AN APPEAL TO THE UNITED NATIONS

Over the past two decades hundreds of thousands of Afghan men, women and innocent children either lost their lives or were left handicapped in the forced Afghan war, not only a complete generation was deprived of its basic rights such as education etc. but millions of Afghans also faced acute and grim financial and social crises as well as mass exodus also occurred for greener pastures as hope does so. There is no doubt that the prevalent crisis in Afghanistan is the remains of the cold war. The world community after the conclusion of the cold war turned its face to its responsibility and didn't take any noticeable interest in the rehabilitation of Afghanistan and this war torn country was left in the hands of the warring factions for no good reasons and results. Neighboring countries keeping in view the volatile situation in Afghanistan started supporting its proxies to have influence in the region. Meanwhile terrorist parties finding Afghanistan as an orphan and unruly country and hence a safe heaven for them started taking refuge in "Mass number" (as the world community came to know later on). As the recent history tells these terrorists not only got involved in the mass killings (on various occasions) of specially the oppressed and left alone Hazaras of Afghanistan but also succeeded in establishing their networks in a very organized manner, first in Afghanistan and then all over the world. The world community tried its level best not to face the reality and turned its eyes to the dangerous happenings taking place in Afghanistan as they were thousands of miles away from this region and "they were safe from every point of view". But such was not the case; it was proved on September 11, 2001 that the global village doesn't only mean the interconnection of the subnets of computers.

Being the part of the global village the world should know about the recent happenings in Afghanistan. Men, women and children in thousands (civilians) were slaughtered in a very ruthless and inhumane manner by these so called "foreign terrorists" in Mazar-e-Sharif, Yakawlang, Bamyan and so many other places. Our above mentioned cases are also reported and confirmed by UN itself, as the world saw the historical heritage of Afghanistan, mentionably the two giant statues of Buddha in Bamyan related to the past of Hazaras were destroyed although "murdered". It is a very interesting view that these so-called foreign terrorist and hence intruders brought Afghanistan on top of the list in the field of narcotics production in a very short span of time and its income was being spent in the massacres of the Real locals of Afghanistan and the world community as well, and the irony is that the Afghan people were being taken responsible although the heinous activities were being carried out by foreign Jihadis against the locals as well. World community's policies towards Afghanistan would have remained the same, if the cowardice acts of September 11, towards the innocent civilians of USA had not taken place. The world community wouldn't have to know that what was being done to the innocent and oppressed Afghan civilians by the Foreign Intruders. So in the process of routing out and eradicating the inhumane terrorists, the people of Afghanistan found a moment of hope and their eyes are appealing to the world community, "please save us from tyranny, intruders and our neighbors". After September 11, the world community finding itself "unsafe" concentrated on this problem and so they came to know about Afghanistan as a country, a safe heaven for the terrorists and "A Hell" for its nationals. They came to know about the massacres and the cruel brutalities towards the people of Afghanistan, left to the moods of intruders and the foreign terrorists. These evil activities were not only directed towards the world community but were also causing the fast and swift erase of the Really Afghan people. So USA formed an international Holy coalition to eradicate terrorism.

It is laudable that the world community as a whole offered its support may it be moral or logistical to USA and also appreciated the steps being taken by UN to end the evil of terrorism starting from Afghanistan. This time making it a safe heaven for the innocent Afghan people by establishing a broad based multiethnic government based upon the facts and figures and the untold truths especially regarding the percentage of the ethnic division in Afghanistan with no inclination towards any particular favorite ethnic group as has been in the past that a "favorite minority" was referred to as the "Ruling majority". It is hoped by the Afghans at large that in the process of eradication of terrorism they would be released from the clutches of evil, mass killings and deprivation of rights, and no doubt it is hoped that Afghanistan would be put on the track of peace and prosperity. Keeping in mind the bitter experiences of past the Afghan nation is looking towards the UN, which finds Loya Jirga as a solution to the Afghan problem. It is very much compulsory that if the proposed Loya Jirga was not different in a just manner and better from the past one, no reasonable conclusions can ever emerge and even the prestige of United Nations (so may not be the case) may be smeared. It is very necessary before discussing Loya Jirga and proposed Broad Based Government to briefly highlight the history of Afghanistan's past governments and roles and responsibilities of Loya Jirga during past few decades.

The present Afghanistan, which was divided into various sovereign and independent states till amid nineteen century, had remained under the control of different ethnic rulers and known as Khurasan. Native rulers used to rule over Herat, Kabul, Kandahar and Kunduz, however, in central part of present Afghanistan called Hazara Jat (Hazarastan) was ruled by native Khawaneen (rulers)  ( see 1 ). Britain, by the end of nineteenth century, smelled a rat from Russian influence, Amir Abdur Rahman who was inhabiting in Tashkent (now the capital city of Uzbekistan) was brought and planted in Afghanistan, who by the support of British army invaded on sovereign Hazarastan to subjugate and merge into Afghanistan after mass killings of Hazaras. It should be noted that more than 60% population of Hazaras has been massacred so far. ( see 2  )

The rulers of Afghanistan for prolonging their government often used to adopt such inhumane policies by which all nations and tribes were compelled to lead a pathetic live except the Ruling tribe. Inherit realm was always encouraged in order to deprive other ethnic groups from ruling and rulers always used to play Loya Jirga game for their achievements.

Loya Jirga was launched in 1747, in Kandahar where Ahmed Shah Durrani was selected as first king of Kandahar. Loya Jirga is actually a compound of two words, Loya, a Pashto word means "Big or grand" while Jirga, derived from Persian means "Session, Gathering or Assembly" so "Loya Jirga" means, "A big session, Large gathering or Grand assembly".

It may be mentioned that Loya Jirga is purely a Pashtoon tribal tradition, which the Pashtoon rulers imposed upon country level for the protection of their interests. Generally, those people were selected as members of Jirga who would follow government steps blindly and it was impossible to expect from them to oppose government policies regarding any matter. For instance, king Zahir in 1956 Loya Jirga, invited nearly one hundred specific personalities at Kabul's "Lycee Habibiya" (school) for the so called election of representatives and the following method was adopted. One person prepared a list of five persons on the black board and the audience endorsed the names as representatives of the "elected" Jirga. King Zahir always used to follow the same "Democratic" method in the Loya Jirga for stabilizing its government. For example: Only fifteen thousand people were given franchises out of Kabul's half million population for the election of Majlis-e-Shura and Loya Jirga and this unfair and limited Pashtoon tribal tradition was imposed as country's constitution, during this period.  ( see 3  )

Afghanistan's 1965 constitution in its article 78 defines Loya Jirga as, "Loya Jirga would consist of members of Majlis-e-Shura and presidents of provincial Jirgas". Later on the so called democratic constitution followed by Sardar Dawood, defined Loya Jirga in its article 65 as, "Loya Jirga would include Majlis-e-Shura, party's central committee members, government members, army chiefs, members of supreme court and 30 proposed members by the president beside 5 to 8 representatives from each province." In addition, Loya Jirga would be held by the signature of the president in accordance with article no. 66 and the head of the Jirga would also be the president of the country.

If we think about the formation of cited above Loya Jirga then we will come to know that mostly those representatives would attend Loya Jirga who were close to the government while the real representatives of people belonging to provinces in a very small number could reach to the Loya Jirga, with no powers. Very special measures were used to be taken to elect their beloved ones in Loya Jirga and Majlis-e-Shura and keeping other nationalities away from these institutions. For instance: Unnecessary provinces consisting of small number of population in the south and south east of Afghanistan were formed in a large scale for playing their dirty games and to counter even minimum numbers of other nationalities and further to minimize their role while sharing policies regarding Afghan matters. A large number of districts were also established in Pashtoon provinces having small number of population while in other parts of Afghanistan particularly Hazarastan only few provinces comprising large number of population were formed and few districts were also introduced consisting of mass population in order to prove them small ethnic group and to have least number of representatives. For example: a large number of "nomads" were planted in the populated province of Hazarastan "Uruzgan" and the formation of districts in the province was carried out in a way that only two districts were formed in a mass Hazara population consisting 1533 constituencies, while six districts were introduced for the population of non Hazaras consisting only 702 constituencies. ( see 4  )

It may be recalled that a large number of Hazaras inhabit in these six districts as well but the selection of representatives from these districts were proceeded in a way that only Pashtoon representatives could be elected while a complete province by the name of Paktia was formed (a pashtoon majority province) for the population of consisting of 1530 constituencies and the same province was divided into 27 districts as well. Neither population nor area was made criteria for the formation of provinces. For example: Total area of Paktia and Paktika covers 17600 skm and totally 45 districts were established in the province while Bamyan which covers 19200 skm and nearly has 2000 constituencies in which only 4 districts were formed. By these examples, it is not difficult to make a decision that representatives from the southeast areas in large number would attend Loya Jirga and Majlis-s-e-Shura despite having least population while Hazaras having mass population had few members in these two institutions.

It is necessary to mention that Pashtoon having least number of population in Ghazni and Maidan provinces beside Uruzgan province were attached to their name for occupying capital city and non-Hazara representative would be elected from these provinces despite Hazaras having large population in these provinces which is very small example of injustice towards Hazaras. In addition to this, provinces in Hazarastan were formed in a way that the areas having large Hazara population were merged into other provinces in order to turn them in minority. As a result of these unfair policies, the representatives of Hazaras in the Jirga could be counted on fingertips. Therefore, all government machinery always kept struggling to claim Hazaras in minority on the official documents and to some extend they remained successful in this regard. This is the reflection of all these dirty activities that the world community has doubted over the population of various ethnic groups in Afghanistan.

It is very necessary to mention that a large number of Hazaras in Afghanistan are Sunnis and Ismailis and Sunni Hazaras have always been attached to non-Hazara tribes while the Ismaili Hazaras have always been kept separate from the rest of the Hazaras on account of religious believes and hence political purposes. It must be kept in view that provinces like Ghor and Badghis are largely populated by Sunni Hazaras and they also have a good number of population in northern provinces, beside a large population of Heart province. These people were always intentionally kept isolated from other Hazaras and only Shiites Hazaras were shown as "Hazaras" on the official documents regarding ethnic matters by the government of Afghanistan. However, there is no doubt that any institution or country keeping in view its own interest show the same ethnic percentage in Afghanistan but if we keep in mind the history of Afghanistan and its rulers' attitudes towards other nationalities than no one would believe in all these data provided by Afghan officials regarding Hazara population which had always been underestimated, we repeat "Badly and unfairly Underestimated".

As cited earlier that Afghan rulers had always been trying to prove Hazaras a small minority while on the other hand, Afghan rulers not only showed its own nation's population in majority but also exaggerated even nomads' population nearly 3 million on the official documents. ( see 5 ) Hazaras remained deprived of their due rights through these false "facts and figures" of the rulers. It's pity to say that foreign countries would blindly accept all those incorrect and unfair information as well. For example: Iranian government always mistaken and misjudged in taking them as a strong supporter of Hazaras, has been declaring Hazaras 3 percent out of total population of Afghanistan but to the best of Iranian's information and knowledge more than the claimed figure (as by Iranian government) has only taken refuge in Iran (as Hazara refugees). On the other hand Pakistan because of some political and other interests is also trying its level best to publicize and hence misinform the world by saying that Hazaras are only 2% of the total population of Afghanistan, but ironically Hazaras much more then these figures have taken refuge in Pakistan.

In our notion, the purpose behind these media expeditions of the cited countries could be only to revise the bitter history for depriving Hazaras once again from their due rights. Recently, an international renowned magazine "TIME" has published various ethnic groups of Afghanistan in its October 15, 2001 edition, has claimed Pashtoon to be 38%, Tajik 25%, Hazara 19% and Uzbek, Turkman, Baloch 18% in Afghanistan. However, this information can be accepted partially but not at large because we strongly believe that if census were conducted in a scientific and proper way, the factual figure of Hazara population would have raised than published in the magazine but again it's worth mentioning to appreciate TIME magazine for publishing first time to some extent a better and a bit digestible figure and various institutions and countries do agree over the data printed in the magazine.

It's very necessary to be pointed out that constitution of Afghanistan during various regimes were always a determination to keep other ethnic groups particularly Shiite Hazaras away from the ruling. For example: According to the King Zahir's 1965 constitution article No. 8 "one can be the king of Afghanistan who is Afghan national, a Muslim and should be the follower of Hannafi sect". According to Sardar Dawood's constitution article No. 76, "the president of Afghanistan nominated and recommended by the party and with the support of Loya Jirga's two third majority, would be elected as president of the country for the next six years". 6 It may be recalled that Dawood had already imposed one party system in the country in accordance with its constitution article no. 40 and his own political party by the name of "National Revolutionary Party" was the only legitimate political party of Afghanistan. In this regard if we deduce a conclusion, it won't be difficult to estimate that how tricky the constitution was in order to deprive the majority from the ruling right. Though, Dawood in his constitution's article No. 12 had guaranteed respect for the UN charter regarding human rights, but it's true that neither UN charter was followed nor efforts for the establishment of a society based on equality and brotherhood was practiced. Therefore, all non-Pashtoon ethnic groups remained deprived of progress and development in every walk of life particularly the doors of education and army institutions were totally banned and inaccessible for Hazaras. As a result of these unjust policies towards other ethnic groups, not a single person could reach to a high army rank from the whole Hazarastan while on the other hand many people rose to a high military position even from one family belonging to eastern and southern areas of Afghanistan and the same response from other ethnic groups could easily be imagined in every walk of life.

King Zahir during his 40 years long rule paid only one visit to Hazara Jat (Hazaristan) and even then no single constructive step and measure was taken in the favor of people there. Neither a muddy (symbolic) road constructed nor a basic health facility offered. It is very important to bring in your notice such a case, when it was planned to start a metalled road project connecting Kabul to Herat. In this case it could have been very economical and worthy to pass the road through Hazarastan. As it was a displacement (mileage shrunk). But they did not do so and the road was routed through Kandahar (a very long distance) keeping in view the benefits of Pashtoons. The purpose was only to keep Hazaras away from any kind of progress and prosperity.

Now, when there is a turning point in Afghan situation and there is a possibility of the establishment of a peaceful society through actions of international community and it is hoped that a broad based multiethnic government may be established under the auspices of United Nations. In our opinion the following points must be kept in view while deciding about upcoming broad based multiethnic government. The points are as follows:

1. The possibility of holding a successful Jirga acceptable to all ethnic groups depends upon a proper method involving all ethnic units of Afghanistan putting back all unfair games of the past. The country does not have an authentic data regarding ethnic population (as no proper census has been carried out), so the following percentage be kept in view to assure the participation of all ethnic groups of Afghanistan in the proposed Loya Jirga.

 Pashtoon            25%

Tajik    25%

Hazara25%

Uzbek, Turkmen & Baloch etc.            25%

2. Holding of a real Loya Jirga for constructive and long lasting results needs that representation from every ethnic Afghan group be assured in a democratic way. In present situation of unrest polling in Afghanistan is impossible, so that United Nations may seek proposals from the former king Zahir and United Front/Northern Alliance (fighting in Afghanistan shoulder to shoulder with International community against the terror).
    
3. Not only representatives of Afghan refugees in various countries should be included but also experts from various faculties be given participation besides political, tribal and religious scholars in the Loya Jirga.
    
4. At least, 20% seats be reserved for women in the Loya Jirga so that to provide them with a chance in the deduction of conclusion for the future of Afghanistan.
    
5. Representatives should be trustworthy, educated and progressive and should have the capability to put the country on the track to peace and prosperity.
    
6. Any one involved in terrorist activities either directly or indirectly should not be considered for Loya Jirga.

Role of Loya Jirga:

Loya Jirga, after its formation should help establish a broad based multiethnic government as soon as possible, which may be there for a minimum period of one year and maximum period not more than three years. In this regard our humble proposals are as below.

1. Loya Jirga, after thorough discussion and mutual reconciliation, should have right to elect the head of the government and cabinet members in democratic way. In this regard, the head of the government and other three foremost government posts such as defense, foreign and interior ministries must be distributed in a  way that four major ethnic groups like Pashtoon, Hazara, Tajik and Uzbek should be given equal participation. For the selection of the cabinet members all ethnic groups and sects should be treated keeping in mind their factual population percentages.
    
2. A federation needs to be formed consisting of central and provincial governments. It is therefore, compulsory that five provinces be established which could represent various ethnic groups in Afghanistan. Beside currency, defense, foreign affairs and communication, the rest departments should be assigned to the provinces on account of providing more sovereignty to the provinces so that the masses could bring their capability and resources to fulfill the requirements of their people.
    
3. The most important task for the new interim government is to drive a full campaign for deweaponization in Afghanistan and persuade the inhabitants to surrender their weapons to the local authorities voluntarily so the weapons should be handed over to the federal government. For this purpose, it is necessary to form a joint national army in which the participation of all ethnic groups in accordance with their population be assured.
    
4. Interim government's duty should be to establish a committee including all ethnic experts which could constitute a unanimous and democratic constitution for the betterment of Afghan people unaltered by any prejudice.
    
5. The interim government should encourage the Afghans taking refuge all over the world to return to their homes. Afghans specializing in different fields such as social and political personalities and the one's interested in investing in their country should be given extra privileges under the supervision of United Nations. The interim government should also offer every possible help for the resettlement of the poor refugees. Any one specializing in a field should be provided (offered) with a due chance to lay a hand in the reconstruction of his country.
    
6. Interim government under the auspices of United Nations should hold a fair impartial census based on scientific methods so that the real population of the ethnic groups be figured out.
    
7. Interim government should make it possible that all the criminals involved in terrorist activities and mass killings are brought to the international court of justice.

We strongly appeal to the United Nations that keeping in view all the cited above facts and figures an international peacekeeping force be deployed in Afghanistan as soon as possible in order to put an end to the unrest and chaotic situation their, and the force should stay there until a complete peace and harmony and until the establishment of a stable democratic federal government takes place. We also appeal to the world fraternity to take full interest in the rehabilitation of Afghanistan, so that Afghanistan could get a respectable standing in the community of the global village.

ORGANIZATION FOR THE SUPPORT OF DEMOCRACY AND
HUMAN RIGHTS IN AFGHANISTAN

Footnotes:

1. The history of Hazaras by Temur Khanov
2. - same as number 1 -
3. Constitutions of Afghanistan. Page 57-61 (Compiled by Cultural Centre of Afghan Writers)
4. Shinas Nama-e-Afghanistan. Page 9-45 (by Baseer Ahmed Daulatabadi)
5. The General Atlas of Afghanistan.
6. Constitutions of Afghanistan. (Compiled by Cultural Centre of Afghan Writers)