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Editorial
April 2001
Politics behind Afghan devastation
With women being imprisoned and even murdered in a system of gender
apartheid, with four million of its people on the verge of starvation, with
nearly a quarter million fleeing to refugee camps in Pakistan, with
thousands freezing to death for lack of shelter in internal camps near
Herat, the Taliban government suddenly decreed there was nothing more
urgent than to destroy thousands of historical artifacts, including the two
Buddhas of Bamiyan. Taliban's self-anointed "king of the faithful" and
supreme demagogue Mullah Mohammad Omar issued the decree on Feb. 26,
claiming Muslim sanctions against idolatry. Nothing could be further from
the truth.
Most analysts and reporters seem to be at a loss to explain the savagery
against Afghanistan's rich cultural heritage. Taliban spokesmen repeatedly
ridiculed the rest of the world for their overblown concern with a bunch of
stones. The world outcry led by UNESCO calling Taliban actions a "crime
against culture," and the appeals by delegates from the Islamic States
Organization rejecting the Taliban's religious justifications, failed to
convince Mullah Omar to rescind the decree.
METHOD BEHIND 'RAGE'
The destruction continued unabated from late February until mid-March when
the two tallest Buddhas of Bamiyan were blown up using tanks and rocket
launchers. The most prominent relics of a direct meeting of Greek and
Buddhist civilizations, the remnants of the Gandhara civilization have now
been blown to pieces.
Many journalists and observers tend to attribute such savagery by the
Taliban to their purist Islamic views or to an alleged "rural idiocy" of
the Taliban's young adherents. As Barbara Crossette points out, Taliban's
adherents "are educated in rote sectarian blindness." (NEW YORK TIMES,
March 18) But these actions are not just expressions of an unthinking rage,
just as Mao's Red Guards in China during the Cultural Revolution, or
student "followers of the Line of Imam" in Iran during the hostage crisis
were used for very specific factional purposes to achieve certain political
goals.
It was no accident that the decree was issued on the same day that an
international delegation arrived in Kabul to investigate the looting of the
Kabul museum. They were told to expect a major decision on the
"preservation" of that country's cultural heritage. Nor was it a
coincidence that on Feb. 20 Human Rights Watch reported a new massacre of
nearly 400 Hazara ethnics by the Taliban in the vicinity of Bamiyan.
Feb. 20 was also the day the UN security council's sanctions introduced
jointly by the U.S. and Russia went into effect. The joint
U.S.-Russian-sponsored sanctions bill passed over the objections of China.
The sanctions package bans the sale of arms to the Taliban but not to the
northern based Mujahedeen Alliance who are backed by Russia and Iran. The
Mujahedeen (reduced mostly to ethnic Tajiks) are expected to start their
spring offensive any day.
VYING FOR INFLUENCE
In any case, the systematic and totalitarian character of their conquest of
Afghanistan over the last four years, their assaults on all aspects of
non-conforming Afghan society, first and foremost women, their articulate
spokesmen and roving ambassadors carefully recruiting sympathizers in U.S.
universities (while being given space and sympathy even by some left
groups) show they are far from "illiterate sons of peasants," as bourgeois
reporters like to see them.
The decree to destroy the statues had little to do with Islamic rules
against idolatry. Years of Saudi backing and U.S. training, as well as
arrogant misogynist organizing in the refugee camps of Pakistan, have
taught the Afghan fundamentalists how to exert power.
The Taliban is also aware of the regional context of jockeying for power
and influence over Central Asia. They know that the U.S.-Russia sanctions
are not aimed at weakening their assault on Afghan society. As James
Ingalls recently wrote: "By focusing on Osama bin Laden, drugs, and the
terrorist associations of the Taliban, the U.S. government effectively
blocks discussions of its own considerable role in decimating Afghan
society. The new sanctions do not diminish that role" (Z MAGAZINE, March
2001, p. 49).
The Russians also bear a major responsibility for the horrible destruction
of Afghanistan during the 1980s and early 1990s. Central Asians are well
aware of the imperialist role of the Russian army not only in the 1980s but
as it continues today in Chechnya and the horrible destruction of Grozny.
In the end, the Taliban decree to destroy the irreplaceable Bamiyan Buddhas
wasn't just an assault on the remnants of a great civilization. It is also
a calculated assault on the diverse cultural heritage of the masses,
especially on Afghan women. Our responsibility is to search for and
solidarize with those opposed to the Taliban's inhuman practices against
both live human beings and their historic memory.
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