Green Left’s Pip Hinman spoke to Shayaan, a member of the Solidarity Party of Afghanistan (SPA) about the situation on the ground in the country.
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The West occupied Afghanistan nearly 20 years ago on the premise of stopping the terrorists and bringing democracy. Now, as they leave, the Taliban has taken over. How did it come to this?
On October 7, 2001, the United States government along with its other NATO partners in crime started to attack Afghanistan and throw bombs on our people, under the guise of bringing democracy, women’s rights and fighting terrorism.
However, as expected from an imperialist country, the US government did not do that.
Instead, it reinstalled the Northern Alliance savages, who had and have committed countless war crimes and sugar-coated them as democratic figures to establish its puppet government.
This government gave official positions to the forefathers of today’s terrorists, such as Abdul Rasul Sayyaf [a former former mujahideen commander who fought the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan government] and Burhānuddīn Rabbānī [President of Afghanistan from 1992–2001].
It let the Islamic fundamentalists run their religious schools (madaris), to produce new terrorists, and allowed fanatical international Islamic organizations, such as Hezb-ul-Tahrir and Jamiat Eslah, to openly work in the country.
The puppet government installed some women into government and parliamentary seats to showcase Afghan women’s so-called freedom. But they were a bunch of rented mouths to propagandise in favour of the US’ dirty policies in Afghanistan.
The Afghan government is composed of war criminals, fundamentalists, warlords, gangsters, mafia, drug traffickers and corrupt people. We never trusted them. On the other hand, the US government was playing a cat-and-mouse game with the Taliban.
So, somehow most of the current scenario was written in advance.
The US president now says ‘his’ troops won’t stay as ‘Afghans need to fight for their own country’. How do you respond to this?
The Afghan people didn’t invite the US troops and other occupiers in. They attacked our country to topple yesterday’s blue-eyed sons, which they had created during the Cold War.
This was not our war, but indeed, our country was used as battlefield.
The US wanted to use Afghanistan as a stepping stone against China, Russia and Iran.
The SPA has always expressed its objection to the presence of foreign troops because they were supporting, or escalating, fundamentalism and terrorism.
The US government created the virus of fundamentalism during Cold War in Afghanistan; it converted our country into a hub for terrorism. The real victims are our innocent people.
Has Afghanistan become the place where big powers are carrying out their proxy wars? How will this play out now?
Yes, Afghanistan has been converted into the battlefield of different rival countries. The US is fighting a war against China, Russia and Iran. Pakistan and India are fighting their war here. Saudi Arabia and Iran also have their proxy forces fighting here.
These proxy wars will be further escalated. They will continue, because there has been war here for almost 40 years; our economy is based on war.
They have kept our people, especially youth, unemployed and jobless, so they can be easily recruited into warring factions to fight the proxy wars.
What do you think a Taliban government will be like? Will it be different from when it was last in government?
The Taliban are pretending that they have changed, so they can be recognised by the global governments.
They are also new in the cities, so they want to win the hearts of urban residents.
But once they form their government and hold a tight grip over cities, they will resume their savagery.
We can’t forget recent years’ suicide attacks and explosions, their deadly attacks on Kabul University, on religious centres and schools, their kidnappings of citizens and their beheading of citizens.
Nothing has changed!
Many are pushing for Australia to give permanency to refugees here and open up its humanitarian intake. What else should we be demanding? How can we bring the war mongers to face justice?
The Australian and other Western governments are the main cause of these calamities.
Giving permanent residency to even thousands of Afghan people is not the solution because it will not change the lives of all Afghans.
These governments should stop meddling in Afghanistan and stop supporting the Afghan war criminals and fundamentalists.
The International Court of Justice should issue arrest warrants of Afghan war criminals.