Rebuilding Afghanistan

By M Rama Rao

As the Afghan campaign is entering its second phase, which would see the consolidation of Northern Afghanistan under the US led forces, attention has begun to focus on a neglected aspect of the operation to overthrow the Taliban. Credit for drawing world attention to what is undoubtedly the flip side of the "Good against Evil'' war should go to the Afghan women groups.

Indeed, it is surprising how the Allies in the fight against terrorism did not factor in the human suffering brought in by successive years of drought, the Taliban misrule, and now the aerial bombardment. Air dropping of food packets and broadcasts from the air that the food packets were safe to eat may offer a human angle to the frontline despatches penned from the comfort of a hotel in Peshawar or Quetta but bring no relief to the millions for whom survival itself is at stake.

In fact, by the second week of October, refugees pouring into Pakistan, Iran and the CIS countries in the neighbourhood ended up as statistics and as occasional photo ops. The outpouring of generosity, one witnessed at the outset, had virtually dried up. With relief agencies abandoning their posts in the Taliban territory in the face of a 'run ' on their warehouses, millions of ‘ ‘internally ‘ displaced Afghans remained holed up in what a sympathetic Journalist termed as ‘dark ages brought in by American ballistic fury’.

Who should bear the cross for the mess on the humanitarian front is of mere academic interest at this stage. It will not offer succour to the Afghan, who is at the cross roads of his destiny once again in the long and chequered history of his country.

From all accounts, both the UN and the International Red Cross appear to have a lot of explaining to do for not raising up to the ‘deadly humanitarian’ crisis. In contrast some privately funded voluntary agencies from France, Germany and Britain have acquitted well in the face of great threat to the life and limbs of their volunteers, both in the Taliban land and the areas under the Northern Alliance (NA).

The Afghan people are victims a combination of factors. Taliban’s oppressive rule only compounded their miseries, which can be traced directly to the Cold War rivalries on the Afghan soil. Civil war and religious strife that followed the retreat of cold war powers from the scene are no less responsible for heaping severe hardship on the Afghans.

It is a matter of common knowledge and hence no exaggeration to say that by time the Tailban triumphantly marched into Kabul, the Afghan economy was on the verge of collapse. Refugee camps in Pakistan, Iran and Uzbekistan were a grim reminder of unwelcome environment back home by then.

According to UN estimates, even before the Black Tuesday of September 11 knocked off the Big Apple’s landmarks, 3.8 million Afghans relied on food doles. By the first week of November, their number swelled with another 5.5 million pouring out of their homes.

Problems in a Somalia or Rwanda are no comparison to the human catastrophe unfolding on the Afghan borders with its neighbours as icy winds have begun to make movement difficult. There is no gain saying that immense amounts of food, clean water, and blankets are needed besides shelter in the refugee camps along the borders, and in the villages, some deep inside the Taliban land, where some people have remained unmindful of the frightening experience life has become to them.

A new complication in the relief effort is the deteriorating security scene in Pakistan, the unwilling host to most of the ‘displaced’ Afghans. Daily demonstrations against Pakistan siding with the US in the war against the Taliban-Osama combine have begun to curtail the mobility of the relief workers. These demonstrations staged by the radicals and their fundamentalist sympathisers often end up in a violent display of firepower.

As a consequence, the international staff of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is relying on local contractors to transport supplies to the camps. Given the level of deprivation in the area where the refugee camps have come up, a significant percentage of supplies are ending up at the local market place.

Unless the US and other countries in the forefront of the campaign against terrorism step forward with a liberal dose of food aid, medicines and blankets, freezing temperatures and starvation will greatly undermine whatever gains are there on the war front. It will also blunt the effectiveness of the political -dispensation that is being cobbled up to replace the Taliban in the liberated areas.

President George W Bush has pledged an additional $ 320 niilon in humanitarian relief. Given the sheer enormity of the problem, this aid is peanuts. For some time now, both the White House and the State Department are flooded with E-mails (since snail mail is anthraxed) from Afghan women groups.

All appeals have only one message: "Please commit more funds for essential relief efforts. Work with Pakistani authorities to ensure the safety of relief workers so that humanitarian aid reaches the Afghan civilians, inside and outside of the country’s borders".

The Afghan women groups have another appeal. It is not yet louder but it cannot be ignored. It is for a proper place for the women in the ‘reconstruction of Afghanistan’ in the post-Taliban phase.

Before the Taliban established its sway over most of Afghanistan in 1996, Afghan women were in the forefront of A walks of life to a large extent encouraged by the 'revolutionary’ ideas of King Zahir Shah.

The fact that his ideas did not jell well with the orthodox did not matter much. About 70 per cent of school teachers were women; they held 40 percent of the doctors’ posts. In fact, almost fifty percent (some put this percentage a little higher) of government jobs were filled with women. Almost half of the students enrolled in the Kabul colleges and the University were women, of course.

Situation changed under the Taliban. And in the past five years, the situation deteriorated as the moral police acquired a vice like grip on the Afghan society.

Women are barred from working, attending school, receiving health care, and going outside without both a male relative and a burqa. Beating, torture and execution became a norm for violation of the Taliban edict.

Yet, surprisingly, women have not given up their pursuit of knowledge. An underground movement, mostly conducted by women, has sprung up under the very nose of the Taliban in Kabul to help less privileged women to leaim reading and writing, and be prepared to shoulder any new responsibility the times may demand.

Now, when Afghanistan is at the threshold of a new dawn, the country's women power should not be ignored. In fact, the Afghan women should be helped to actively participate in nursing the country as full and equal partners. Afghan women leaders must be sought out and given priority in rebuilding Afghanistan.

As Mohammad Cabool, Editor - Publisher of Kabul’s Nawa-e’Sobh (Voice of Morning) in the Pre-Najibullah days, says, Afghan catastrophe is primarily because of the habit of ignoring the people’s will after the collapse of communist regime in 1992.

In the years since then, educated Afghans, intellectuals, civic-minded Afghans, even most business people were pushed to the sidelines. As a part of the vast silent majority, they remained marginalized. It is time to tap their potential in mobilising the Afghan masses to lay the foundations of democracy and to reconstruct the economy. Even the transformation of military formations into political parties will require their full backing.

--Syndicate Features

Move closer to Arab-African nations

By Dr Jagdish P Sharma

There is hardly any region in the world with which we have better and more cordial relations than the Arab-African world. Our social and cultural relations and trade ties with the Arab-Africa date back to prehistoric times. The people of the Indus valley had intimate relations with the people of Sumer and trade and commercial ties with Egypt and Crete.

With the advent of Islam, relations between India and the Arab-African countries were further strengthened. Science and art of one were transmitted almost liberally to the other through translations. There was also an exchange of philosophical thought and religious and cultural beliefs. Both influenced each other in their social and cultural bonds.

In the modern period, India has looked upon the Arab African countries as brothers in arms fighting for their freedom and for the assertion of their legitimate rights against the western colonial and imperialist exploitation. The freedom movement in Algeria, Sudan, Iraq, Turkey, Libya, Morocco, Namibia, South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia and several other countries found among Indians ardent sympathy and admiration. The commonality in outlook and commitment to the common social, political, and economic values opened a new chapter in the history of our relationship with the advent of freedom.

Pakistan, since its birth in 1947, has used all its propaganda media to project the Kashmir issue as a Hindu aggression against the Muslim majority of the Kashmir state. But Arab-African countries like Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Syria have refused to be swayed away by the Islamabad rhetoric. They have maintained a rational attitude in regard to the problems in the sub-continent as was evident from the outcome of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s visit to New Delhi. About the visit a little while later but first an observation on the entire gamut of India’s relations with the Arab-African states.

At the United Nations and other international fora, we have been working in the closet cooperation. India championed the cause of the freedom of former Italian colonies like Libya. India also supported strongly the liberation struggle of the Algerians and Moroccans. India’s support for the independence struggle of the people of the Palestine and Western Sahara is a matter of public record.

At the titne of the creation of Israel on the Palestinian soil, India identified itself with the Arab - African position, as a matter of principle, and voted against the partition of the Palestine into the Arab and Jewish Zones of administration. India has consistently supported Arab-African causes, condemned the Zionist aggression and expansionism, and championed the Palestinian’s right to establish their own sovereign state.

Our foreign policy towards the Arab-African world is guided by three major principles; opposition to imperialism and colonialism, extension and consolidation of peace, and restoration and strengthening of Indian’s cultural, social, political and economic and commercial ties. Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's visit as the ‘Guest of Honour’ during the Republic Day offers a benchmark to evaluate these policy prescriptions.

Algeria is one Arab-African country with which India has had very close relations. all through. President K R Narayanan and his Algerian guest renewed the commitment of the two countries to restoration of peace in the region torn by conflicts. They expressed commonality of interest for ‘increased cooperation for mutual economic benefit with President Bouteflika, rightly, observing, "the scope for bilateral economic cooperation is unlimited."

The areas, he identfied, range from agriculture pharmaceuticals, industry, banking, science and technology, energy with special thrust on gas exploration, to manufacturing of trucks and farm implements, and hotel management in the tare spirit of South - South cooperation.

Since both countries are confronted with extremists and radicals, it was natural for them to discuss the ramifications of international terrorism and religious fanaticism. In fact, the Indo-Algerian Joint Commission, which held its eighth session marking President Bouteflika visit, agreed that the two countries should take initiatives to address these concerns and the issues related to cross border terrorism and religious extremism.

It is no surprise that the unfolding developments in Afghanistan engaged the leadership of the two countries as a matter of serious discussion while on the issue of threat posed by fundamentalist . That the September 11 has underlined the relevance of India - Algeria concern goes without saying. Religious fundamentalism, President Bouteflika, observed, is a common challenge, and told his Indian interlocutors, "Violence anywhere should be fought by all means". How prophetic his assertion has turned out to be!

The Algerian defence minister, who is scheduled to visit India shortly, can be expected’ to pick up the thread of the discussions at the highest level and pave the way for a more closer political, defence and economic cooperation.

Like India, Algeria has a large inventory of Soviet origin weaponry. These need servicing and to some extent modernisation too. This is a familiar terrain to New Delhi. So is Algeria’s other request for help in making its army a modem and professional force. Certainly a significant landmark in Indo-Algerian relations was the "Partnership Declaration" signed at the end of the President Bouteflika's visit. It reflected the concern of the two countries over the menace of terrorism and highlighted their firm resolve to lay a solid foundation for expanding the bilateral economic agenda. The intent was translated into action through an agreement on avoidance of double taxation that should pave the way for increased bilateral trade. Tie-ups were signed on cooperation in diverse fields like oil exploration, Pyto-santiary items and environment protection. The proposed partnership will also cover education, culture, science, computer technology, television, communications technology, tourism and railways.

The overseas subsidiary of the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) negotiated a Rs. 2000 crore oil prospecting deal with Algeria’s Sanatrach. Private sector giant, Ispat international of London based steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal is interested to pick up a stake in the state owned Algerian steel enterprise. Both sides are in negotiations to clinch the deal.

Engineer India Limited (EIL) and Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) are already working in Algeria. They are likely to expand their operations. Indian public and private large number of Algeria. They are sector companies are participating in a large number of Algerian ventures. They are keen to pick up more projects along the way.

Algeria is steadily making rapid strides. Economic reforms are opening up the country and these have brought India and Algeria together. New Delhi is in a position to meet its demand for highly skilled personnel besides technical know-how and materials for infrastructure development.

Like in respect of Algeria, in respect of most other Arab African countries, India can play a leading role in meeting their plans for a diversified industrialised base. It is not going to be a one - way street. The massive size of the Indian economy makes it a promising market for the Arab - African countries.

Suffice to say, viewed from the prism of paradigm change in the development strategy, the relations between India and the Arab-African countries-hold enormous potential for entering the consolidation phase by fully exploiting the new opportunities thrown up by information technology to shape the socio-political and economic future of their people with emphasis on quality of growth.

--Syndicate Features