Sayed Abdul Qudos (Sayed)
military and political Author and researcher
Date, 16.1.2010
Honorable ladies and gentlemen!
London Conference, which is to be held on 28th January 2010 on Afghanistan situation, has raised new hopes after 8 years of continuous efforts and missed opportunities.
As an Army expert, I stress upon some important points to bring Afghanistan out of the current crises and lead towards the construction and development phase of the country.
I suggest these opinions:
1. Political and military situation of Afghanistan after the elections, strong presence of warlords and human rights violators in the government, corruption, smuggling, women rights violations, failure of military forces in ensuring peace and security, and failure in eradication of poverty and unemployment have forced Afghanistan to face unpleasant and dangers situation.
I believe that most Afghan people criticize the 8 - year achievement of the Afghan government and it is to say that the position of Afghanistan government in terms of instability, promotion of extremists and fundamentalism is equal to insurgents’ activities.
Propagation and promoting of Jihadi Ideology (Holy war) and governmental officials through media have changed government’s prime strategy. Propagation of Jihadi programs are more widely disseminated than cultural programs in Afghanistan. The mentality of the people in Afghanistan is under the invasion of religious radicalism.
For example, according to government reports, right now there are 578 religious organizations in which 135000 students are trained by 5630 Islamic teachers who have Jihadi ideologies.
Teaching plan in these organizations, which is prepared by Afghan Ministry of Education, is the same as Taliban have in their training centers in Pakistan.
The number of students in these religious centers has doubled than that of Taliban regime. It is to be mentioned that Islamic teaching are performed in house environment and from kindergarten to university and also at the 160,000 mosques in all over Afghanistan by clergies who get salary from government.
At the same time from one side propagation of Jihad by Taliban and Al Qaeda, establishment of religious schools and appointing of Jihadi clergies in the religious centers, and on other side canonization and edification of Jihad (holy war) by government officials through media such as TVs, radios and news papers can serve the ideology of the Al Qaeda and other insurgent groups.
It’s the fact that a part of international financial assistance instead of being spent on modern education, development of economy and social programs is being used for training of a Jihady generation that helps Al Qaeda in this country despite presence of strong force of NATO.
If by achieving of logical policy, changing of religious training centers to modern schools and prevention of Jihadi propagations, Afghan government doesn’t do any thing , the mistakes of 80 dictate will be repeated in Afghanistan.
2. Right now with the presence of NATO, Afghanistan is under huge pressure of Jihadi propagation. Governmental officials, governmental Jihadi and warlords’ media, Taliban, Al Qaeda, and African and Asian fundamentalists propagandize against NATO in Afghanistan.
Government officials from top to bottom even the president, ministers and governors through the process of accusation, criticizing and manipulating innocent people’s emotions are busy in launching protest against NATO and international community.
To broadcast, the government media does not have programs to show NATO cooperation which are to save Afghanistan from terrorism clutches and the menace of backwardness.
Neither Afghanistan government nor international community up to now has paid attention to annihilate terrorism propagations. For example: Kabul government hasn’t used up to now its major civil forces of 160,000 clergies. They are 5 times in contact with the people during prayers every day.
Afghan government can use these people for dissemination of its strategy, law, organizing of people for supporting the government policy and preventing people to join from radicalism ideologies.
In the new proposed cabinet President Karzai introduced a Mullah for the ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs instead of appointing an expert. Finally the mullah was rejected by the parliament.
International organizations and European media such as BBC and Deutche Welle still as the same as cold war celebrate from Jahadism till making of champions .
Generally this system and this situation have helped Jihadi incentives, anti western ideas and dissatisfaction of people with the government and international community. Therefore, cultural affairs of Afghanistan in this war need serious consideration and strength. Otherwise more dissatisfaction and oppositions will increase.
3: International community with cooperation of current Afghan army structure will no be successful in fighting against terrorism, because this army has ethnic feelings and is leading by inexpert and inexperienced people.
Some forces of Afghan national army sell their weapons; there are people in the army induced by the extremists, Al Qaeda and Taliban. Not only this, 95% of the Afghan national army is illiterate who are under the influence of Jihadi ideologies.
Solving the Afghan army problems in fast manner is not possible, despite equipping them with modern weapons and hiring of expert military officers for commanding the Afghan military, who are bravely fighting against Al Qaeda and Jihadism. Number of these military experts is more in Afghanistan and out side of the country.
Importance of quality than quantity, development of cultural and systematic activities and increasing of moral enthusiasm will help stability of Afghan military forces.
4. During current worsening situation of Afghanistan which has put question mark for the past 8 years achievements in the country and problems like government crisis, regional instability and struggle, unsuccessful operation in defeating Al Qaeda, spreading of Taliban ideology in the society and decreasing the level of NATO victory have created a big challenge in solving Afghanistan problems through military actions.
I am in favor of the idea of solving the problems through political efforts in Afghanistan.
Deployment of more forces to Afghanistan can be used for restoring security and stability but at the same time it causes huge causalities for the international forces and civilians and also it requires spending of too much money.
War in Afghanistan is a different kind. In this war just military forces can not be successful. Some other factors such as social, geopolitics, cultural and existence of a powerful army to safeguard the national interest of Afghanistan is also needed.
Till this time, problems of poverty, government ignorance, and crisis of laws, drug production, and presence of warlords and human rights violators in key positions of the government have not been addressed. At this point I can say only military operations can not be efficient to bring the country out of the chaos.
Now it is the time that a political way should be found having in remembrance the interest of Afghanistan and the international community.
5. It is clear that one of the reasons of Taliban insurgency is mass murder of 3000 Taliban insurgents during 2001 captivity by those people who have not been charged and right now have hold high positions in Afghanistan government.
They have their benefits in continuing the war in the country which is not in the interest of the Afghanistan common people. By misusing the situation, they want to be in power and not to be dragged to the court. Existence of such factors in the government will create challenges for the peace talks with the Taliban.
Therefore United Nations and international community’s stance is important in the negotiation process. They should try to lunch emergency Loya Jirga (Grand session) with participation of Taliban and after that a transitional government should be established.
I hope London conference and its outcome will be a changing factor for Afghanistan’s worsening situation. I hope this conference will be a cause in ending the bullet firing, bombardment, air strikes and suicide attacks which are born by the innocent Afghan people. I hope with the help of international community the current situation of Afghanistan will change and the country will be on the way of reconstruction and development.
Sayed Abdul Qudos (Sayed) military and political Author and researcher
Mathyst 24 A
76133 Karlsruhe Germany
