By Fatana Ishaq Gailani, the Director of Afghanistan Women Council and a Women Rights Activist

Afghanistan Women Council as an organization advocating human rights in general and women rights in particular has the following opinion on the issue of talks with insurgent groups:

1. The people of Afghanistan fought the USSR forces for ten years and following its withdrawal fought against the Soviet Union’s puppet government in Kabul led by Dr. Najibullah. As this era ended, the Mujahedin-led Islamic Government by full support of US, Britain and their other NATO partners in 1992 came to power.

Then President, Dr. Najibullah offered his peace reconciliation program to the mujahedin, but it was strongly rejected by all parties. The mujahedin leaders came to power and the interim Mujahedin state replaced Najibullah’s Government in 1992 after hundreds of thousands of people had been killed or disabled.

2. After the 11th September tragedy and the fall of Taliban regime, the unknown Hamid Karzai was brought to the surface. As the Taliban regime was overthrown by the US-led coalition, all Afghan representatives were brought together at a traditional Afghan Council (Loya Jirga) to decide on the new political establishment of the country. But the Hezb-e-Islami leader Hekmatyar and the Taliban leader Mullah Omar were not among the attendees.

I (Fatana Ishaq Gailani) asked Mr. Khalildzad, then the US ambassador and the United Nations’ special representative to Afghanistan, and Mr. Vendrel the European Union Special Envoy, whether Hekmatyar and Mullah Omar could attend the gathering. I told them that both Hekmatyar and Omar had strong influence in Afghanistan and that peace will never be attainable if they do not attend this gathering. They did not pay attention as they thought they had enough military force to silence the insurgent’s leaders in their hideouts forever. Today, we see many of the war criminals are standing in parliamentary election, those who took our sons from the university hostels and buried them alive in plastic bags in mass graves. They killed millions of Afghans in the names of religious leaders, fundamentalists, imperialists etc. The perpetrators of the crimes are now serving in the parliament too. They came to this position under watch of the international community’s representatives and direct supervision of the United States. Meanwhile, international drugs mafia groups are in the National Assembly and in high-level government positions, while no one ask them about their past and none of them is brought for justice.

3- When we talk about peace in Afghanistan many questions arise. Unfortunately, no one is listening to Afghans. The international community through NGOs, the UNAMA, the UNIFEM etc bring Afghans together only for show and to announce their words by Afghans. The international community’s representatives use Afghans as their microphones to tell the world that this is what the Afghans want. In gatherings such as Peace Jirga and other seminars or conferences, they invite people from various parts of the country, but only those who know nothing about the situation going on in Afghanistan. The participants listen to speeches, take lunch and then go home. But the reality is that the Afghans want peace only. As the people of Afghanistan could compromise with the members of the ex-communist regime under the same roof in National Assembly, Upper and Lower houses of the parliament, the Cabinet, government offices and universities, they are able to compromise with Hekmatyar and Mullah Omar too. Hekmatyar and Mullah Omar never did something similar to what was done by the communist regime. It means Afghans can compromise with Hekmatyar and Mullah Omar to finish this destructive and nonsense war.

Afghans have their own customs, culture, traditional rules and regulations that would solve all of their problems. If the US and the coalition forces allow Afghans to make their own decisions or if they really want to bring peace to Afghanistan, they should agree with their partners to honestly resolve the Afghan conflict. Meanwhile, they should pursue Afghanistan’s neighbor countries, which are supporting the militants and instructing their intelligence services to support destructive activities in Afghanistan, to stop interfering in Afghanistan affairs.

Surely, after about a decade of war against Taliban and Al Qaida, the US and rest of the coalition do fully agree that they have not been able to beat Hekmatyar faction and the Taliban.

Each month we hear that it is the bloodiest for the coalition forces. Lets see, how many of the warlords and drug mafia members have so far been brought to justice? The Coalition actually has not realized the production and sales of hundreds of tons of heroin in Afghanistan. They really don’t know those who are doing this in front of eyes of the international community and their intelligent services. If they don’t know, it will be a great sorry for them. If they know and do nothing to stop it, it would be a great sorry for all of us; for us as victims and for the International community as they are claiming removal of Al–Qaida, and also to those who are struggling to convey peace and democracy to the poor nations around the world.

Disclosure of the leaked documents on war against terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan is a recent development, showing the confusions made by the US and the coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan Women Council asks the Afghan Government and the representatives of the international community to honestly follow the peace process under direct supervision of tribal and religious leaders, scholars, professors and representatives of the people to talk to the insurgent groups. Meanwhile, women’s participation in Afghanistan’s political arena should be encouraged and the government should support a pro-women policy in legislations and executive affairs of the country. The government is responsible to boost women’s awareness of their constitutional rights within Afghanistan’s complex traditions and develop their leadership skills.

Undoubtedly, when all Afghans -not only the government but the mainstream- sit together to find solution to the conflict, it would be possible to find a long-standing solution. But interference of other factors in the process, especially power, land, drugs and international mafia, will destroy the chance to find a solution to the conflict. Our neighbors must be convinced to stop their interference in our country and to support the peace process honestly.

Initially, the government of Afghanistan tried to organize a Jirga between Afghanistan and Pakistan border areas. All government employees from both sides were there as participants, but there was no result, because Karzai’s administration is consisted of corrupt people. Here, Karzai has no power to make changes and to fight corruption, because he is manipulated by the powerful lords -warlords, drug-lords and landlords. He will never be able to make positive changes in his administration, because he is not a strong manager and has no influence in the society, as well as having no support among the people. Also there are some people in power structure who do not want peace in Afghanistan, because they were nothing and now they make a lot of money. There is no system to ask them where they got the wealth from? Such people do not want to have peace in the country because when there is efficient government in the country, the windfall owners will never have a chance to make money by using their power.

Then the recent Peace Jirga was conducted, which also had no result. Because again there is not set up an effective process to follow the implementation of the decisions. All opinions, suggestions and recommendations made by the Afghan society's representatives are remaining in papers because there is no action to follow peace.

The Kabul Conference, held in Kabul, also had no results. It was only a political demonstration to show that Afghanistan has become a country where more than 40 country’s Foreign Ministers can participate in a conference. It was only a show to the international community to prove that the Afghan Government is determined to restore peace, lead the development of the country and fight corruption. Most of the warlords are in power, and, in the meantime, most of the high-ranking officials in the Government are corrupt. It means the Afghan Government is a corrupt one as it is dominated by mafia-men and the warlords. Afghan currency’s value is getting higher but instead of rates to go down, the inflation is increasing. After 10 years, still about 12 provinces of Afghanistan use the Pakistani Rupee and 3 provinces use Iranian Rial. All big deals on property, vehicles and other transactions are taking place in US Dollar and Pakistani Rupees, because there is no system to stop people using foreign currency. Undeniably, there are also positive things going on in Afghanistan for which we are thankful to the US and the international community. But the US and other western countries know well that who is who in the Afghan Government and do nothing. Afghans are sorry for that, but have no other doors to knock on for help, because the world is in Afghanistan.

There are many worrying issues going on in the country. The warlords are struggling to take their people to the National Assembly; some of whom are very famous drug dealers. All the criminals, involved in violations against women, want to go to the National Assembly to protect themselves and keep up corruption and illegal works. The officials of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the foreigners know well the perpetrators of crimes, but no one has the will and commitment to do something.

There are many programs running by the government to support women. But if one asks the Ministry of Women Affairs what it is doing, the officials will list petty activities in capital Kabul, what actually NGOs are doing. Is such a ministry needed in the cabinet, while it has no presence in national budget and development planning and doing nothing significant for the women? Our men and women need to be educated; they need to know about a lot of issues regarding to their rights and lives. Such awareness campaign should be planned by the Women’s Ministry not only in cities but also on the village level. It is only a show to the people of the world that Taliban were banning women form work and, while the US-led coalition helps Afghans and they have a ministry for women. No one asks what this ministry is doing. Women are still suffering and no one has any plan for them. The NGOs, Afghan Government and the foreign organizations are talking about developments in Kabul city. But Afghanistan is not Kabul only; it has 33 provinces, in which half of population is women.

The US and the international community know well that the presidential elections was a stigma, but they kept silence. Why? Because the US has no other alternative to replace the current corrupt system set up by President Karzai. The United States has no coherent and effective strategy towards the Government of Afghanistan, in order to determine a new policy, if the Afghan administration does not make positive changes in reforming the current corrupt system, which is like a poison to the Afghan society.

The people should just suffer or remain hopeful for rise of someone able to reform the inept Afghan Government and bring positive changes to the system to help Afghans particularly women and children, who are the main victims of the conflict.

NOTE: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Afghanistan Watch.