The Criminal Taliban and Jehadis,
Sworn Enemies of Human Rights
At a time when people the world over are marking December 10 with high hopes of achieving human rights in the shadow of peace, democracy and progress, these very same ideals are being brutally trampled in Afghanistan by Taliban and Jehadi fundamentalist bands in a way that has no parallel anywhere in the world. Afghanistan is languishing in the throes of rabid assaults on human rights and women's right as an inalienable part of human rights.
On the occasion of December 10th, International Human Rights Day, RAWA makes the following statement:
1- The world community needs to know that since the coming to power of fundamentalist extremists after the collapse of the Najib puppet government, human rights in Afghanistan have been treated with increasing contempt and disdain. The Taliban lied shamelessly to the world community in regard to the presence of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan; a blatant lie which was exposed when it was subsequently proved beyond doubt that he was living in Afghanistan under Taliban protection. In like manner, they lie when they put up a show-albeit petty and inconsequential-- of "flexibility" in regards to human rights and women's right. The Taliban's condescension to human rights and women's rights is nothing but a gambit to shed their pariah status.
2- In conditions where the bare basic prerequisites of life and survival have been made well nigh impossible in many parts of the country by Jihadi and Taliban criminals, the closure of the border in the face of Afghan refugees by the Pakistani government is another lethal calamity added to the unending multitude of disasters afflicting the Afghan nation. It is an outright denial of basic human rights. As mentioned in a RAWA statement on this issue, Pakistan should seek terrorists and terrorist lairs in the houses and offices of associates of the likes of Gulbaddin Hekmatyar, Rabbani, Massoud, Sayyaf, and the Taliban, and not amongst devastated Afghan refugees who for over two decades have been ravished and terrorized by these criminal bands. The Pakistani compliance with the Taliban proposal to set up refugee camps inside Afghan territory is entering into a conspiracy to use the hapless refugees as hostages exposed to unfettered tyranny and atrocities while at the same time providing the Taliban with an abundant source of cannon fodder in their dog-fighting with Rabbani, Massoud & Co. Pakistan must re-open its borders to refugees before it is too late.
3- An attack on Afghanistan, under whatever pretext it may be undertaken, whether by one country or by a group of countries, can only bring one calamitous consequence to our devastated people: the consolidation of the situation in favour of the criminal Jihadis, paving the way for the Taliban arch traitors to pose as "nationalist" and "patriotic" victims of aggression, and thereby reaping the public sympathy and support that they have always craved in vain. The Taliban capitalised on the unbounded anger and hatred of the people of Afghanistan toward Jihadi murderers to come to power. They will capitalise on an upsurge of popular emotions any attack on Afghanistan will entail to consolidate and perpetuate their inhuman rule.
4- We have time and again reiterated that any effort by the United Nations or any country or international entity to bring peace to Afghanistan and an end to the Afghan conundrum, which does not provide for the disarming of the Jihadi and Taliban criminal bands would be worthless and inexorably doomed to failure from the very outset. If the United Nations, the European Union, the United States or any other country or group of countries honestly and sincerely wish to find a solution to the Afghan conflict, they need to begin by prosecuting the leaders of the Jihadi and Taliban gangs as war criminals and murderers, and impose severe economic sanctions on countries supplying their respective belligerent cronies in Afghanistan with arms and money to continue the human tragedy in our country. Only thus can the war machine of the two terrorist-fundamentalist adversaries be disabled.
5- Neither the Taliban nor the Jihadis, both extremely dangerous terrorists and violators of human rights, have any right to represent Afghanistan at the United Nations. By accrediting the Rabbani-Massoud clique to hold the Afghanistan representation seat, the United Nations has grossly insulted the people of Afghanistan because it chose to disregard the fact that the hands of the Jihadis are stained with the blood of the people of Afghanistan more than the hands of the Taliban.
6- The people of the world need to know that by wielding a sword in one hand and the Holy Writ in the other, the Taliban are wrapping their crimes and human rights violations in religious garb. Their ultimate aim is, on the one hand, to intimidate the people and silence any voice of protest with the dreaded threat of takfir (excommunication and eternal damnation), and on the other hand to pretend that their actions are rooted in Islam and in our cultural traditions, and are, therefore, infallible and inviolable.
No religion in the world can ever condone the Taliban's inhuman, misogynist, science-hating, technology-hating liberty-hating and democracy-hating values and practices. Amongst criminal fundamentalist regimes in the world, the Taliban excel marvellously in execrable misuse of the people's religious beliefs. They can in no way qualify to be guardians of our noble culture and traditions. To the Taliban and those who believe in their pretensions, we issue the challenge to answer a simple question: In the past, were Afghan women totally alien with vestiges of human rights and freedoms including the right to education, the right to work, the right to choose their clothing, etc.? Do the annals of history in any land ever have on record such a shameful, miserable farce played out on a national-historical-ideological scale in regard to women's apparel and men's beards and whiskers!? Can such burlesque, medieval edicts and restrictions in any way help in providing food, shelter, work, security, progress and happiness to a people ruthlessly and relentlessly being driven with each passing day to the depths of pauperisation, starvation, desperation and degradation? Is it possible to abstract Afghanistan from the real, living world, from the enlightenment, progress and aspirations of the twenty first century, and to deprive the Afghan people forever from liberty and democracy, the vital breath of life for any nation on the face of the earth?
7- The criminal Zardad, the epitome of the revoltingly putrid Jehadi character, who takes pride in labelling himself and his degenerate associates "dogs" and in worrying his victims to death in canine manner, was recently exposed on an international level and is living as a "refugee" in the U.K. We call on all countries and governments, in particular the government of the U.K., and on all organisations and individuals upholding human rights, justice and democracy to focus their energies and activities in exposing and bringing to justice not only Zardad but first and foremost his director and political godfather, Gulbaddin Hekmatyar, who is the incontestable perpetrator of blood-curdling atrocities which make Zardad's infamy pale in comparison. No effort must be spared in bringing Gulbaddin Hekmatyar, who is living in comfortable refuge in the lop of the criminal regime of Iran, and his monster associates to justice. In this regard RAWA offers to provide more than adequate number of witnesses and proof for indictment.
8- We hereby give notice to all champions of human rights and women's right, to all organisations and individuals upholding justice and democracy, that the Taliban and the Jihadis are hell-bent on silencing RAWA, the only intrepid feminist, pro-democracy and anti-fundamentalist voice emanating out of Afghanistan. RAWA affirms its full solidarity with people's liberation and women's emancipation movements in Iran, Palestine, Kurdistan, Kashmir and elsewhere around the world. We call on the world community to support RAWA in word and deed and to raise voice and hand to restrain the Jehadis and the Taliban from the pursuit of their cowardly conspiracies against us.
Down with fundamentalist domination in Afghanistan and in other countries!
Long live the unity of all pro-democracy, and pro-women's rights forces in defence of human rights!
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
December 10, 2000