WITH THE TALIBAN’S COLLAPSE, A NEW LIFE FOR AFGHANS

Clark T. Randt, Jr., American Ambassador

Taliban rule in Afghanistan is finished. But the vanquished Taliban, even in retreat, continue to commit atrocities on the civilian population that has rejected them. Their foreign al-Qaida protectors hide in caves, trying to escape the consequences of their crimes. But they cannot escape justice. Their atrocities are the last gasp of evil cowards who tried--and failed--to subjugate the Afghan people. The war against terrorism is far from finished in Afghanistan, but already the contrast between Afghanistan now and Afghanistan under the Taliban is evident everywhere.

While the terrorists hide in caves, the Afghan people are emerging into the light of day to face the challenges of their future. The contrast between their life under the Taliban and their life without the Taliban is crystal clear. Where the Taliban have fled, they can no longer terrorize the population. Afghans--men, women and children--are rejecting what the Taliban stood for. Afghans are once again taking control of their own lives. As the Taliban fled Kandahar on December 7, witnesses reported that joyous residents poured into the streets and tore down the Taliban flag.

Soccer stadiums, once used for public executions, floggings, and amputations are once again used for sports. Children fly kites. Women go to the market without fear of being beaten. Men are no longer required to wear regulation-length beards; women may choose whether or not to wear the burqa. Girls are flocking back to schools after five long years of being barred from public education.

Women are regaining their place in public life. Afghan women participated in the Bonn meetings, and will participate in the interim government, and in the eventual loya jirga. Women have returned to their work in hospitals, broadcasting studios, and schools. Thousands of women, many of them widows, are once again able to support their families and help their communities by working with the World Food Program, running bakeries and distributing food--livelihoods denied to them under the Taliban.

Afghanistan’s troubles, however, are not over. Lawlessness and banditry in the wake of the Taliban collapse will require the interim government’s best efforts to ensure the safety of the Afghan people. Food distribution to areas facing the threat of famine must be quickly and safely arranged. All Afghans--men and women of all ethnicities--must feel they have a stake in the new government taking shape. The international community must rally to the aid of Afghans intent on rebuilding their country.

The war against terrorism is not over, either. Taliban remnants and al-Qaida terrorists are still a threat. News reports from the first week in December recount the mutilations of Afghan civilians by fleeing pro-Taliban bandits. In mid-November, retreating Taliban troops shot dead eight boys who had dared to laugh at them. At least 300 frightened Taliban who wanted to surrender in Kunduz were killed by their own Taliban comrades in arms. Newly arrived Afghan refugees in Pakistan tell of massacres by Taliban remnants and of the torture of children in Taloqan for the supposed crimes of their parents.

Even now, al-Qaida members hide in mountain caves, desperate to escape the consequences of the horrors they have perpetrated on Afghans, and on the victims of their terrorist attacks worldwide. They still lay claim to religious sanction for the crimes they commit.

But al-Qaida is not a source of religious authority--it is a terrorist organization. As Afghan Mullah Abdul Rauf said in his Friday sermon in a Kabul mosque on December 7, "In the Taliban days, there was a leader of the faithful who sat in Kandahar, not having the faintest idea about people who were in poverty, who were killed, whose houses were burned, whose children died of hunger. And still he claimed to be a leader of Islam and a leader of his country."

And as Sohib Bencheikh, the Mufti of Marseilles, and an Islamic theologian, said, "Osama bin Laden himself is no Islamic authority: he’s a bloodthirsty murderer, guilty of tens of thousands of crimes."

Al-Qaida and Taliban criminals may continue to believe that they can get away with their crimes; they may try to continue their murder and torture, and they may continue to hide in the mountains. They may even seek to leave the country they’ve destroyed. But their time is up. They will be brought to justice. And, as Hamid Karzai said of Mullah Omar, "I have given him every chance to denounce terrorism and now the time has run out. He is an absconder, a fugitive from justice."

While al-Qaida and Taliban terrorists burrow into the darkness of caves, the people of Afghanistan are stepping into the light of a new Afghanistan. They are busy reclaiming what was denied to them during the al-Qaida and Taliban usurpation of their country: education and opportunities for their women and children, a tolerant and peaceful society, secure communities, and hope for a new Afghan future.