Keeping the fight alive

Violent upheavals in Gardez and Mazar-i Sharif reveal that international efforts to restore order in Afghanistan may not have been enough, reports Absar Alam from Islamabad
Fears that Afghanistan was teetering on the brink of civil war once again were sending shivers down the spines of international diplomats this week as elaborate efforts to patch Afghanistan together again seemed to be coming undone at the seems. For interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai -- hand-picked at a conference of tribal leaders and United Nations delegates in Bonn, Germany, some two months ago -- this was the first test of his leadership.
Now that the fanfare of welcoming Afghanistan back into the international fold has died down, the sores left by decades of internal strife have begun to fester. More than 100 people were killed in factional fighting in two Afghan provinces this week. At least 65 people were killed in two days of intense fighting in the southern city of Gardez, in Paktia province, when the new governor appointed by the Karzai administration in Kabul tried to install himself in the governor's residence.
The local council of elders, or Shura, who had previously been in control of the province, refused to accept the rule of warlord Padsha Khan Zadran, whom they dismissed as a smuggler and a thug. In the fighting that ensued, 18 soldiers of Padsha Khan and 25 soldiers loyal to the eastern Shura were killed. The other victims were Afghan civilians, whose ordeal has not yet ended simply because the Taliban have been removed from power. Dozens have been arrested on both sides, and physicians at Gardez Hospital are labouring to attend to the injured without any pharmaceuticals in their stores.
The Shura members promptly issued a letter of complaint to Hamid Karzai explaining that they would not accept Padsha Khan's rule because of his dubious dealings in the past. A team of interlocutors comprised of UN and US officials, as well as representatives of the Karzai government, was dispatched to Gardez to broker truce. At that point, the factional fighting stopped to give peace a chance.
Padsha Khan was personally appointed the new governor of Paktia province, which borders on Pakistan, by Karzai. But the local population, accustomed to the leadership of the Shura council, were horrified by the appointment and refused to accept Khan. In addition to accusations of drug smuggling and strong-arm tactics, local leaders insist that Khan is responsible for calling in the US bombing of a convoy of tribal leaders travelling to Kabul in December to attend Karzai's inauguration. Khan claimed that the convoy was carrying Al- Qa'eda fighters, but local leaders have strongly denied any support for Al-Qa'eda or the Taliban. The bombing resulted in the deaths of 18 tribal leaders.
This time around, the US was far more cautious. There was no intervention by US warplanes in the fighting in Gardez, though they did conduct very high-altitude flights around the battle ground.
On Friday, a separate battle in the Balkh province of western Afghanistan erupted between forces loyal to two local warlords -- both leaders of factions that made up the victorious so-called Northern Alliance opposition. Troops loyal to Uzbek warlord Abdurrashid Dostum, leader of the Junbish-i Milli group, clashed with the forces of Ustad Mohamed Atta, of former President Burhannuddin Rabbani's Jamiat-i Islami party.
Some 50 people died in the fighting before urgent calls by Karzai led to the announcement of a cease-fire. Before it got better, it got worse: the hostilities spread to Sholgara town, south of Mazar-i Sharif, Chimtal town to the west and Dawlatabad to the north. Although fighting has stopped, several dozen houses were demolished by mortar fire coming from both sides and a large number of residents were forced to flee their homes in search of shelter. The reason behind the fighting was yet another land-grab, fuelled by regional power struggles among former warlords. Earlier, Dostum's troops were engaged in factional fighting with Tajik rivals in Kunduz province.
To ensure the writ of his government and to restore peace and stability in the war-torn country, Karzai last weak appealed to the world community to beef up an international peacekeeping force. This force, Karzai believes, will help restore peace outside Kabul as well -- since an estimated 700,000 people across the country are well armed.
Not only has ongoing factional fighting continued to make life miserable for the Afghan people, but it has also hampered the efforts of the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan to restore peace and start the reconstruction process. However, the deployment of more troops of the international security force is easier said than done. Most of the countries contributing troops to the multinational force are still hesitant about enhancing their military presence in Afghanistan -- although most have agreed to provide economic assistance.
During a two-day development conference in Tokyo last month, Karzai secured commitments of $4.5 billion from wealthy nations to launch Afghanistan's mega-reconstruction programme. Though there are plans to double the number of security forces from 2,500 to 5,000, UN officials estimate a larger number of troops is required to expand the security operation countrywide. Such an expansion would require a fresh UN Security Council resolution.
In Kandahar, equally dramatic events were unfolding. The two- month-long siege of a hospital finally came to an end when US special forces and Afghan fighters stormed the hospital compound, killing six Arab Al-Qa'eda fighters barricaded inside. The fighters were part of a group of 18 injured Arab soldiers admitted to the hospital during previous fighting. Most of these fighters had already slipped out of the hospital, while one of them blew himself up after he was caught by the US and Afghan troops as he was attempting to escape.
The rest refused to surrender to the Americans and, armed with grenades and pistols, resisted for more than eight weeks, vowing to die rather than give up. As the resistance of these fighters became embarrassing to US and Afghan forces, it was finally decided to kill them and get it over with. US special forces, along with Afghan soldiers, raided the hospital on 28 January, killing the fighters.
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