Sept. 11-More Background
Information on Afghanistan

Published on Wednesday, September 19, 2001 in the International
Herald Tribune

Spare the Afghans by Seeking Justice, Not Revenge

by Patricia Gossman

The few Americans who visit Afghanistan discover, as I have, that fear rules
the lives of ordinary Afghans. Fear of the Taleban regime and the police
state that they have imposed. Fear of Osama bin Laden, his fighters and
other "international guests" who have joined the Taleban in ruthless attacks
on Afghan civilians. And fear that more American cruise missiles will hit
the country, as they did in 1998 after the bombing attacks on U.S. embassies
in Kenya and Tanzania that were blamed by U.S. officials on Mr. bin Laden
and his supporters.
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As the United States plans its response to the atrocities of last week, two
questions should override all others: How can those responsible be punished
without inflicting more terror on people in Afghanistan who have themselves
been the victims of these same criminals? And who will be left to govern
Afghanistan when it is all over?
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Lawmakers in Washington who ought to know better have been urging the United
States to hit back hard and damn the consequences, dismissing concerns about
collateral damage, as if the Afghan people were responsible for Mr. bin
Laden's rise to power.
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In the past few days Afghans have watched virtually all United Nations aid
workers and other international staff leave their ruined and starving
country, knowing full well what that portends for them. They have good
reason to fear, and not just from the possibility of an errant missile.
Until now, the UN World Food Program had been feeding 3 million Afghans
in rural areas of the country; it is unlikely that even a fraction of that
program can continue.
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The anticipated collateral damage is almost incalculable: The Afghans now
pouring out of the cities in fear of a U.S. air strike will be joined by
thousands of others roaming the drought-stricken country in search of food
or trying to crowd once again into Pakistan or Iran, neither of which will
welcome them since they are already hosting 3.5 million Afghan refugees
between them.
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There will be other collateral damage. The Bush administration has vowed to
end state support for terrorism. In Afghanistan, that could only mean
removing the Taleban itself. But even if the United States and its allies
succeed in crushing Mr. bin Laden's organization - and that's a big if - and
crippling the Taleban, what kind of government will follow?
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Three days before the U.S. attacks, Mr. bin Laden apparently organized the
assassination of the Taleban's most able Afghan opponent, the guerrilla
commander Ahmed Shah Massoud. The groups fighting the Taleban may still get
increased support, if not from the United States directly, then from Iran,
Russia and India. But none of the Afghan factions has the capacity to create
a government.
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In the years that followed the withdrawal of Soviet forces in 1989 and the
subsequent collapse of the Communist government of Afghanistan, anarchy
reigned. Warlords divided the country, and destroyed a third of Kabul in
their fight to control it. It was against this background that the Taleban
emerged, with Pakistan's support, to impose their own interpretation of
Islamic law, enforced at gunpoint.
.
If the Taleban leadership is killed, what will become of the thousands of
fighters there and in Pakistan committed to their cause? How will they react
towards Pakistan. What new force will emerge in Afghanistan itself, as
commanders and their patrons again carve up the country?
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What has been missing in the increasingly jingoistic atmosphere in the
United States is any reference to Afghanistan's long-standing crisis of
impunity. The Taleban and some of Mr. bin Laden's forces are guilty of war
crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan. These include the
massacres of thousands of civilians and the burning down of entire towns;
though these have been documented, not one member of the Taleban has ever
been indicted for such crimes.
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If the military response to the attacks on U.S. civilians leads to the
capture of Taleban leaders, then they should be tried for all of these
crimes not in U.S. military tribunals but in an international war crimes
tribunal such as has been established for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
Exposure of these crimes might also help dissuade their supporters from
taking up the cause anew.
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It will take more than that, of course, to undo the networks of violence
that have eroded civil society and provided the pretext for state repression
from the Gulf states to Central and South Asia. But without real justice,
and not just revenge, the terror will not end for Afghanistan, or for the
rest of the world.
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The writer, a consultant on human rights in South Asia, contributed this
comment to the International Herald Tribune.