A coalition of opposition groups, Afghanistan 1992-2001

By:Naseer Noorzai, Washington DC,Beware

A prime beneficiary of U.S. and British attacks against the Taliban is the Northern Alliance, a coalition of opposition groups that holds Afghanistan\’s current Government in a pinch. The alliance is part of a broader emerging group that includes the former president Burhanuddin Rabbani, Mohaqiq, Khalili, Sayyaf, Qanooni, Abdullah Abdullah, General Juraat, former Communists Gulabzoi and Ulomi, General Juraat and any former warlord and talib defector possible.
As it supports local commanders, the United States should consider carefully the dismal human rights records of some of its new allies.

From 1992 to 1997, forces that are now part of the alliance shelled civilian neighborhoods in Kabul and looted, raped and killed civilians there and in other parts of the country in the numbers of thousands.

Among the commanders whose forces were implicated in these abuses were Abdul Rashid Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek leader previously allied with the Soviet-backed government, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, head of the Sunni Islamist party Ittihad-i Islamic, and Ahmed Shah Massoud, who was assassinated on Sept. 9.

Here are examples of abuses committed by their forces:

On Jan. 5, 1997, planes belonging to General Dostum\’s militia dropped cluster munitions on residential areas of Kabul. Hundreds of civilians were killed and others wounded.

In March 1995, Massoud forces were responsible for rape and looting after they seized control of Kabul\’s predominantly Hazara neighborhood of Karte Seh.Not only Hazaras he has killed thousands of pashtuns,Uzbeks and other ethnical citizens.

On the night of Feb. 11, 1993, the Massoud and Sayyaf forces conducted a raid in west Kabul, killing Hazara civilians and committing widespread rape. Estimates of fatalities range from 700 to more than 1000.

No Afghan commander from this period has been held accountable for violations of international humanitarian law. Nor has the alliance indicated any willingness to bring to justice any of its commanders.



Now accountability appears to have taken a back seat to expediency as America hastily assembles and supports a broad opposition to the Taliban.

Secretary of Defense has indicated that the United States plans to provide forces opposing the Taliban in Afghanistan with financial and possibly military assistance. The alliance already receives military support from Iran and Russia, both of which seek to curtail Pakistan\’s extensive involvement in Afghanistan. Russia also fears Taliban support of Islamic insurgents in its former republics in Central Asia.

Most of these commanders have been useable puppets to the neighboring countries not to ever let Afghanistan being peaceful and prospherous.As most of the members of the alliance are from minor ethnical groups, they also avenge the dominant Pashtuns by providing US and Coalition forces with false and wrongful intelligence information. In result, that provokes Pashtuns population and specially youth to favor Taliban resistance and creates a vacuum of trust between the current administration, Coalition and the general public of Afghanistan.

If the ruthless and blind belief of US and coalition persists towards the Intel and information provided by Northern Alliance, there will be a great risk of ethnically targeted abuses. In the past few years US and Coalition have carried out large-scale civilian massacres in parts of southern, southwestern and eastern Afghanistan. They have destroyed homes, farmland, Mosques and many other auspicious premises.

 America and its allies ought to choose their Afghan allies carefully. They have the leverage to do so. If America provides unqualified material and political assistance to opposition forces, it could embolden commanders who have committed atrocities in the past. Yet its also imperative for America to realize that Northern alliance has been loyal to Russia and Iran for decades and are still being heavily supported by these two nations, which definitely could harm America’s presence and its long term Geo-Political and strategic objectives in Afghanistan.



The Bush administration has a profound interest in not portraying itself as aligned with brutal forces that may commit further abuses. If strong signals are sent now that false and inaccurate Intel and policies will not be tolerated, maybe Afghan (Pashtun) civilians will have something good to look forward to.