The Taliban and UNSC Resolution 1333: Myth and Reality

Myth And Reality

The Taliban in Afghanistan and some of their international supporters portray United Nations Security Council Resolution 1333 and the sanctions that it imposes as an attack against Afghanistan, against the Afghan people, and against Islam.

None of this is true. Such assertions intentionally distort reality to deflect attention from one basic fact. The international community has imposed sanctions on the Taliban because the Taliban provide training and safehaven for international terrorists, including the indicted terrorist Usama bin Laden.

The United Nations sanctions very specifically target only the Taliban leadership, not the people of Afghanistan. The sanctions are political, not economic sanctions. Trade and commerce, including in food and medicine, continue unabated. Large-scale international humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people continues.

We want to set the record straight.

UNSC Resolution 1333 is targeted against the people of Afghanistan and will result in starvation, displacement, emigration, and epidemics. (Taliban representative to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zayif, 12/20/00, in Islamabad.)

Likewise, government officials in Pakistan have warned that the sanctions are causing a humanitarian crisis and a surge of new Afghan refugees into Pakistan.

This is wrong on two counts. First, the sanctions are carefully targeted against the Taliban leadership, not against the people of Afghanistan. Second, the sanctions are political, not economic sanctions -- they do not prohibit private-sector trade and commerce, including the importation of food and medicine into Afghanistan.

The deplorable humanitarian situation in Afghanistan is not the result of UN sanctions on the Taliban. The chronic humanitarian crisis is the result of over 20 years of war, which is continuing, in large part because of the Taliban's refusal to seek a political settlement. It is exacerbated by the most severe drought in 30 years, and by the Taliban's inability to govern and to provide for the basic human needs of the population of Afghanistan, even in areas they have long controlled.

The Taliban have failed appallingly to provide for the basic human requirements of Afghanistan's population. The Taliban give primacy to military and ideological matters, not to their fundamental responsibility to provide basic human services to the people of Afghanistan in areas that they control. While the Afghan people require health care and education from their rulers, the Taliban have demanded that the people provide more recruits for their military.

Food production has collapsed because of the severe drought in the region, not because of UN sanctions. Further, the diversion of about 64,500 hectares of prime agricultural land for opium poppy production -- most of it in areas under Taliban control -- contributes to Afghanistan's food deficit.

More than anything else, the Taliban's continuing military offensives in Afghanistan, not UNSC Resolution 1333, are responsible for the recent surge of refugees into Pakistan.

The large vulnerable populations in Afghanistan and in refugee communities rely on humanitarian assistance by the international community, of which the United States is the largest single donor -- $113 million in 2000.

The United States wants to install a puppet regime in Afghanistan that will be controlled from Washington. (Taliban representative to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zayif, 12/20/00, in Islamabad.)

The United States has no intention of choosing Afghanistan's government. Only Afghans can do this. The United States has long advocated a peaceful resolution of the Afghan conflict that takes into account the culture and traditions of the people of Afghanistan. The United States continues to encourage Afghans to work through various peace processes to decide how best to establish a government that can return their country to the family of nations and provide a normal life for Afghan citizens.

MYTH

Washington and Moscow have targeted Afghanistan because the Taliban have established an Islamic system in the country. (Taliban representative to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zayif, 12/20/00, in Islamabad.)

These sanctions are aimed at suppressing Islam and Muslims. (Statement by Taliban leader Mullah Omar, as reported by the Bakhtar News Agency, 12/20/00, in Kabul.)

REALITY

The issue is terrorism, not Islam. The UN has imposed sanctions on the Taliban because the Taliban support international terrorism, not because Afghans are Muslims. The Taliban and their supporters are using religion to further their ideological and geopolitical goals. This is especially regrettable because by doing so the Taliban harm the Afghan people, isolate Afghanistan from the rest of the world, and indefinitely delay international reconstruction of this shattered country.