[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 33 (Tuesday, March 22, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 22, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                  AFGHANISTAN: REMAINS OF THE COLD WAR

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                          HON. STENY H. HOYER

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 22, 1994

  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, 5 years after the last Soviet troops left 
Afghanistan there is still a war being waged and as we have seen in 
other parts of the world it is largely innocent civilians who are both 
the targets and the victims of aggression.
  Yesterday, the New York Times published an article by Charles Norchi, 
executive director of the International League for Human Rights. Mr. 
Norchi's piece is a telling article that I commend to the attention of 
my colleagues. He describes a humanitarian catastrophe largely ignored 
by the international community. Mr. Norchi writes that horrific human 
rights abuses are being committed by every faction involved in the two 
decades old war.

       The Afghans have been victims of indiscriminate bombing, 
     torture, and mutilation. Restrictions on the rights of women 
     and on freedom of association and expression are on the rise; 
     so is religious intolerance. And nearly 15 million land mines 
     scattered throughout the country continue to main and kill.

  As as result of war, Afghans form the largest refugee group in the 
world, predominantly women and children. It is estimated that there are 
almost 1\1/2\ million Afghan refugees in Pakistan and 2 million in 
Iran. This is a country in its death throes. There is widespread 
destruction, a complete absence of any rule of law, the systematic and 
routine denial of justice, and a total disregard for civil and 
political rights that at times rise to the level of open contempt.
  Mr. Speaker, the United States helped arm the forces of the radical 
mujahidin leader Hekmatyar in his war against the Soviet union during 
the 1980's. Today, although Soviet forces have since withdrawn, this 
conflict persists and now involves forces from Tajikistan and 
Uzbekistan as well as factions supported by Iran and others backed by 
Saudi Arabia. and as Mr. Norchi points out, it has become ``fertile 
ground for the breeding and export of militant Islamic fundamentalism. 
It is the ideology of a desperate people, and the seeds of desperation 
are taking root. With the virtual breakdown of law and order, radical 
fundamentalist training camps have been flourishing.''
  The United States withdrew its embassy people from Kabul because of 
security reasons in 1989 and obviously those same security reasons have 
prevented us from returning. But it is those security reasons that lead 
Mr. Norchi to conclude that if something is not done to stop the 
slaughter, ``Afghanistan will only produce refugees, radical 
fundamentalists, and terrorists. Then surely, some day, Afghanistan 
will again be our war.'' Mr. Speaker, the United States should actively 
back United Nations efforts to bring an end to the fighting and speak 
out forcefully against the horrific abuses that are being carried out 
daily.
  Mr. Speaker, I respectfully request that Mr. Norchi's article be 
place in the Record.

                [From the New York Times, Mar. 21, 1994]

                          Whose War Is It Now?

                          (By Charles Norchi)

       Bombs are raining on Afghan civilians. Since January, heavy 
     fighting has been spreading across Afghanistan as a militant 
     fundamentalist Prime Minister and a former Communist general 
     wage war with a fundamentalist President. This week, United 
     Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali will dispatch 
     a newly appointed personal envoy to meet with all the 
     factions in an effort to end to the fighting.
       The peace effort is long overdue. In Kabul, the Afghan 
     capital, there are house searches, roundups and rapes, many 
     of them by former mujahedeen--the ``holy warriors'' who 
     fought the Soviet-backed Communist regime during the 1980's--
     who are now allied with one faction or another.
       Militia fighters launch rockets behind a barricade of human 
     corpses. A woman escapes her burning home, leaving behind the 
     bodies of her husband and 4-year-old son. A man flees his 
     devastated house where 15 family members died, victims of 
     mortar shells. As they try in vain to reach the Pakistani 
     border, his 8-month-old baby freezes to death. A 
     fundamentalist commander throws 14 people from the roof of a 
     mosque; they were praying incorrectly. Tens of thousands have 
     fled Kabul for refugee camps in Pakistan.
       But since January, Pakistan has turned away truckloads of 
     desperate, hungry and shell-shocked Afghans at the border, 
     and they are now camped outside the city of Jalalabad on a 
     harsh, dry and windy plateau near the Khyber Pass. Afghans 
     trained by the United Nations are still removing thousands of 
     land mines and unexploded shells from this desolate place.
       Five years after the last Russian troops left, there is 
     still a war in Afghanistan.
       Horrific human rights abuses are being committed by every 
     faction. And unlike those in Sarajevo, they are not captured 
     by television cameras. The Afghans have been victims of 
     indiscriminate bombing, torture and mutilation. Restrictions 
     of the rights of women and on freedom of association and 
     expression are on the rise; so is religious intolerance. And 
     nearly 15 million land mines scattered throughout the country 
     continue to maim and kill.
       Afghanistan's Prime Minister, Gulbaddin Hekmatyar, is an 
     extremist and a dangerous opportunist who despises the West 
     and for years has cracked the whip in the name of Allah. The 
     United States, and other friends of Afghanistan, gave him 
     that whip by arming him during the 1980's.
       For the first time, Afghanistan is becoming fertile ground 
     for the breeding and export of militant Islamic 
     fundamentalism. It is the ideology of a desperate people, and 
     the seeds of desperation are taking root. With the virtual 
     breakdown of law and order, radical fundamentalist training 
     camps have been flourishing.
       As well as seeking a solution to the conflict, the U.N.'s 
     new envoy, Ambassador Mahmoud Mestiri, must propose a long-
     term plan, including disarming irregular forces, creating a 
     salaried Afghan army, stepping up operations to disarm the 
     mines, building schools and hospitals and training Afghan 
     human rights monitors. Eventually, the United Nations must 
     also sponsor free elections.
       Afghans are victims of the games superpowers once played: 
     their war was once our war, and collectively we bear 
     responsibility. If something is not done to stop the killing, 
     Afghanistan will only produce refugees, radical 
     fundamentalists and terrorists. Then surely, some day, 
     Afghanistan will again be our war.

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