A Peace Plan for Afghanistan   By: Abdul Kadir Mohmand - Former Representative of the Afghan Freedom Fighters for North America during the 1980s. In The Name Of Allah Most Gracious, Most Merciful To Afghan Brothers and Sisters, and the World’s Leaders:    Afghanistan’s history shows that Afghanistan has never accepted occupation. Therefore, to bring peace, the United States needs to end its occupation and all foreign troops need to withdraw. Furthermore, Afghans have never accepted a leader from the outside or an Afghan puppet. At this historic time, all Afghans must unite and not allow the foreign occupiers to divide us by ethnicity, religion, tribal affiliation, language and gender. For peace, Afghans must become wise to the foreigners’ divide and conquer tactics that are being used right now to the detriment of Afghanistan. We, the Afghans, by relying on Islamic principles and our history are capable of bringing peace to Afghanistan if the foreign occupiers and Pakistan leave us alone. During the past thirty years, the Afghan people have suffered too much for too long. Now, it has been nine years since the United States invaded Afghanistan and treated Afghans as scapegoats for the tragic events on 9/11/2001. The Afghan people have suffered too much for too long. It is inhumane and intolerable to allow this suffering to continue. Mr. Karzai announced he will hold an Afghan Peace Plan Jirga in the spring. The majority of Afghans do not accept Karzai as their leader because he was installed and supported by the United States. The only Afghans, who support Karzai and his fraudulent election, are the ones personally and financially benefitting from the war and occupation. Karzai cannot bring all parties, such as the Afghan Mujahideen (Freedom Fighters), to the table because he has Afghan blood on his hands and has sold himself to the West. Someone who does not have Afghan blood on their hands and who has not sold himself to the foreigners needs to hold such a jirga. As far as any national Afghan peace jirga inside Afghanistan, there cannot be a peace jirga when there is the foreign occupation of Afghanistan with US and NATO troops waging war against the Afghans, because there is no true independence. There is no democracy. The foreign military campaign and occupation must end and all foreign troops removed before the Afghans can sit amongst themselves and discuss peace and reconciliation without foreign interference and foreign agendas. It must not be a repeat of Bonn in 2001, where foreigners and bordering countries’ representatives interfered and imposed their own geo -political, geo-military and economic agendas on the Afghans. The Afghan government is ineffective and corrupt. It cannot govern and bring peace and stability for the Afghans. This government has no effective control over more than two thirds of Afghanistan. It is a failed state with no legitimacy. It is not viable. Domination of the current government by war lords, human rights abusers, war criminals and communists from the 1980s, such as Rashid Dostam, drug traffickers, and wide spread corruption within the institutional structure of the state have undermined any trust, respect or confidence the Afghan people have in the current government. Monies for reconstruction are flowing into personal bank accounts, private militias, and the illicit drug trade. Heavy reliance upon foreign occupiers, dominance of human rights abusers, drug traffickers, Northern Alliance, and communist war criminals from the 1980s in top government positions, all have eroded any moral underpinnings of the current government’s legitimacy. Currently, in Marjah - the Helmand Valley, Kunduz and other Pashtun areas, the Pashtun tribes and villages, who are resisting because of war crimes committed against them and the occupation of their country by foreigners, are being attacked, bombed and murdered by the United States, NATO, and the Afghan Forces dominated by the Northern Alliance. The Pashtuns are being sidelined. This strategy is the wrong strategy and it will not bring peace and long term stability to Afghanistan, the region, and the world. History has shown there can be no peace without justice. It is not just to scapegoat the Afghans especially the majority Pashtuns. It must be made known that the present resistance inside Afghanistan to the current Afghan government and foreign military campaign and occupation consist of ordinary Pashtun villagers. Treating the Taliban as al Qaeda is a mistake, and treating the Pashtun as the Taliban is another. One of the major causes for the instability and resistance is the fact that the Pashtun have been sidelined and scapegoated. The Pashtun villagers are frustrated with the backlash brought about by the Northern Alliance, the corrupt, ineffective Afghan government, and the foreign military occupation – its air strikes and bombardments of their villages, “collateral damage”, killing of civilians, aggressive, arbitrary searches of homes and seizures of Pashtuns from their villages, and overall hostile tactics. The occupying foreign forces and the Northern Alliance are acting like the Soviet Union and Afghan Communists in the 1980s. As history has shown, the Afghans will resist if treatment continues as is. Peace and long term stability will not happen. There can be no peace and stability without justice. There has been little fundamental reconstruction in Afghanistan under the West’s occupation, the Karzai government and the current approaches. Before the foreign invasions and occupations, Afghanistan was a beautiful garden. Now it is a toxic landfill. A few corrupt war lords in Kabul are building big buildings, but when one tours the majority of Kabul and the country side it is like a landfill. It is a dumping ground for superpowers’ weaponry- present United States’ uranium tipped weapons and the Communists’ mines and other weapons and chemicals with civilians as the targets. Afghan people live in garbage and drink polluted water. The Kabul River is a polluted disgrace. Where are the newly built sewers and water systems? There is no sewer system for the millions of people of Kabul, which results in the people breathing fumes from their own feces and badly polluted air. Presently, there still is pollution, contamination and utter destruction of the infrastructure. There is widespread corruption with the aid funds and monies going into governmental leaders’ and their families’ and friends’ pockets and personal bank accounts. There are corrupt foreign contractors financially benefitting at the expense of the Afghan people’s continued misery. The foreign occupation and escalated military campaign aided and accepted by the Karzai government is only causing further destruction, environmental contamination, and suffering for the Afghan people. It is not bring reconstruction or development. The US, NATO, and the United Nations must open a sincere channel with respected Afghan intellectual leaders, who do not have Afghan blood on their hands and who have not sold themselves to foreigners. These Afghan leaders will pave the way for negotiation with the Afghan resistance, which must be included in a comprehensive settlement. These respected Afghan intellectual leaders, need to be part of the team that meets with the US, NATO, the UN and the current Afghan Freedom Fighters. These leaders must be respected and known to the Afghans as good people and have the trust of the Afghan freedom fighters.   The following are guidelines for a Peace Plan for Afghanistan: Without justice, there can be no peace. Justice must be brought for the Afghan people through lawful prosecutions of war criminals from 1978 to the present through international and national tribunals. If peace and stability are truly to be in Afghanistan, then the world’s leaders need to follow the example presently set forth in Rwanda. The top military leaders and military plan architects need to be prosecuted for war crimes committed from 1978 to the present, including those individuals responsible for the war crimes committed at Dasht-e-Laila. Justice has never been brought for the Afghan victims. Without justice through lawful prosecutions, there can never be peace and stability in Afghanistan. Bosnia, Rwanda, and the Jewish people have all been provided with justice through lawful prosecutions in international courts. The Afghan victims of Soviet war crimes and more recent war crimes have never been given justice. Without justice, there can be no peace.   In 1945, the United Nations was created as a world body whose role would be to try to prevent future great wars like World War II. This organization was viewed by world leaders at that time as being essential “to prevent aggression and to remove political, economic, and social causes of war through close and continuing collaboration of all peace-loving peoples.” In Afghanistan, the United Nations has failed in this role. It now needs to take an active role and force a ceasefire and end the United States and NATO’s military campaign in and occupation of Afghanistan and the tribal areas. To achieve this ceasefire, the West needs to sit down at the table with the Afghan Mujahideen or freedom fighters to bring about peace but before this can take place. The United States and the United Nations needs to stop mislabeling them and calling them the Taliban and terrorists.   There needs to be a creation of a strong Islamic government in Afghanistan. The majority of the Afghan people are Muslim. They will only accept a government which follows Shari’ah Law, which means a straight path. The current Afghan Constitution is not acceptable because it was imposed by foreigners.   The occupation of Afghanistan by the United States and NATO is a violation of international law.   The United States and NATO must implement a ceasefire and end their military escalation in and occupation of Afghanistan because war is not the solution. War and occupation will not bring peace, but only escalate violence. Peace is the solution.   A transitional Afghan administration is needed to replace the current Kabul government. This administration must not represent any coalition of parties involved in the Afghan conflict. It must not represent any faction, party, ethnic group, or foreign interest. After amending the current constitution, it will leave power for an elected government.   A new transitional government must be restructured so it is not a current war lords’ dominated government based on ethnicity, race, gender, language or gun power. It should be based on qualification, professionalism, effectiveness, transparency, and accountability. Individuals in this transitional administration must not have Afghan blood on their hands or have sold themselves to foreigners.   A viable Afghan state needs to be non-aligned and neutral like Switzerland, having good relations with its neighbors and be a good partner with the international community. Furthermore, the neighbors of Afghanistan must pledge not to interfere in the internal affairs of Afghanistan especially Pakistan, which has a history of interfering for its financial gain to Afghanistan’s detriment. The UN Security Council must guarantee this assurance of non-interference. Afghanistan has an important strategic and economic location situated at the crossroads of Central Asia, South Asia, China, Iran and the Gulf. A stable Afghanistan can play a positive role in the stability and prosperity of the region. Afghanistan can be stable only when non-aligned. Afghanistan has become a problem for its people and others when its neutrality has been disturbed. The interference of Great Britain in the 19th century, the Soviet Union in the 20th century, its neighbors and the US occupation in the 21st century have placed Afghanistan and the region in chaos.   All foreign troops must withdraw from Afghanistan in a reasonable time frame. There must be no permanent foreign troop bases in Afghanistan.   All prisoners must be released, who were imprisoned by foreign troops in Afghanistan.   All prisons, detention centers or facilities, interrogation centers or facilities, rendition centers or facilities built, created, maintained and/or used by foreigners inside Afghanistan must be closed.   All bombardments in all regions of Afghanistan including in Helmand and Kunduz and the Pashtun regions on both sides of the illegitimate Durand Line are condemned. There must be an immediate cessation of such bombardments   There must be an immediate cessation of the unlawful drone attacks on both sides of the illegitimate Durand line.   All non-Afghan armed individuals or groups must leave Afghanistan.   The internal and external refugee problem must be immediately addressed. All internal refugees must be allowed to return to their properties and villages, especially the Pashtuns, who were displaced by the Northern Alliance and Western forces. There must be an immediate stop to the cruel and unfair treatment of Afghan refugees by Pakistani, Iranian authorities, the United States, the Karzai government and any other foreign countries.   All types of corruption, injustice, human rights violations, and the production of narcotics are condemned. An aggressive plan for the elimination of these illicit behaviors needs to be developed and implemented. Help the Afghan farmers find alternatives to the growing of poppies.   Reconstruct and rebuild Afghanistan with the help of the Afghan educated around the world. Afghanistan should be allowed to freely trade its goods around the world for a period of 25 years without interference such as tariffs, sanctions, embargos etc.   There needs to be a mandatory public education system in Afghanistan whereby all Afghan children, boys and girls, are educated from kindergarten through 12th grade. Education of the youth will lead to peace, development, stability, and prosperity.   Of utmost importance, Afghan children, especially orphans, must be protected from sex trade rings, kidnapping for illicit organ trade, pedophiles, prostitution, child abuse, slave work, illegal removal of Afghan children from Afghanistan for various reasons such as adoption, religious conversion. In addition, there must be very strict guidelines for the adoption and removal of Afghan children by foreigners. It should be very limited. It is best if Afghan children are raised by their parents or family members.   In accordance with Islamic law, the freedom and rights of Afghan women must be allowed and protected. Afghan women must not be treated like sex objects, such as using women for pornography, sex trade, prostitution, and portraying women in the media in a sexual way as is prevalent in the Western world. Afghan women must be allowed to work, become educated, and hold elected office. It is time for the Afghans to unite and bring peace to Afghanistan without foreign occupation and interference. By relying on Islamic principles and our rich history, we can devise our peace plan for our country. Sincerely, Abdul Kadir Mohmand Former Representative of the Afghan Freedom Fighters for North America during the 1980s Abdul Kadir Mohmand 6147 Old Log Trail Kalamazoo, Michigan USA 49009 (269) 353-7044  kmohmand@chartermi.net

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