstantin Cheremnykh
CLOUDS OVER KABUL. Part 1
Occupying powers flirt with Talibs and prepare partition of Afghanistan
ON THE PATTERN OF GROZNY
Sixteen years ago, Russia's Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev declared in public that the new democratic Russia should not bother about the remains of the communist regime of Afghanistan. This contemptuous remark was a response to the request to provide assistance to the overthrown pro-Soviet leader Najibullah, chair of the Popular Democratic Party of Afghanistan. Four years later, Najibullah, who had voluntarily chosen life home arrest in his native city, was brutally tortured and assassinated by the Taliban.
Kozyrev's remark was made at the time when a sarcastic anecdote described President Boris Yeltsin and State Secretary Gennady Burbulis solving a crossword puzzle where the Omnipotent and Ubiquitous, of four characters, was identified by both as "BUSH" instead of "LORD". The zealous effort of the Russian leadership of that time to please H. R.W. Bush's Washington was popularly mocked by the mass audience. Meanwhile, thousands of pro-Soviet Afghani, thrown into jails by the Mujahideen, or desperately trying to achieve a residence permit in Russia after escaping from their native state, did not feel like joking.
By today, Russia has learnt not only to stand for its interests but sometimes to dictate them, and the manner of demonstrating loyalty to the "Washington Politburo" is overcome by top Russian officials. At least for that reason, Russian state-owned media – if not from shame for the earlier weakness, then from natural generosity, inherent in a strong nation, could mention on April 27 about the 30th anniversary of the Suari Revolution in Afghanistan, when the ascent of Nurmuhammed Taraqi seriously shook the Anglo-American domination in the region for many years.
On that day, the official Kabul celebrated a different university. It had happened so that General Rashid Dostum, fulfilling the common decision of the Mujahideen, occupied Kabul in 1992 on the same date – as at that time, the memory of the revolution was still an element of national glory. Today, the date is featured as the Day of Jihad.
Russian state-owned TV channels only reported, in a few words, that during the celebration ceremony on April 27, 2008, President Hamid Karzai underwent an assault on his life. Commentators could at least draw a parallel between this incident at the central stadium of Kabul with the tragedy in Grozny City, where Chechnya's President and former Mufti Ahmad Kadyrov was assassinated, also at a stadium, on a similarly indicative date – at the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Victory in World War II.
This parallel would be helpful at least to identify a very familiar handwriting. In 1993, Gennady Burbulis, following advice from his Washington patrons from Freedom Foundation, selected the date and hour of the Nazi invasion into the USSR for dispelling a mass demonstration against Yegor Gaidar's "shock therapy" reforms near the Ostankino TV Center. As Mr. Burbulis then explained in private, "it is essential to break the mentality".
While Russian TV channels, still infected with the "Kozyrev complex", black out memories of USSR’s efforts of exporting the socialist model to the Third World, British and American officials don't have any reservations about the experience of export of their own model, using commonly more coercion than the contemporary Soviet regime. In February, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, grandson of a believing Bolshevik, pathetically substantiated the expediency of "export of democracy" predominantly to countries of Asia, repeatedly using – in the positive sense – the term "internationalism", used by Moscow propaganda in 1979 for justifying the military intervention in Afghanistan. Sarcastic criticism of Miliband's proposals in British press was also blacked out by Russian state-owned electronic media.
SPYING OUT THE LAND
In January-February of this year, the conclusion that Hamid Karzai is "exhausted" and "incapable", was broadly accepted in the Euroatlantic circles. The President of Afghanistan was supposed to be replaced by a different, more convenient personality. According to Asia Times, Zalmay Khalilzad, US Ambassador at the United Nations, was pushing his protégé Ali Ahmad Jalili, ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs, earlier dismissed by Karzai and therefore bearing a grudge against the President. Preparations for the shift, planned certainly not through elections but through a coup d'etat, involved also the EU mission in Afghanistan that served as an intermediate in unofficial negotiations between the United States and Uzbekistan, where Rashid Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek, was based. The ambitious general was supposed to be repeatedly used as a convenient instrument for the "Northern flank" of the planned operation.
In fact, Karzai is today disliked not due to being exhausted or weakened but due to his increasing independence from Washington in domestic and foreign policy decision-making. The President was trying to establish relations of mutual understanding with all the neighbor countries, including China and Russia, frequently visiting Beijing and agreeing for associate membership on his country in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). When the Pakistani leader, General Pervez Musharraf, underwent pressure from Britain and the United States, Karzai raised his voice in Musharraf's favor, in accord with the leadership of China. At the economic forum in Davos in January 2008, Karzai told several major Western channels: "We have opened our doors to Iran. They have been helping us in Afghanistan." He emphasized that the Bush administration should "wisely understand that Iran is Afghanistan's neighbor". These remarks were made two days after Washington insisted on new anti-Iranian sanctions over its nuclear power program at the 5+1 Group meeting.
Moreover, in his Davos interview, Mr. Karzai ventured bitter criticism of the tactics of the Anglo-American coalition in Afghanistan, which was not expected from a political figure with a reputation of the West's asset.
"Both the American and British forces guaranteed to me they knew what they were doing, and I made the mistake of listening to them. And, when they came in, the Taliban came", Karzai said to CNN. According to his view, the brutal operations of the British forces in the Helmand province, sacrificing hundreds of civilians, are not favorable for peace in the country – especially because the British and the Americans, verbally expressing commitment to exterminate Taliban, are actually flirting with this movement.
THE MISSION THAT FAILED
The reproach of "flirt with the Talibs" was put in not for the first time. Weeks earlier, on December 25, Karzai categorically demanded extradition of Michael Semple, head of the EU mission in Afghanistan, from the country. Semple, a Brit, along with his UN colleague Mervyn Patterson, an Irishman, were exposed of unofficial friendly contacts with the Talibs by Afhanistan's Security Ministry. KLarzai was also informed that the diplomatic efforts of Mr. Semple and Mr. Patterson served a major role in promotion of Talib warlord Musa Salaam to the post of Governor of Helmand province, this choice approved in public by US Ambassador William Wood.
The US diplomat literally encouraged the "precious cadre" from Taliban: "You can count on the support of the United States... The eyes of the world will be on Musa Qala ... We want to see the voice of the people of Musa Qala represented in the local government and the government of Kabul through your voice".
The same report of the Security Ministry contained information about the training center, organized by the US side for "ex"-Talibs in Musa Qala, the city brutally destroyed in the earlier British operation. This news was sufficient for Karzai to suspect the US-British coalition of planning not only a coup to overthrow him, but also a scenario of Afghanistan's partition. The hasty trip of then-Central Command's Chief Admiral William Fallon to Tashkent confirmed those suspicions.
"I don't need more NATO troops in my country", Hamid Karzai declared in Davos, in an interview to Die Welt. The North Atlantic Alliance has not encountered such kind of disobedience for years.
"The West has fallen upon the pinpoint of proud Afghan mentality", commented Indian diplomat M.A.Bhadrakumar. To his view, Karzai was just fed up with the humiliating role reserved for him: "US commanders have routinely ignored Karzai in the conduct of the heavy-handed war. On a number of occasions, he cut a lonely figure, left to pick up the debris after coalition forces behaved like a marauding army in Afghan villages where three quarters of the people live. Each instance humiliated him and eroded his credibility, especially among Pashtuns".
The British Foreign Office responded to Karzai's remarks with a harsh statement reminding about brave soldiers of the Queen who sacrifice lives for Afghan freedom. But the Afghan leader was not impressed by this reference. Literally on the next day, he expressed protests against the appointment of Lord Paddy Ashdown, a top British diplomat, to the post of the newly-firmed "unified UN command" in Afghanistan.
The attempt to "break the mentality" in Kabul turned a failure. David Miliband had to travel to the Afghan capital for direct talks with Karzai, but the stubborn President refused both to accept a Talib appointment in Helmand and foundation of a new "unified UN command" headed by Ashdown. This double diplomatic failure could not be easily forgiven by London.
(To be continued)
Number of shows: 1223
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