Crisis & Conflict

Crisis & Conflict in Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s geographical location as a gateway between South Asia and the Middle East has historically been of paramount importance to major military powers, which have launched military strikes to cross into India. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Afghanistan gained its independence from Britain by launching a war. But in 1980 it was invaded by the Soviet Union. The people of Afghanistan revolted against the Russians. To turn Afghanistan into Soviet Vietnam, the United States, relying on extremist Islamist Afghan and Arab groups, launched a secret war against the Russians on Afghan soil from Pakistan. The war ended successfully for the United States, but it turned Afghanistan into a hotbed of Islamic terrorist groups funded, equipped and led by Pakistani military intelligence (ISI). The popular anti-Russian uprising was misguided and failed to achieve its goals.

The movement of the Taliban is one of the products of the US secret war against Soviet Union in Afghanistan. 1n 2001 the Taliban were blamed for harboring the perpetrators of the tragic events of September 11, in New York and the US managed a retaliatory attack on Taliban government in Afghanistan. More than 40 countries have had troops in Afghanistan for 20 years, but the Afghan crisis is still a long way from being resolved.

In February 2020, after more than a year of negotiations, US signed an agreement with the Taliban. According to which a prisoner exchange had to take place between the parties. More than 6000 Taliban prisoners released by the Afghan government under US pressure. Hereafter, Inter-Afghan peace talks began, but failed so far because:

• Rejection of the government proposal for a permanent cease-fire by the Taliban and continuing violence by parties. The main victims of this violence are civilians.
• Opposing Visions: the two parties’ visions for the country’s future differ profoundly.
• Internal divisions: both delegations will face internal challenges of their own when proceeding with the negotiations. The Taliban delegation seems homogenous, however, for every point of agenda, they need months of consultation with the leadership in Pakistan and powerful commanders in Afghanistan to keep their fragile unity.
• The majority among the Taliban want to impose a military takeover. This will be a tragedy with unforeseen consequences for the civilians inside Afghanistan and for the achievements of past decades.

But conflict is only one aspect of crisis in Afghanistan. As UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in its website writes: “ There are nine things you need to know about the crisis in Afghanistan. Recurrent extreme weather events, increasing poverty, COVID-19 and 40 years of war are devastating the people of Afghanistan. Conflict continues to drive extreme physical and psychological harm and forces hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes every year. Almost 5 million people are internally displaced across the country.”

Finding a solution to every aspect of the crisis in Afghanistan will be difficult, but not impossible. If the nation decide to deal with it jointly, solutions become possible