OPEN LETTER
Goltingen, DECEMBER 5 1997
Break food blockade against Hazara!
To President Bill Clinton: If the Taleban commit
genocide in Afghanistan, the U.S. are partly responsible!
Dear Mr. President:
A dramatic cry for help from the central Afghan
province Bamiyan, predominantly populated by the Hazara people, reached the
Society for Threatened Peoples ‑ International (GifbV-I). The
islamic-fundamentialist Taleban are preparing a genocide in that province.
Since August of this year they have been subjecting 300,000 people in the
mountainous area traditionally called Hazarajat to a food blockade. Urgently needed food supplies provided by
the United Nations are stopped on the way. Due to last summer's crop failure
the reserves will be exhausted in a few days. The winter, during which the few
passes will be inaccessible, lasts six months.
In our minds terrible memories are evoked: The mass
murder committed against the people in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica began
with a similar siege. But while the U.S.A eventually stopped the genocide
against the Bosnian Muslims, in Afghanistan they carry part of the
responsibility: First of all the Taleban were given strength by the U.S. and by
their allies Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. It was the then U.S. ambassador to
Pakistan, John D. Monjo, who in 1994/1995 negotiated the construction of a gas
pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan through Afghan territory with the
Taleban. Suddenly showered with dollars, the mercenaries could buy up their
arsenal.
Since autumn 1906 when the Taleban started their
attacks against the north of Afghanistan, this civil war, which up to then had
been a power struggle between the different fractions arnong the mujaheddin,
has been changing to a war of the Pashtun dominated Taleban against the ethnic
minorities in the country. The ideologists among the mercenary troops dream of
erecting a "Greater Pashtunistan".
The national consensus which ‑ despite existing rivalries between
the mujaheddin forces ‑ had held toghther the peoples in Afghanistan even
after the withdrawal of the Soviel invaders, is destroyed.
Society for Threatened Peoples
NCO in consultative status (
Caterury 10 with the Economic
and Social Council (ECOSOC)
of the United Nalions
Bureau
Vice President Audre Rollinger
1, rue Heldenstcin
L - 1723 Lixeinbufb'
Tel/Fax 00352403291
Addresses:
Presidert Tilman Zulch
PO BOx 2024
0-37010 Gottlingen
Fon + 49 / 551 / 49906-24
Fax+49 / 551 / 57S29 e-mail: info @ gfbv.do homepage:
http://www&ibv.de
The Hazara are of Mongolian origin, speak a Persian
dialect and predominantly profess the
Shi'ite lslam. They are a small and consequently very vulnerable people. Before the war, thelr number in Afghanistan
totalled approx 2 million. To date nobody can tell how many Hazara have already
died, how many are internal refugees
and exposed to persecution by the Taleban.
We can only give one example: When the Village of
Qizllabad west of Mazar-i-Sharif was conquered on September 14, 1995, about 70
unarmed Hazara, among them women and children, were murdered by members of the
Taleban militia. Most of them had their arms and legs broken before they were
shot, some even had their faces
skinned.
The TaIeban also commitied massacraes of the Tejik
population. In January 1997 they overran the provinces of Pardon and Kapisa
east of Kabul to conquer the Salang pass. Doing so, they expelled hundreds of
thousands of Tejik from their houses and their fields. They specifically killed
young male civilians during this brutal "ethnic cleansing" campaign.
Dear Mr. President, please prevent that the U.S
incur a partial responsibility for a genocide comitted by the Taleban. We
urgently appeal to you and your governrnent.
Via your allies Saudi Aradia and Pakistan bring
about an end to the food blockade against the Hazara. Ensure that relief organisations be able to transport the
desperately needed food to the Hazarajat
before the begining of the winter !
Make an end to the U.S. support for the Taleban, so
that in Afghanistan we will not have to see again what the American media
denounced so fervently in Bosnia.
Through diplomatic activity involving all powers concerned
by the Afghan conflict, make it possible that a peace conference under the
suspices of the United Nations be convoked.
Yours sincerely,
/s/ Tilman Zulch
Tilman Zulch