Editor’s note: From the maritime tensions in the South China Sea to the border skirmishes between India and China, armed violence continues to threaten much of Asia. In the painstaking quest for peace, Afghanistan has seen impressive triumphs – and equally massive setbacks. With the Biden administration reviving the negotiations with the Taliban, peace once again becomes a realistic prospect for people in the region. But the discussions have stalled, mired in controversy and apathy, in posturing and finger-pointing. Meanwhile, Afghans are left to suffer at the hands of a corrupt government hell-bent on keeping its power. For their sake, real progress needs to happen.
The following text is from a joint statement on the Afghanistan peace process by several concerned civil society organizations in the country. It has been edited for conciseness, tone, clarity, and flow. For more information, contact: Naeem Ayubzada at tefa.afghan@gmail.com.
In the years following the US-led war on terror, Afghanistan has emerged mighty from the rubble, and has achieved for itself great gains in democracy and human rights.
The country has established a democratic state and ratified its own constitution that embodies Afghan ideals, holding sacred the principles of civic freedom, human rights, and a free press. There have been huge improvements in women’s rights and their meaningful engagement in work and education, as well as growing youth involvement in nation-building.
The country has also started holding elections, the lifeblood of any healthy democracy, and its people have been empowered to choose their leaders and representatives.
Along with a burgeoning private sector, all of these victories have promoted Afghanistan’s image on a regional and global scale, lending it legitimacy both as a diplomatic and economic partner.
But currently, civic spaces in Afghanistan are under attack, and they are shrinking at a frightening pace. The rapid growth of democratic ideals in the country has been met with a swelling wave of conservative groups, led by figures such as Mullah Ansari, the Jihadi leader of Takhar, a northeastern province of Afghanistan, and Gulbudin Hikmatyar, in Kabul.
Recent killings targeting predominantly civil society activists threaten to undo two decades’ worth of progress. According to February 2021 data from the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, some 33 civil society activists have been killed, and many others left wounded since 2018. Human rights, particularly those of women, have deteriorated the most.
The onslaught of assassinations has put people on edge, weakening their emotional and psychological wellbeing to the point that they live every moment in fear. As a result, many prominent activists and community organizers have been forced to either relinquish their roles or seek asylum abroad. People are severely discouraged. They no longer have willpower nor the desire or the motivation to create, or innovate, or initiate civic activities.
In response, the government has enacted no workable mechanism to protect not only Afghanistan’s democracy, but also its defenders, advocates, and journalists. The message is clear: their protection is clearly not a priority.
Sham democracy
What led to such a grim situation?
“The farmers have been asked many times to leave the area, but never before has the government taken such harsh steps,” said Bhim Singh Rawat, associate coordinator of the NGO South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers, and People. “The National Green Tribunal’s 2018 verdict seems to have an instrumental role in what’s happening now.”
A 2018 report found that the vegetables grown in the Yamuna floodplain of Delhi contain high levels of toxic metals. As the Yamuna river flows from Haryana in north-central India to Delhi, it is exposed to the indiscriminate dumping of sewage and industrial waste, which has increased the toxicity of the river. Following the report, the court ordered the the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to stop all farming activities in the area by 2020.
“Farmers are essential to the sanctity of this region and have worked for years to make this region farmable. Now the authorities want to take it away from us and build an artificial park,” Rawat said.
The region is prone to heavy floods during the monsoon, and residents move to the upland every season. Along with wreaking destruction in the area, the floods also bring nutrient-rich soil. The farmers here have adapted to the patterns of the floods and farm vegetables and ornamentals.
“If this flood-prone area is given for the construction of a park, it would incur more loss than profit,” said Dalbir Singh, vice president of the Delhi Peasants Cooperative Multipurpose Society (DPCMS), which was granted a lease in 1949 to farm on the floodplain of Yamuna river.
“The farms and the park can co-exist,” said Swati Janu, founder of Social Design Collaborative. “We need to find a sustainable solution in our urban planning models.”
The architect and writer believes that the “upcoming Delhi Master Plan 2041 has immense scope to consider the livelihoods of the farmers in its vision of the capital. The city also belongs to them. Instead of simply removing them, they need to be integrated as important stakeholders in the development of the city,” she said.
Democracy in Afghanistan is not ideal, but rather nominal. The incumbent government is steeped in widespread corruption that jeopardizes and brings into question the very essence of its governance.
Despite having three main branches, the power of the government hasn’t actually been separated, and the autonomy of each branch from each other has been called into question. The judiciary, for example, has been known to work under the whims of the president, leaving courts with little to no independence. Even individual commissions now seem under the control of the president.
The parliament has also been accused of fraud and corruption, and has been formed arbitrarily. Provincial councils are supposed to be subject to elections every four years; the last time those seats were put up to vote was in 2014, yet they remain occupied until now. In the same way, a quarter of the seats in the parliament’s upper house meant for district councilors are illegally held by provincial councilors.
The Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan recently announced that elections for both the provincial and district council were scheduled for the next couple of months, but their plan remains abstract with no clarity of feasibility. Meanwhile, the president and his team continue to further nepotism by assigning their closed ones to key governmental positions, restricting entry for others, especially those belonging to minorities.
It should come as no surprise, then, that the electoral process has been severely polluted, with poll results often called into question due to allegations of fraud and corruption. Though it is a democracy on paper, Afghanistan’s government epitomizes a dictatorship.
In turn, the cogs of the economy have slowed and stalled, leaving its citizens to suffer. According to a UNICEF report, Afghanistan ranks third in the world in terms of food insecurity. The number of malnourished children in the country jumped by 25 percent, corresponding to 2.5 million children. Of these, some 700,000 are critically suffering and are in dire need of urgent intervention.
Life in a benign, friendly social atmosphere is a fundamental need of human beings, of which Afghans are deeply deprived. Poverty and insecurity have made people afraid of one another, shrinking the space for mutual-trust and confidence.
Towards peace
At a crucial moment in history, Afghanistan’s foreign policy, characterized by deep diplomatic flaws, has also weakened, compromising its standing in the international order.
Currently, important peace negotiations are ongoing in Doha, Qatar, with the potential to usher in an age of prosperity in the region. The talks are between the United States and the Taliban, and much of the deal rests on the release of imprisoned Taliban fighters from Afghanistan.
Discussions between the two parties have stretched for months and months without reaching any sensible conclusion or having any concrete results. To compound the problem, neither side has even agreed on the agenda and procedures by which the negotiations should proceed. All the foot-dragging and hand-wringing and fruitless posturing continue to delay peace in the region.
Notably absent from the discussions is Afghanistan itself. Local stakeholders, including civil society representatives and other bright-minded locals involved in nation-building, have been completely excluded from the negotiations. Afghans who have sacrificed astronomically in the pursuit of peace now have no choice but to watch from the sidelines, dreadful of going back to how Afghanistan was before 2001.
In light of these issues, civil society organizations in Afghanistan call on the Biden Administration to reconsider its stance on the US-Taliban agreement. That both parties are in a deadlock does not achieve any real progress toward peace.
The proposal to broker a power-share between the Afghan government and the Taliban has also spurred controversies and skepticism on the issue. If the interim government is truly the only way out of the current chaos, then all involved parties should strive to hold sacred throughout the process the principles of human rights, sustainable development, social justice, and core civic freedoms.
Afghans are weary. It’s been a long, frightful, painful 20 years. They deserve peace. Will the US-Taliban negotiations give this to them? When will Afghans be finally able to enjoy prosperity?●