Gość: Tim
IP: 168.103.126.*
10.12.01, 15:31
Born to a poor agricultural family in Singesar, south-western Afghanistan, in
1960, the devoted son, Mohammad, went to study theology in Pakistan, in one of
the Madrassa (Koranic schools), near Karachi. These schools provide an
education for interested pupils from poor families.
Little is known of Mohammad Omar until the early 1980s, when he appeared as a
guerrilla leader fighting against the Soviet Armed Forces in Afghanistan. It
was then that he came into contact with his best friend and fishing companion,
Osama Bin Laden, a friendship which transcended the responsibilities of a
leader of his country, if not all of his people, resulting in the current
situation of chaos in which the country is emerged.
Shortly before he launched the Taleban movement in the Spring of 1994, Mohammad
Omar was called by the humble people of his village, Singesar, who complained
that two local girls had been tied up, shaved and gang-raped by Mujaheddin
militia. Mohammad Omar gathered together 30 former guerrillas, found the girls,
freed them and hanged the Mujaheddin leaders.
It was acts of savagery like this committed by the Mujaheddin which may have
led to the austere regime of strict discipline that Mohammad Omar imposed on
his country. Certainly, in a country where two local Mujaheddin leaders
destroyed half a city (Kandahar), killing tens of civilians, amid salvoes of
missiles, mortars and bazookas, over a dispute as to which of the two was going
to perform anal seks with a ten-year-old boy, strict discipline was necessary.
The Taleban movement was thus launched, more by accident than design, to
control the growing anarchy within the country after the US-backed Mujaheddin
had ousted the communist government of Dr. Najibullah from Kabul, the first
government to address the country’s severe social problems. It was also this
government which opened up career paths for women more than any other.
Initially, the Taleban were greeted with enthusiasm as they systematically
clamped down on the Mujaheddin warlords and drugs barons who had taken over the
country. They were seen as a movement which restored a minimum of order over
total chaos.
Mohammad Omar told the Pakistani journalist Rahimullah Yousifzei that “We were
fighting Moslems who had gone wrong. How could we remain quiet when we could
see crimes being committed against women and the poor?” However, somewhere,
somehow, things went wrong.
A regime which imposed a strict and eccentric interpretation of the Qu’ran,
banning all activities which distracted people from praying, may have been a
reflection of the personal psyches of Mohammad Omar and Osama Bin Laden, the
first, reacting against his poor origins and the second, against his misspent
youth, in his quest for attention. Naughty boy Osama craved the attention of
the father who abandoned him, through death, when he was ten years old.
Mohammad Omar mixed traditional Pashtun lore with Islamic law in his personal
fix for the ills of the country he came to dominate, more by chance than by
design.
The end result was a regime which imposed a prohibition of almost all earthly
pleasures. Lobster, television, cinema, enamel, statues, nail varnish,
satellite dishes, photographs of people and animals, stuffed toys, the
Internet, computer discs, non-religious music, dancing, musical instruments,
cards, ties, chess, lipstick, fireworks, catalogues, poppies, pig fat, human
hair products, women drivers, female students and kite flying.
While ridiculed by those outside Afghanistan, it should be pointed out that
kite making and flying takes on special importance in Afghanistan, Pakistan and
India. Kites are hand-made to fly at heights of several kilometres, the strings
coated in cut glass. The kites are launched not as a form of diversion, but
instead of battle, as any other kite in the sky is seen as a target to be
attacked. The flier uses great dexterity to wind his string around the other,
cut it and bring in both kites. Kite flying was thus attacked from a moral
standpoint totally misunderstood by those who use this prohibition as a
mainstay of their attacks against the Taleban.
However, the Taleban lost touch with their people through an excessive
imposition of the Sharia (Islamic law), which inflicted mutilations,
decapitations, public stoning and torture on its people, the imposition of the
burqah (total coverage) on women, who were denied schooling and the prohibition
of male doctors from touching the bodies of women. A reclusive figure, who
lived in total austerity in Kandahar, the ultra-shy Mohammad Omar imposed his
personal limitations on the movement he created.
Nevertheless, Mohammad Omar is no fool. In an interview with the Pakistan
daily, Dawn, in 1997, he declared that Afghanistan would be attacked by the USA
using Osama Bin Laden as a pretext because the Taleban had refused to allow an
American company to build a pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and
Pakistan to the Indian Ocean.
Mohammad Omar, The “Commander of the Faithful” is likely to be receiving
traditional Moslem hospitality among his Pashtun kinsmen during Ramadan. If he
chooses to go into hiding, it will be extremely difficult to ascertain his
whereabouts.
In any case, any formal charges brought against him by the USA would be
questionable under international law. After all, what has he done, which can be
proven beyond all reasonable doubt?
Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY