 TERRORISM
LAW & POLICY |
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The Future of Afghanistan Professor Mohammad Hashim Kamali
Events in Afghanistan have moved faster than expected. The total focus on military action has meant slow progress on a political plan for the country. The priority now is to manage the present crisis so as to avert rapid deterioration into civil war, executions and revenge killings as far as possible. This will require entering negotiations immediately with the present Northern Alliance regime to persuade them to agree on an interim agenda. This should be done with the involvement of the UN and some senior Afghan figures who have remained uninvolved in turmoils of recent years. An interim government with substantial UN involvement and supervision should be proposed to pave the way for a normal order over a period of, say, 18 months. The details of this plan should be articulated and publicised as a confidence-building measure. Restoring peace and normal constitutional order should be the twin objectives of this plan.
There is an immediate prospect of crude tribalism developing all over the country which is bound to make things difficult. This should be averted, possibly through the presence of a credible military force by Muslim countries and some western participation. The Northern Alliance cannot be expected to achieve this, however much they might say otherwise. An agreement for an international military force would be ideal with the Northern Alliance, but no delay is advisable and prompt action needs to be taken. The U.S and its allies can give the people of Afghanistan no better promise than a sound, widely-publicized commitment to restoring peace. The Northern Alliance must be persuaded to participate in the crisis management plan in preference to other measures it might have on its agenda.
To avert future terrorism, the western powers should focus on confidence building measures, on an open approach to issues, on humanitarian and relief measures, and the on creation of a broad-based government in Afghanistan, restraining all sides. The Taliban should not be humiliated, and action taken against actual terrorists should only be through normal procedures of adjudication and trial. Terrorism has no appeal to the masses of Afghanistan. The hot-headed Taliban leaders who might be actively involved in trouble-making should be detained, but no atrocities should be allowed against them.
Mohammad Hashim Kamali was born in Afghanistan and is a graduate of the law faculty at Kabul University. He is currently a professor of Islamic Law at the International Islamic University Malaysia.
November 16, 2001
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