To penalize Taliban for their refusal to handover Osama Bin Laden for the trial, UN Security Council has approved the imposition of arms embargo and economic sanctions on Taliban, aimed to persuade them to show flexibility in their attitude.

These sanctions will not have the slightest impact on Taliban but will empower them to lay out yet further ignorance-inspired and fascistic rules and restrictions, which would amplify the agony of our misery-stricken people.

For the Taliban, equipped with a flabby fundamentalist ideology, religion is a coercive weapon by which they can sustain their power. The sanctions, therefore, would be the weakest force to be able to induce Taliban to show compliance with UN wishes.

The UN is incapable of applying any clause of the said sanctions on the Taliban because of the porous Pak-Afghan border through which ammunition and arms are flowing. This cannot be controlled by scribbling statements and Pakistan would never detach itself from its stooges. Such a decision, therefore, will never be applied except on paper. Above all, the sanctions exclude the Northern Alliance of the Rabbani-Masoud band who are equally responsible with the Taliban for the on-going devastation of the country but are free to be fueled with armed by any source. Jihadis's exemption means adding fuel to the fire of fighting that results in aggravating the misery of our people. The world community must bear it in mind that Jihadis' return to power is the repetition of unforgettable crimes against our people. It seems that the UN has the intention of keeping the fire of fighting alight because the Northern Alliance has received many setbacks in recent fighting and by imposition of a biased arms embargo on the Taliban they would take the opportunity to breath the fresh air. This portrays the complexity of a US policy that plays tricky games with Pakistan and Russia. From one side, the US deals with Pakistan to support the Taliban and from other side, the US shows alliance with Russia to help the opposition force or Northern Alliance.

What is the impact of these sanctions on our people?

1- Paradoxical to the UN assurance that sanctions wouldn't bring the humanitarian aids to a grinding halt, it is a glaring fact that the Taliban would be provoked and pressgang the NGOs and other aid committees to evocate Afghanistan which will exacerbate the plight of our crushed people who were entirely dependent on these committees. This will free the Taliban of blame for the current tragedy but on other hand blame the UN for all the miseries that our people are now entangled with. This will too provide the Taliban with a propaganda windfall and allow them to don the garb of "anti-America" and converge the people by deceiving them that West has waged military expedition against Islam. Our people have now come to the reality that the West has never intended to take any practical measures against fundamentalists. Russian involvement gives a means for the Taliban to air propaganda that the West is the only cause of the on-going disaster in Afghanistan because this country is known to our people as an anti-Islamic country. This prevents the wrath of the bereaved masses against Taliban, because they see their misery in UN sanctions not in fundamentalists. In the last analysis, such sanctions are perceived by the people as a conspiracy of the West that would give life for Mullah Muhammad Omar and their opposition and fan the flame of fighting in Afghanistan.

2- Banning Ariana Air Line was a way to paralyze the Taliban war machine. Again our people will be affected by this restriction because this airline is known for its transportation of patients, medicine, mails and trade goods. As the rate of mail has drifted from 3,000 Afghanis to 46,000 Afghanis.

3- These sanctions will hurt the ill-fated widows who were aided to some an extent by the said committees. Similarly the scores of people who were receiving cheap bread by UN's special cards would be driven to awful disaster.

4- Hospitals and clinics get perturbed by the sanctions too because their medicine and personal salaries are being supplied mainly by the UN aid agencies, cutting this supply will bring about adverse health effects.

5-The sanctions will end the work of Deming agencies who save the life of thousands of people by removing mines from fields, roads and canals. This will severely bring numerous hurdles for formers and peasants.

6-The unprecedented drought-effected famine has put the life of thousands of people in danger. If the farmers and peasants are not provided with urgent aid, an unparallel tragedy threatens them.

7-Reconstructions of the ruined lands of Afghanistan would be an unthinkable and tough task without the support and help of UN and other countries.

These are the net effects of the sanctions that would hurt our people but not the ruling Taliban who are rolling in money.

It is worth mentioning that the giant chain of misery of our people wouldn't unwind by the UN aid, the problem lies in foreign meddling, domination of despotic and medieval regime, continuation of war and lack of freedom and basic rights that have destroyed the whole material entity of our nation and flourished poverty, misery, prostitution, migration through out the country. Food and tents won't heal the wounds of our crushed people; they resemble painkiller capsules that don't cure but relieve the pain. The most effective help from the UN would be to cease the foreign interventions in Afghanistan that will lead to the banishing of their puppet from Afghanistan. This would pave the way for a free election away from the fear or Taliban and other fundamentalists. UN first and foremost put these involved countries under sanctions not war-ravaged Afghanistan.

The leading reason behind the sanctions is the issue of Osama Bin Laden and his hand over to the International Court. A majority of our people know well that the whole drama is played out by the US because Osama's arrest is not difficult than Orzalan and Noreiga. The US cannot openly declare its support to the Taliban because of world pressure and therefore they sponsor the Taliban through Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, as it will save her from being stamped by the world as sponsor of world terrorist regime. And the US, knowingly or unknowingly wants to give the Taliban an international status and independent government and Osama who once was the blue-eyed boy of the CIA now has turned to an international personality. People can feel it well that bubbles like Gulbaddin inflated by US were burst by the US herself. Are Taliban more rapacious than Gulbaddin couldn't be banish by US?

Ridiculously the US and Russia, once bitter enemies, now stand in the same front against Mullah Omar, an ignorant man neither whose identity is known nor have the capability to control even a village. Putin and Clinton "world front" against Mulla Omar if succeed in putting Osama on the trial and if he is sentenced to death still then Taliban would show even bitter hostility toward humanity and science.

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)

January 21, 2001



[Reflection in the press]