| | Afghan paper accuses warlords of fuelling corruption and crime BBC Monitoring Service
01/16/2004
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Warlords are the real cause of crimes, corruption, despotism, and endless misery in Afghanistan, argues the Kabul-based newspaper Farda. The paper believes that the warlords are thriving because the US Administration does not see them as a direct threat to America and is reluctant to tackle the problem. However, the paper warns that the warlords are likely to sabotage the forthcoming presidential elections. The warlords are growing richer because of drug-trafficking and they may merge with government structures and become very influential players in the world, let alone in Afghanistan, worries the paper. The following is the text of report by Farda in Dari on 7 January [Unattributed article entitled: "The Warlords of Today, the Capitalists of Tomorrow"] Current events have directed America's attention from Afghanistan to Iraq. President Bush's preferences may once again throw Afghanistan back into the ditches of chaos and corruption. His administration's compromises and softness towards Afghan warlords is meant to be a challenge to the principles of human rights and fuel for the fires of despotism and injustices so that the oppressed people of Afghanistan suffer again. Warlords are the real cause of crimes, corruption, despotism, and limitless miseries in our country, but cannot directly harm America or President Bush's administration. It may probably be for this reason that he doesn't pay close attention to this matter. America's help and coalition of its forces with warlords to topple the Taleban regime from power was good and legitimate. But now that the Taleban are no longer in power, these warlords themselves are [nurturing] lawlessness in the country. Extortion of sidewalks and street borders, leasing of parks and even clinics by means of bribes, and construction of tall buildings by alluring the Kabul municipality are only a few examples of the type of activities that are carried out by the warlords. In addition to all this, they are also planning to disrupt and sabotage the process of the upcoming elections. Some favourable conditions, created by the free market economy and the advantages of capitalism, have paved the way for the Afghan warlords to invest their capitals in a variety of businesses. Consequently, they have now turned into powerful, rich, and influential capitalists. By means of capital and influence, these warlords may someday intend to join international Mafia groups as well as Arab and non-Arab terrorists and decide to topple the central government in Kabul. We shall bear in mind that if America, in the incident of 9/11 lost its twin towers in the city of New York, Afghanistan also lost two statues of Buddha that were 2,500 years old in the city of Bamian. The New York incident was caused by the terrorist acts of Al-Qa'idah, but destruction of the statues in Bamian took place under the Taleban, who hosted the Al-Qa'idah. The Bush administration must take events of the past under full consideration and not allow the lands of the Afghans to become a cancerous tumour once again for the region and the world. Otherwise, the Al-Qa'idah, Mafia, and Taleban-type terrorists will re-emerge in Afghanistan. In such a case, they will soon be enabled to produce and sell narcotics on the one hand and make weapons of mass destruction to be distributed to the whole world on the other hand. At the end, we will all see more Taleban type movements to create killing fields, and Al-Qa'idah type terrorists who will spark more fires. And the degree of cruelty of both will be much greater than that of the Communist atheists.
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