What Mandate for the ISAF?

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What Mandate for the ISAF?

Organisation of the Islamic Conference Demands UN Investigate Massacre in Afghanistan

US Imperialism’s Further Targets in the "War on Terrorism"

Foreign Secretary Threatens Zimbabwe with Suspension from the Commonwealth

Several thousand troops of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) are expected to fly into Afghanistan over the next few weeks as a "stabilisation" or "peacekeeping" force.

The ISAF is being led by Britain, and the formulation of its mandate is and has been extremely contentious. Although it was out of the December 5 agreement in Bonn that the request for the Security Council to authorise such a force arose, how far this mandate goes and what are its limitations have been the subject of much wrangling with key figures in the new provisional government.

It took ISAF's British commanding officer, General John McColl, two weeks of negotiations with defence minister Mohammed Qasim Fahim before they were able to hammer out the Military Technical Agreement, MTA, that defines the duties and limitations of the peacekeeping force. At the same time the UN Security Council resolution authorising the force specifically mandates the use of force.

Not all the details of the MTA agreement – signed on January 4 – have been made public, but the ISAF's sphere of military operations has been officially restricted to guaranteeing security in Kabul and at the city's civil airport. The latter is expected to be operational in the next week or so. It is to play a major logistical role in bringing ISAF up to full strength.

The limited 300-strong ISAF contingent is projected rise to a complement of 3-5,000 men by the end of January, of whom 1,500 will be British and 1,200 German. Some 15 other countries have committed men to the force's initial six-month mission, including France, Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, Jordan, Bangladesh and Argentina.

Under the MTA, the Northern Alliance forces which occupied the capital after the Taleban fled on November 12 and have patrolled it ever since, will return to barracks. They will only re-emerge armed to take up duties alongside ISAF personnel.

General McColl recently told representatives from 11 of the 17 countries that are due to send units to Kabul, "There's no problem. Defence minister Fahim has shown himself ready and willing to work with us."

This, however, has not always been the case, and may well prove not to be the case in future. Fahim initially resisted any foreign presence in Kabul, as did foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, from the Northern Alliance, who made a last-ditch attempt on December 17 to have ISAF's mandate restricted to Chapter VI of the UN Charter, which precludes the use of force. When the UN Security Council insisted on ISAF's right to shoot back, under Chapter VII of the charter, Fahim promptly responded by calling for a six-month limit to the international mission's term.

Prime Minister Karzai of the interim government himself stated, however, that foreign troops would stay "as long as we need them, six months at the minimum". Karzai's selection as prime minister after December's Bonn talks on Afghanistan is said to be due both to his Pashtun origins as well as his close ties with ex-king Zahir Shah and the United States.

Ostensibly deployed to ensure the continuation of Karzai's government, the ISAF's second unspoken mission goal is said to be to prevent the transitional government from being hijacked by the United Front. Two days after his inauguration, Karzai appointed Uzbek General Rashid Dostum, deputy defence minister, apparently in response to his complaints that Uzbeks had been allocated insufficient power and portfolios in the new administration. Similar complaints have been voiced by leading members of the Hazara ethnic group, though not by Ismael Khan of Herat, whose son, Mirwais Sadeq, was made a minister.

Dostum collaborated with US General Tommy Franks after the commencement of the US bombing on October 7, first over the capture of Mazar-e-Sharif, and then subsequently over the siege of Kunduz. Local fighters are now being expected to collaborate with the British-led ISAF mission.

In summary, a number of themes have become evident in the deployment of foreign troops in Afghanistan. One is that the declaration that the Afghan people should decide their own future is shown to be very hollow. The intention is increasingly revealed to be the opposite, as what the big powers, especially the Anglo-Americans, aim for in Afghanistan is to call the shots in all the arrangements which are forged. Another is the issue of the "Afghanisation" of the war. The big powers attempted to use the Northern Alliance, or United Front, to carry out their aim of overthrowing the Taleban in conjunction with the US bombing. Now they are expected to toe the line in the "Coalition’s" aims in securing their interests in Central Asia. Furthermore, there has been and continues to be strong opposition even within the provisional government to the use of force to settle the ongoing differences amongst the Afghan people, whereas the ISAF has insisted that its will be imposed through military means. Finally, despite all the fine words from Britain and the US about democracy and human rights in Afghanistan, as far as possible they are attempting to keep the Afghan people as a whole out of the decision-making. Indeed, the model of democracy they are attempting to impose is one that institutionalises divisions within the polity in Afghanistan, and hence is fundamentally opposed to the nation-building project which the Afghan people need and desire.

Representatives of more than 50 Islamic countries have asked the UN to investigate the deaths of hundreds of foreign captives in Afghanistan.

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference says its Secretary-General has demanded an inquiry into the alleged massacre in northern Afghanistan in November. Hundreds of captives, most of them non-Afghan Taleban fighters taken prisoner after the fall of Kunduz, died during a three-day uprising at Qalai Janghi fortress near Mazar-e-Sharif.

A letter to UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, says that Islamic nations are concerned about the deaths of prisoners who surrendered to the Northern Alliance only after assurances they would be well treated and handed over to the UN. It said that in a written reply to Abdelouahed Belkeziz, Kofi Annan noted that the United Nations had no presence in Afghanistan at the time of the three-day uprising among prisoners at a fortress near the city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

Kofi Annan said that the UN would assist the interim Afghan administration to form an independent human rights council, whose responsibilities would include investigating human rights violations. But the Secretary-General warned that the human rights council would not immediately be capable of investigating events as complicated as the prison uprising, the statement said.

Mary Robinson, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has also called for an investigation, suggesting international human rights groups may be able to carry it out.

True to form, Britain and the United States have dismissed the proposal for an enquiry.

Deputy US defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz has hinted that the Pentagon is moving away from making Iraq its next target in the "war on terrorism". Instead, he said that the US would concentrate on "lawless areas" in countries including Somalia, Yemen, the Philippines and Indonesia hosting al-Qaida and linked groups.

He outlined the future strategy in an interview with the New York Times on Tuesday but warned the campaign in Afghanistan was not over. He described the country as being "at least as treacherous and dangerous now as it was a month or two ago".

Pentagon planners were engaged in working out what to do next and confirmed possible terror bases in Yemen and Somalia are coming under scrutiny. Paul Wolfowitz told the newspaper: "Obviously, Somalia comes up as a possible candidate for al-Qaida people to flee to precisely because the government is weak or non-existent." He said the search is now on in Somalia for people the US can use as allies in the country, instead of campaigning alone. The comment is the first official confirmation that the US is involved in any way in Somalia.

Paul Wolfowitz also said that Yemen was a possible theatre for future operations, with al-Qaida known to have cells in remote parts of the country, where Osama bin Laden has close ethnic ties.

He also named the Philippines and Indonesia as areas where the US is considering aiding government-run efforts against al-Qaida-linked terrorists.

In the Philippines, the US is already training the Philippine army in its operations against Islamic forces, known as Abu Sayyaf, who are fighting a guerrilla war on the island of Basilan.

In response to questions in Parliament yesterday (Tuesday), the Foreign Secretary Jack Straw indicated that Britain might demand that Zimbabwe be suspended from Commonwealth membership when leaders of the Commonwealth meet in Australia in March. Straw arrogantly stated that President Mugabe’s behaviour was "a serious and persistent violation" of Commonwealth principles.

The southern African country is facing mounting political and economic problems and a presidential election in the next few months. Britain, the former colonial power in what before 1980 was Rhodesia, has been openly meddling in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs while refusing to honour its obligations to fund land distribution under the terms of the Lancaster House agreement of 1980. In recent years the British government has launched an unprecedented campaign of provocations and abuse against Zimbabwe, its government and president. The Zimbabwe government’s attempts to initiate land redistribution have led to intervention in the country’s affairs and threats of further punitive measures from Britain, the EU and the US.

In response to accusations from members of the Conservative Party that the government was "sitting on the fence" on Zimbabwe and lagging behind the US, which announced some sanctions against Zimbabwe late last year, Jack Straw reiterated that the government’s policy was to isolate Zimbabwe, to "internationalise the issue" and to make sure that President Robert Mugabe could not "parade himself as the anti-colonialist hero against the former colonialist power".