Taliban destroy our history,
our people should destroy Taliban!

For more than two decades Afghan women have been subject to a tyrannical rule by elements of various hues and colors resulting in a legacy of death and destruction that has reduced women, out of poverty and necessity, to beggary, prostitution and selling their children.

The Russians and their appointed stooges commenced Afghan women's passage down the road to this gloomy destination by killing and displacing thousands of them. With the Jehadis' rise to power, our mourning women experienced the further grief of having their seven year old daughters and aged mothers raped by the vice rings of fundamentalist thugs. And today the Taliban are throwing dirt on the dignity and pride of our nation.

A season of mass killings has prevailed over the country and these days the hearts of our people ache for the innocent victims of mass genocide at Yakawlang committed by the Taliban vultures. The Taliban executed about 400 innocent civilians in Yakawlang and the same atrocities have been committed by Hizb-e-Wahdat who suck the blood of non-Hazara and non-Shiite. Our Hazara people are being squeezed between the claws of two dinosaurs, from one side the bloodthirsty Taliban bleed their hearts and from the other side the Wahdati criminals tighten the noose around their neck by fanning the flames of ethnic and religious fire.

We have emphatically pointed out time and again that the root cause of the ongoing tragedy in Afghanistan lies in the horrific rule of the Taliban and Jehadi warlords. Unless and until these vampires are wiped out completely, any outcry or efforts for peace and democracy will yield nothing but bitter disappointment. The peace initiatives of the UN have therefore never been taken seriously by Afghans, as their best efforts have always been limited to a futile exercise designed to bring criminals together in reconciliation and co-operation. The UN sanctions are highly ironic as they have not had the slightest negative impact on the war machine of the Taliban, but have crushed the backbone of the bereaved people. Exemption of Jehadis from the sanctions provides them with an opportunity to get strengthened and hence keeps the flames of battle alight. As the world body dedicated to peace, our people expect the UN to implement practical measures for the full disarmament of all armed bands and to pressure the war-sponsoring countries who fuel the respective belligerent cronies in Afghanistan.

Regarding the peace brokering efforts of Zahir Shah, we are of the firm belief that any attempt aimed at restoring peace in Afghanistan that is carried out under the wings of any of the engaged war factions will signify nothing but contemptuous disdain for our grieving people. And more, the presence of some suspicious women belonging to Jehadi circles in Rome has bared it from merits. Most ironic, the issue of peace in Afghanistan has become so ridiculous that infamous killers like Humayoon Jarir, now affiliated the regime of Iran, air propaganda messages for peace from Cyprus. He and his other Hizb-e-Islami brothers, whose hands are stained with the blood of thousands of innocent civilians, belong in the same group of murderers as Pinochit, Soharto, Khamenai and their like should be summoned before an international tribunal for their countless crimes against humanity. Gulbaddin and his lackey, Humayoon Jarir, assume that by dancing for the criminal regime of Iran they can wash away the bloodstains from their faces and be proclaimed a "Great Leader" by one or another world power.

With the destruction of the magnificent artifacts of Afghanistan, the Taliban want to present an image of extreme ruthlessness and savagery, showing that they are too proud and "independent" to have concern for the world outcry and demanding that the world should therefore recognize their barbaric regime. But the Taliban are too simple to understand that their dependency is so glaring that is impossible for them to conceal it by such tall claims.

The experience of unprecedented fighting, terror, poverty and natural calamities have driven the crushed masses of Afghanistan into internal and external emigration. Maslakh camp and other new camps in Herat have experienced hundreds of deaths in one night due to the chilling cold and in Jalozai camp, the graveyard of newly arrived refugees, scores of tens of thousands children and women are becoming the victims of cold, hunger and lack of medicine. In fact every nook of Afghanistan has been turned into a Jallozai and Maslakh camp.

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, while grieving for the genocide victims of Yakawlang at the hands of the Taliban and the destruction of the historic artifactual relics of Afghanistan by the ignorant Taliban, celebrate International Women's Day with the hope of achieving democracy and freedom and pledge to continue our struggle against the fundamentalists.

Long live Freedom, Democracy, Women's Rights!
Down with the Taliban and Jehadi criminals!

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
March 19, 2001 - Peshawar