Talk of a holy war
snarls peace in Afghanistan

April 4, 1996
Web posted at: 9 p.m. EST (0200 GMT)

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The United Nations is seeking to draw warring factions in Afghanistan to the negotiating table, but threats and talk of a holy war continue to divide the rival sides.

A council sponsored by the leading armed opposition group, the Taleban, in the militia-held southern city of Kandahar Wednesday endorsed an earlier declaration of Muslim Holy War against Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani.

"The time for talks with Rabbani has passed. It is time for practical measures now," Taleban spokesman Mullah Wakil Ahmad quoted the militia's leader Mullah Muhammad Omar as saying after the gathering of Afghan ulema, or Muslim clerics.

The Islamic militia has demanded Rabbani's resignation and has vowed to capture Kabul, topple the president and extend strict Islamic rule throughout Afghanistan.

But U.N. peace envoy for Afghanistan Mahmoud Mestiri said Wednesday the militia, which controls about half of Afghanistan, was willing to hold direct talks with Rabbani's government.

Elsadig Abunafeesa, a political adviser to the U.N. special mission, said he was not surprised by the Taleban decree and that religious elements might be trying to overrule the political side of the movement.

He said the United Nations had been speaking to the Taleban number two in command, Mullah Rabbani, who is no relation of President Rabbani.

"Until the Taleban say directly to the United Nations that they will not negotiate, then it is untrue to say that they will not," Abunafeesa said. "I believe the shura (council) was called to save the benefits of the movement."

Fierce ideology drives Taleban

Some 18 months ago, a mysterious new fighting force entered the Afghan mix -- the Taleban. It swept through half of Afghanistan, imposing an Islamic rule even stricter than that of the Ayatollah in neighboring Iran.

But unlike Iran, the Taleban says it has no quarrels with the West. It's believed to have started with support from Pakistan, a U.S. ally, but now the U.S. and Pakistan are backing away from the group, which refuses to enter peace negotiations.

The ancient city of Herat near the Iranian border is a Taleban stronghold. At a military post here, soldiers of the militia hasten to show off their weapons, smiling and posing for visiting journalists; they look like a bunch of children eager to please.

But behind their friendly checkpoint manners lies a fierce Islamic ideology: The Taleban says it is against music, and sometimes its members stop passing cars and search for cassettes, which are promptly destroyed.

Members of the group have machine-gunned the heads off horses that form the centerpiece of a fountain, defaced public paintings, and declared television un-Islamic. Roof tops that once sprouted antennas are now bare.

"The Koran says there mustn't be radio or television and women must not come to the bazaar alone," said one Taleban member.

Indeed, the rank and file appear to be mostly illiterate, but they're enforcing their version of the Koran with the Kalashnikov.

Despite the edict against women and television, Herat's deputy governor agreed to be interviewed providing the media didn't show any part of his body.

"We are trying to form the same government the Prophet Mohammad established 1,400 years ago and we will do it," he said. "The holy Koran says whenever you catch a thief, cut off his hand ... and execute a murderer ... it's God's order."

No working women

The Taleban has ordered women to stop working. The only exception is in hospitals and Herat's Red Cross orthopedic center, where women are still employed to make prostheses.

Since the Taleban believes that education should only be for men, it has closed down girls' schools, but that move has boomeranged on the group.

Now boys don't get taught either, because most of the teachers are women. The result: Classrooms full of idle children.

"We're not learning anything," said 15-year old Ghorban. "We'll end up stupid and ignorant."

In a daring act of defiance, female teachers -- accompanied by students -- took to the streets demanding that they be allowed to return to work. Now, Taleban officials admit they'll have to find a way out of this dilemma.

For most of the world Iran remains the epitome of Islamic fundamentalism, but the Taleban scoff at the Ayatollahs, saying they don't know what a real Muslim society is.

In fact, one senior Iranian government official maintains that the Taleban is "even more fundamentalist than we are."

Attempts by the Taleban to occupy Kabul have so far been unsuccessful. That gives the Afghanistan government hope for a solution.

"The opposition knows it cannot invade or occupy Kabul and that prepares the way for negotiations between all sides," said Afghanistan Defense minister Ahmad Shah Massoud.

But the militia group says its only hope lies in aggression, and refuses to negotiate.

"If we want to bring real peace to Afghanistan our only choice is a military offensive," said a Taleban spokesperson.

CNN Correspondent Christiane Amanpour and Reuters contributed to this report.

Related Sites

• Afghanistan from the CIA World Factbook
• Some Facts about Fundamentalism from OneEurope magazine
• Netscape: The Afghan News Service For the Next Hundred Years
• Afghanistan - the world's guilty secret from Amnesty International

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