RAWA communiqué condemning the latest rocket attacks in Islamabad

SUPPORTING FUNDAMENTALISTS IS SUPPORTING TERRORISM

The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) regards the recent rocket attack in Islamabad as a terrorist action and condemns this attack as roundly as it condemned the US missile attack on Afghanistan last year. We condemn and reject terrorism in any form and manifestation.

We have time and again reiterated that it was the US and other terrorism-sponsoring countries who during the past two decades poured a deluge of arms and dollars to nurture and train the most reactionary and rotten-to-the-core anti-people and anti-democracy groups and individuals and unleash them on the people of Afghanistan. A large number of those very same groups and individuals trained with US arms and dollars and mentorship have turned into professional mercenary terrorists -veritable Frankenstein monsters created by the US- who every now and then turn on their old patron.

For years the US is being slapped in the face by roguish former paid agents. Even if the US somehow manages to get Osama bin Laden she will in no way be immune to the sting and poison of hundreds of other Afghan or non-Afghan Osamas lurking to strike in different parts of the world. When the US was frantically busy arming and training fundamentalist groupings in Afghanistan she did not give the slightest thought to the fallout for the people of Afghanistan nor for a moment paused to think what those very same anti-democracy and anti-women criminal protégés would do to the Afghan people once they had achieved their aim of coming to political power in Afghanistan.

Many observers link the recent rocket attacks in Islamabad to the sanctions imposed on Afghanistan. Regardless of whether this is true or not, what is evident is that the CIA has adequately nurtured and trained fundamentalists to enable them to stage such attacks whenever and wherever they find expedient. Until such time as the US continues to give overt or covert, explicit or tacit support in one way or another to fundamentalist governments and political groupings she should not be surprised at experiencing such kicks in the teeth from her disgruntled old paid agents.

Regarding the UN-imposed economic sanctions on Afghanistan, we -as already laid out in our positions on the sanctions- believe that contrary to what the Jihadi traitors have stated through their so-called Minister of Foreign Affairs, the sanctions are another heavy burden on the crushed shoulders of our misery-stricken nation. The only groups and individuals the sanctions will not have the slightest negative impact on will be the Jihadi and Taliban criminals themselves who are so affluent in money and resources provided by fundamentalist regimes and circles that they cannot but be contemptuous of any such sanctions. The sanctions will provide the Taliban with the excuse to lay out yet further ignorance-inspired and fascistic rules and restrictions for our people and draw the noose tighter around their necks. The sanctions will also provide the Taliban with a propaganda windfall and allow them to don the garb of "anti-American nationalists standing up against American tyranny and arrogance". The sanctions will further provide the Taliban with an excuse to expand and increase the cultivation and production of opium. The sanctions will also benefit the Jihadi traitors and cast favorable light upon them. In particular the criminal regime in Iran will use the situation to its utmost benefit and strive to step up its support for Rabbani's Jamiat-i-Islami and other servile Afghan political groupings and thus keep the flames of war burning in Afghanistan.

The United Nations, the US or any other country or world body who really want to see an end to the unequalled and unparalleled tragedy in Afghanistan must first and foremost impose strict and serious sanctions on countries which continue to support the Taliban and their Jihadi rivals with arms and money. It is only through stopping the flow of cash and arms from the source to both the Taliban and the Jihadis that they will crack and join their disgraced former "brother-leader" Golboddin Hekmatyar in humiliating oblivion. Only then will the bubbles of their putrid existence burst one by one.

The recent terrorist action in Islamabad, which without doubt was the handiwork of Afghan, Arab or Kashmiri fundamentalists, should awaken the new government authority in Pakistan to the fact that all former Pakistani governments, from Zia-ul-Haq to Nawaz Sharif, were unqualified patrons and supporters of Afghan fundamentalists and pursued extremely reactionary policies in regard to Afghanistan. None of them were concerned with the future of Afghanistan and the snuffing out of human, democratic or civilized principles by the fundamentalists. The new government dispensation in Pakistan which regards former governments as corrupt and pseudo-democratic should give thought to the fact that one side of their corruption and pseudo-democracy was their unqualified patronage of vampire fundamentalist groupings which have committed untold crimes against the people of Afghanistan, and true to their perfidious and anti-people nature will never remain a steadfast friend and ally to any Pakistani government. It will be only by shutting the door once and for all to the fundamentalists and supporting democratic forces in Afghanistan that Pakistan can hope to be the closest and most reliable friend to our people. Likewise, the UN, the US and other countries interested in Afghanistan can only prove their goodwill to the Afghan people by supporting democratic forces in Afghanistan.

The new government in Pakistan should realize that continuation of the fundamentalism-fomented tragedy in Afghanistan will have increasingly negative effects on Pakistan too, and will drag Pakistan ever deeper into the vortex of communal and sectarian violence and terrorism. To prevent the "Afghanistanisation" of Pakistan, the Pakistani government needs to have firm resolve to do away with all vestiges of all previous policies on Afghanistan and resolutely strive to resolve this issue.

As an organisation unceasingly targeted by fundamentalist terrorists, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) welcomes any and all serious and meaningful anti-terrorism measures.

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) 17th November 1999

---

[Persian Version]

--