Unfinished business in Afghanistan

By SAYED SALAHUDDIN

One of the world's most complex and xenophobic people, Afghans do not normally agree on much, including the presence of United States-led forces in their country. However, they have been united by a collective fear of new turmoil if the international community turns its sights elsewhere as the United States enters into war against Iraq.

The big fear is the battered nation will again descend into civil war, fractured along ethnic lines as it was in the 1990s when the United States washed its hands of Afghanistan after the defeat of the Soviet empire.

Many of the factions which fought each other then still control territory and some have clashed since the US military and its Western allies came to Afghanistan in late 2001 and drove from power the Taleban and their al Qaeda network allies.

The United States has promised Afghanistan a broad-based democratic government, new infrastructure and that the impoverished, war-ravaged nation will not be abandoned again.

"The Americans have lots of unfinished business here to complete," said Timoor Shah, a building contractor. "Why are they going to war against Iraq when they have not sorted out problems here, like lack of security, the most important thing for us?

"There is a potential threat from lots of groups to security and I am perhaps like other people here afraid of the situation," he said, sipping tea in a small restaurant, a common spot for Afghans to swap gossip and news.

People sitting huddled nearby nodded in agreement. "If we don't have security, as is the case in several parts of the country, then reconstruction may not take place," said Nadeem, a bookseller. "I don't have much hope about the situation improving. I feel we will go again into oblivion.

"The Americans will keep saying they will not desert us again, but in reality the attention will shift to Iraq and we may end up seeing fighting between commanders here and there.

"You don't see much sign of reconstruction activity here now, and now the war has started then the focus of rebuilding will shift there."

The United States has repeatedly said it is committed to rebuilding Afghanistan despite its pre-occupation with Iraq, North Korea and other trouble spots.

Besides the spectre of new fighting among unruly commanders, the remnants of the ousted Taleban and al Qaeda and supporters of Islamic warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar could also resort to sabotage, international peacekeepers say.

Taleban and Hekmatyar followers are blamed for several rocket and bomb attacks on coalition forces and other targets in Afghanistan over the past 16 months.

Those include an attempt to kill President Hamid Karzai in the southern city of Kandahar and a bomb blast in Kabul that killed 26 and wounded about 150 people.

On Thursday Taleban soldiers ambushed a government post in southern Afghanistan, killing three Afghan soldiers. The soldiers at Sherabik post, near the Pakistan border, were ambushed and their throats were slit.

Attacks in southern Afghanistan, the former spiritual headquarters of the deposed Taleban regime, have been on the increase in recent weeks.

In the past six weeks, almost 40 civilians and government soldiers have been killed or wounded in blasts in the south, once the Taleban's main stronghold, where Taleban and Hekmatyar forces and al Qaeda sympathisers are believed to be dispersed.

Islamic clerics in the south have repeatedly urged people in mosques to rise in holy war against Karzai and the foreign forces. Residents believe such calls will now gather momentum as a result of the United States invading Iraq.

Afghan officials and experts say the Taleban is regrouping just over the border in Pakistan. The officials have demanded that Pakistan does not let its Inter-Services Intelligence agency resume support for the hardliners.

Pakistan, a front-line ally of the United States in the war against terrorism, denies that its intelligence agents are still helping the fundamentalist Taleban.

"International pressure should be brought on Pakistan to adopt a transparent stance regarding Afghanistan, otherwise the situation will deteriorate," analyst Amin Sahir wrote in a leading Afghan government-controlled newspaper, Anis.

"The enemies of peace, helped by arms supplies, will step up attacks in the southern areas simultaneously with a US-led war on Iraq."

- REUTERS