AFGHANISTAN: WHAT FUTURE ?

To contemplate the political future or even the simple existence of Afghanistan, it is important to have a brief look to the history of Afghanistan as from the middle of the 18th. century !!

The history of last 254 years of the Afghanistan is divided in two major chapters:

1.- THE GLORY OF THE AFGHAN EMPIRE (1747-1793)

2.- THE DEATH OF THE AFGHAN EMPIRE (1793-today)

1.- THE GLORY OF THE AFGHAN EMPIRE

AHMAD SHAH (1747-1773):

It is under the reign of Ahmad Shah that Afghanistan knew its most glorious period.. Ahmad Shah was elected in 1747 leader of the Afghans.. He was a Sunni Muslim from the Pashtun tribes of the Abdali confederation.. At a later stage, Ahmad Shah changed the name of his own tribal confederation from "Abdali" to "Durrani" ("The Pearl of the Age")..

The Afghani Empire during that period extended from Central Asia in the North to the Arabian Sea in the South and from Kashmir & Delhi in the East to Mash'had & Nishapour (present-day Iran) in the West..

The Durrani Empire of Afghanistan was the greatest Muslim empire in the second half of the 18th century..

The legacy of Ahmad Shaw was not only because he was the last among the Great Central Asian warriors and political leaders, in the tradition of Genghiz Khan, Timur, Babur and Shah Abaas, but also because he united, for the first time, under his command all the Pashtun tribes over whom he ruled as first among equals.. His success in wars, piety, justice, wise political leadership won him the greatest deal of popular support and his name revered in the Afghan history as the father of the nation ("Ahmad Shah Baba").

TIMUR SHAH (1773-1793):

In spite of constant internal revolts, the Afghan Empire survived intact through the twenty years of the reign of Ahmad Shah's son, Timur Shah.. He moved his capital from Kandahar to Kabul mainly in order to weaken the power of other Durrani leaders..

2.- THE DEATH OF THE AFGHAN EMPIRE (1793-1900)

After the death of Timur Shah in 1793, his son Zaman Shah took control of the Afghan Empire.. The reign of Zaman Shah (1793-1801) marked the beginning of the decline of the Afghan Empire which was the combination of many factors the most significant of which were:

a.- The weakness of the Afghani leadership.

b.- The constant internal clashes between the different tribes.

c.- The territorial ambitions of Afghanistan's neighbors: The British (who were occupying India) in the East, The Russians in the North, and the Persians in the West.

The chronology of the fragmentation and shrunk of the Afghan Empire

1795: Khurasan province (Capital Mash'had in today's Iran) lost to the Persians.

1826: Sind province (the biggest Afghani province, capital city Karatchi on the Arabian Sea in today's Pakistan) lost to the British.

1834: Peshawar (in today's Pakistan) lost to the British and the Sikhs.

1836: The British invasion of Afghanistan was defeated.

1839-1842: The First Anglo-Afghan war ended by the defeat of the British.

1859: The British occupied Baluchistan; Afghanistan became completely landlocked.

1865: Most of Uzbekistan lost to Russia, particularly the cities of Bukhara, Tashkent and Samarkand.

1878-1880: The Second Anglo-Afghan war resulted in:

a) the loss of the following Afghani territories to the British: Kurram, Khyber, Michni, Pishin, and Sibi.

b) the British retain the right to handle Afghanistan's foreign relations.

1885: Panjdeh Oasis, a piece of Afghan territory north of the Oxus River lost to the Russians

The backgrounds of the foreign invasions of Afghanistan

a) The Persians: The reconstitution of the once famous Persian Empire.

b) The Russians: The continuation of their wars against all their Muslim neighbors including the Ottomans, the Persians, the Muslim countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus then annex them to the Russian Empire.

c) The British: Their attitude was the most cynical.. Like everywhere else during their colonial era, their hatred of Islam and Muslims pushed them to grab as much lands as they can from Muslim countries and gift them to the enemies of Islam and Muslims.. In the case of Afghanistan, the Indian Sikhs where the lucky beneficiaries.

As a result of Afghanistan defeat in the second British-Afghan war, the British put Amir Abdul Rahman, a British puppet, (1880-1901) on the throne of Afghanistan..

To be fully certain that Afghanistan will never recover from its defeat, the British implemented yet another two points diabolic and Machiavellian plan:

a) In 1893, the British grabbed more territories from Afghanistan and drew the "DURAND LINE", the new borders between Afghanistan and India thus splitting Afghan tribal areas, leaving half of these Afghans under the mercy of the Indians. Those who suffered most from the Durand Line were the Pashtuns with their territories divided in two roughly equal parts.

b) As if all above measures were not enough to satisfy the British hatred of Islam as well as their punishment of the Afghani people, they forced the implementation of yet another plan guaranteeing constant conflicts between the different ethnic groups of the Afghani populations.. "The Internal Imperialism" consisted of forcing Pashtun populations move from their traditional territories in the South to be settled alongside the Russian and Persian borders among the ethnic Tajik and Turkic populations.

c) The history of Afghanistan since the beginning of the 20th. century till now is a very logical consequence of the plan which was architected and put in place by the cynical British colonialist politicians.. That period could be simply resumed by the following:

- Permanent internal struggles between the different ethnic groups.

- Permanent tensions with neighboring countries.

- permanent interference of neighboring countries as well as foreign powers..

The destiny and future of Afghanistan became recently even more dramatic thanks to the discovery of petrol & gas fields in Central Asia which opened the appetite of all Imperialist powers who want now to have their zones of influence in that area.. In addition to the Americans, the Russians, the British and the French, two new countries want to have their parts of the cake: Germany & Japan.. Both of them just decided to send thousands of their troops to Afghanistan.. What a shame that all these very rich countries want to put their hands on the natural resources that God gave these Central Asian countries, among the poorest on earth !!

Remain is the important question: WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF AFGHANISTAN ?

From the above, it is crystal clear that Afghanistan, in its present borders and mosaic of ethnic groups, does not have any chane.. That task become impossible to achieve if, on top of the above, such government must also be agreed on by all Afghanistan's neighbors as well as all imperialist powers !!

Of course the best way to solve the Afghani problem is to reconstitute again the Durrani Afghani Empire of the 18th. century.. Unfortunately none of the neighbors of Afghanistan will accept that solution which supposes the return to Afghanistan of a very big part of Pakistan, the North of India, Kashmir, Uzbekistan and Kurasan.. From their side, the imperialist powers will not accept the resurrection of a big, strong and stable country..

In my opinion, the following proposal is therefore the only realistic solution if the real objectives are, from one side, to give the people of Afghanistan a peaceful environment which they deserve in all respects after two centuries during which the experienced all kind of plots against their country and, from the other side, create a peaceful environment for the whole Central Asia..

THE DISMANTLE OF "AFGHANISTAN"

This plan consists on setting up an international conference co-chaired by the United Nations as well as the Organization of the Islamic Conference..

This conference will be attended by representative of:

- all Afghani ethnic groups.

- all countries which have common borders with Afghanistan.

- the five permanent members of the United Nations' Security Council.

The task of that conference would be:

- the "dismantle" of Afghanistan and the attachment of its different ethnic territories to the relative ethnic neighboring countries.

- the constitution of an international fund to help the reconstruction of the Afghani cities which have been destroyed by the continuous foreigners' war games during the last 25 years.

The borders of the new countries as drawn at the end of this conference, will be signed on by all parties as well as the five permanent members of the UNSC.

The present Afghani ethnic territories will be attached to the following neighboring countries:

- To unite the Afghani Tajiks with Tajikistan.

- To unite the Afghani Uzbeks with Uzbekistan.

- To unite the Afghani Turkmen with Turkmenistan.

- To unite the Afghani Baluchis, the Ismailis, the Nuristanis and the Pashtuns with Pakistan.

- The Hazaras have to decide which country they want to unite.

The following guidelines should be taken into consideration:

- The attached territories MUST have territorial continuities with the countries they are attached to.

- No enclaves should be permitted even if that supposes the displacement of certain populations.

This plan will have the following effects:

a) Solving for good the disputes between the different Afghani ethnic groups.

b) The pacification of the whole East Asia.

c) Preventing disputes between the countries of that area.

d) Preventing interference of foreign powers in that area.

Signed:

Saad S Fayoumi - Antwerp, Belgium

e-mail: saadfayoumi@yahoo.com