لراوبر ویب پاڼه لراوبر يو افغان – تازه خبرونه
Quid pro Quo
Recently, numerous reports have corroborated the presence and deployment of unmarked Russian TU-160 and TU-95 long-range bombers flying bombing missions against fixed Taliban positions in southern areas of Afghanistan. In addition, Russian pilots are flying Northern Alliance combat aircraft in coordinated (with NATO) sorties against Taliban troop formations throughout Afghanistan. Russian advisers are openly providing training for Northern Alliance tank crews as Russian troops attached to the 201st Motorized Rifle Division based in Tajikistan serve in a combat support role with Northern Alliance regulars. Northern Alliance commanders are admitting that there are Russian pilots, advisers and other military personnel directly involved in the conflict against the Taliban inside Afghanistan. Moreover, 1500 soldiers recently were airlifted into Tajikistan to reconstitute shrinking 201st Motorized Rifle Division detachments, a result of deployment to Afghanistan. (1)
In 2001, the Russo-centric Indian military opened a 25-bed field hospital in Farkhar, Tajikistan to treat wounded Northern Alliance soldiers. Under Russia’s Central Operations Strategic Command, American warplanes involved in fighting against the Taliban have been granted basing privileges at Ayni and Farkhor Airbases in Tajikistan and the so-called 999 Airbase in Kyrgyzstan. The Moscow Times reported on 27 September 2011, that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin pledged to provide additional armaments to the Northern Alliance which is fighting with the Taliban. But Russia has already given the anti-Taliban forces as many arms as they can practically absorb. Russia has been in a proxy-war with the Taliban for years fearing that instability and “Taliban-style fundamentalism” will spread from Afghanistan to the North, engulfing Central Asia where Russia has vital strategic interests. (2)
Curiously, NATO and U.S. are silent on these developments. The question is why? In exchange, something for something, the U.S. has pledged its considerable international financial muscle to block money and material support originating from foreign donors and or aid organizations from reaching the embattled Resistance in Chechnya. In addition, based on unsupported allegations of Chechen fighters deployed to Afghanistan in support of the Taliban, the U.S. has listed Chechen Resistance members as “terrorists.” From all accounts statutory and or moral, Russia’s war in Chechnya constitutes “genocide” under a universally recognized-body of international Laws of War. (3)
Russia’s something for something 4-point agreement with the U.S./NATO Contingent is as follows:
1. Offering the U.S. basing rights in the ex-Soviet Central Asian Republics in order to facilitate the infiltration and exfiltration of U.S. forces.
2. Providing the U.S. with Russian intelligence on Zahwar Kili and other cave complexes in Eastern Afghanistan.
3. Offering the use of Russian Airspace for U.S. Search and Rescue missions.
4. Stepping up Russian direct military assistance (pilots, troops, arms and logistical and medical support) to the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. Russian troop formations merged into Northern Alliance troop concentrations engaged against the Taliban are a component of the covert 055, International Brigade. (3)
According to an article by Brian Glyn Williams titled Assessing Russia’s Efforts to Exchange the Post 9/11 War on Terror to Chechnya, Russia has lobbied most effectively to enlist America’s support in their quest to subdue Chechnya. Moreover, there has been a virtual blackout in the American press concerning Russia’s genocidal approach to Chechnya and the fact that America is in political, material and logistical support of a ruthless campaign to suppress Chechen independence. America has also been kept in the dark by the press in regards to (unmarked) Russian combat aircraft yet again engaged in bombing Afghanistan. (4)
Washington’s approach to Afghanistan, as with Russia’s Cold War invasion and occupation (1979-1989) which killed two-million Afghans is doomed to fail. As combat pressure intensifies, more and more civilians are being killed, and the world has taken note of numerous atrocities committed against the Afghan people by U.S. and NATO forces:
To include: Massive bombing of populated areas, torture, indefinite detention, night raids or incursions into private homes which often result in the killing of Afghan civilians, the installation of an unrepresentative puppet-government, and the uncritical support of the minority, pro-Moscow Northern Alliance. A collaborative faction which consists primarily of Tajik and Uzbek ethnic groups who are being groomed as the next government by both Russia and the United States, are but a short compilation of the numerous, premeditated and callous infractions of international law by the U.S.-led NATO military- offensive-assemblage.
The Afghan people however will not ever accept the Northern Alliance as a viable government. The so-called “Alliance” has a long and troubled history of collaboration with Moscow, Tehran, Delhi, and Washington and of ethnic-biased bloodletting or terrorism. Thus Washington through military force and in concert with Moscow’s efforts to manipulate the ethnic-divide in Afghanistan essentially for strategic, political and resource-based control is therefore doomed to fail.
Russia’s deployment of unmarked aircraft is telling. If attacking Afghanistan were deemed a noble endeavor, it is unlikely that Moscow would camouflage their role and hence their combat aircraft. The use of unmarked aircraft violates international statutes. From the 1923 Hague Rules, Air Warfare, and Rules of Aerial Warfare, Chapter 1-Applicability, Classification and Marks:
Article 3:
A military aircraft shall bear an external mark indicating its nationality and military character.
Article 7:
The external marks required by the above articles shall be so affixed that they cannot be altered in flight. They shall be as large as practicable and shall be visible from above, from below and from each side.
Article 14:
Members of the crew of a military aircraft shall wear a fixed distinctive emblem of such character as to be recognizable at a distance in case they are separated from their aircraft.
Russian aircraft have historically been adorned with a five-point red-star outlined in yellow, emblazoned on the fuselage, wings and tail assemblies of all military aircraft. Crew members are obliged to wear military-issue uniformed coveralls with monogramed shoulder patches affixed displaying an identical red star with yellow trim. The presence of both unmarked aircraft and unidentified and out-of-uniform crew members therefore constitutes a violation of international law. (5)
Notes:
(1): Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology and Policy: Perspective, Vol. XII, No. 9, I September-October 2001. Historic Briefs, December, 2011, Bruce G. Richardson, DAWAT Independent News Center, 6 December 2011.
(2): Ibid: Russia’s Secret Operations, Pavel Felgenhauer, Politiat Li Nashi Rebiata, Bombit Afgan, 5/30/2011.
(3): Moscow Times, September 27, 2011, ‘A Vicious Circle of Terror’, Pavel Felgenhauer.
(4): Assessing Russia’s Efforts to Extend the Post 9/11 War on Terror to Chechnya, Brian Glyn Williams, International Security, Volume XIII No. 27, October-November 2011.
(5): Documents on the Laws of War, 2nd Edition, Edited by Adam Roberts and Richard Guelff, Revised, Edition, 1995, Chapter 13,1923 Hague Rules of Aerial Warfare, Rules of Aerial Warfare, Chapter 1, Applicability: Classification and Marks.
