Rebuilding Afghanistan

Escaping from the Morass

The question now is how can belligerent parties transcend the present morass? The answer may lie in devising a strategically comprehensive development programme from below and gradually increasing public participation backed by a financial commitment on the part of the international community in the process of rebuilding the country. First and foremost it is essential to put an end to interference in Afghanistan's internal affairs by neighbouring countries pursuing their own agenda. To accomplish this, the United Nations must pass a resolution to prohibit regional countries from supplying arms to their respective clients and establish monitoring committees in each neighbouring state for enforcement of the resolution. Ten years ago such a policy effectively worked to force the dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, to withdraw his occupation troops from Kuwait and contained his blitzkrieg assault against minority communities. Prohibiting arms sales and deliveries to belligerent parties in Afghanistan would graduall y reduce the military capacity of the combatants and force them to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the ongoing conflict.

The diversity of the country's ethnicity requires establishment of a political institution that ensures greater political tolerance for cultural diversity as well as faith-based differences. Attempts to impose solutions to the ongoing conflict from the top have failed to produce any tangible results, as top-down prescribed remedies do not offer any material incentive to sway the people from the culture of war. Such an approach to resolve the conflict is also complicated in that it further strengthens tribalism. One of the effective alternatives to de-tribalization, de-mobilization, and establishment of a durable peace is a participatory approach toward rebuilding and rehabilitation of the country as it lays down a foundation for a broad-based representational political system. The international community and organizations could play a major role in the rebuilding of a new Afghanistan, using economic aid as leverage to entice combatants to lay down their arms and work toward an innovative solution to the conf lict. The twenty years of war propelled the country backward to pre-industrial age conditions and impending strife among warlords makes it impossible for people to rebuild their lives and rehabilitate the war-torn country without help. The civil war seriously damaged the very fabric of civic institutions, i.e. education, health, and the economy.

The Failure of Outside Help