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