Afghan violence linked to Hizbut Tehrir By B Raman
May 14, 2005
"This is the biggest protest campaign in Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban regime [in 2001]. This is bloody, widespread and countrywide.This also shows that they are fed up with the United States and they just needed a spark to vent their feelings." - Rahimullah Yusufzai, a Pakistani journalist who is considered an authority on the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, on May 12.
Yusufzai was talking about the violent anti-US and anti-Hamid Karzai demonstrations sweeping across Afghanistan since May 10, in protest against the alleged desecration of the Holy Koran by US guards at the Guantanamo Bay camp in Cuba, where about 500 Afghans, Pakistanis and other Muslims have been detained by the US authorities without trial and without giving them any right of access to human-rights organizations.
The demonstrations, often culminating in violence, which started at Jalalabad near the Pakistan border, have since spread to the northern provinces of Parwan, Kapisa and Takhar, Laghman in the east, Logar and Khost in the southeast and the southern province of Kandahar. It also spread to Kabul itself on May 12. According to the latest reports, 10 out of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan have been affected by the demonstrations and the resulting violence. The anger of the demonstrators has been directed not only against the US and President Karzai of Afghanistan, but also against Pakistan and the United Nations and Western non-governmental organizations functioning from Afghanistan. Their offices have been attacked, causing considerable property damage everywhere.
Though no fatalities have been inflicted on the security forces by the demonstrators, seven civilians have so far been killed and over 80 injured as a result of firing by Afghan and American security forces to disperse the demonstrators. Reports of the demonstrations received from several towns indicate the following common features:
The students spearheaded the demonstrations, in which a large number of educated people participated. The demonstrations were not spontaneous. They had been well-prepared, and were well organized and well orchestrated. Groups of students went from town to town instigating the local students to take to the streets. The demonstrators were not armed and confined their protests to shouting anti-US and anti-Karzai slogans, burning American and Pakistani flags and effigies of President George W Bush, Karzai and Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf and attacking properties like buildings and vehicles. The demonstrations were not instigated by the Taliban or the Hizb-e-Islami of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar or al-Qaeda. However, elements from the Taliban and the Hizb, who were taken by pleasant surprise by the students taking to the streets, subsequently joined them. Many members of the police and the newly-raised Afghan army showed sympathy for the demonstrators and were reluctant to use force against them when ordered to do so by their senior officers.
Reports from Afghan sources indicate that the demonstrations have been organized by the Hizbut Tehrir (HT) and not by the Taliban, the Hizb or al-Qaeda. While one was aware of some HT activities in the student community in Afghanistan, the extent of its penetration not only in the student community, but also in the Afghan security forces, has come as a surprise.
In their preoccupation with fighting their so-called "war against al-Qaeda", the Taliban and the Hizb, American intelligence agencies and security forces seem to have remained oblivious of the subterranean activities of the HT, and have consequently been taken totally by surprise.
B Raman is additional secretary (retired), cabinet secretariat, government of India, New Delhi, and, presently, director, Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai, and distinguished fellow and convener, Observer Research Foundation, Chennai Chapter. Email: itschen36@gmail.com
Rice Says US Will Not Tolerate Disrespect for Koran By David Gollust Washington 12 May 2005
Disrespect for the Koran is abhorrent to all. I don't know where Rice gets this stuff. Look around, start with iHub.
-Am
Condoleezza Rice U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday disrespect for the Koran is abhorrent and will never be tolerated by the United States. She urged Muslims around the world to reject incitement over charges that interrogators at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may have desecrated the Islamic holy text.
The statement by Secretary Rice, at a congressional hearing, underlined the degree of concern in Washington over the violent protests in Afghanistan and Pakistan over the desecration charges.
Opening a round of budget testimony before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee, Ms. Rice said Americans honor the sacred books of all the world's great religions, and that disrespect for the Koran is not now, nor has it ever been or ever will be, tolerated by the United States.
The Secretary said the abuse allegations at Guantanamo are being fully investigated by military authorities, and if they are proven true, the United States will take appropriate action.
In the meantime, she appealed to those in the Muslim world to reject political incitement, in order to help avoid further violence. "During the past few days, we have heard from our Muslim friends around the world about their concerns on this matter. We understand and share the concerns. Sadly, some people have lost their lives in violent demonstrations. I am asking that all our friends around the world reject incitement to violence by those who would mis-characterize our intentions," she said.
Several people have been killed in Afghanistan in anti-American protests ignited by a report in the U.S. magazine Newsweek that interrogators at Guantanamo desecrated a Koran in an effort to un-nerve detainees.
Echoing earlier remarks by the State Department, Ms. Rice said respect for the religious freedom of all individuals is one of the founding principles of the United States, and that disrespect for the Koran is abhorrent to all.
The State Department has said the alleged incident, if it occurred, is completely at variance with standard practice at Guantanamo, where elaborate procedures have been put into effect to facilitate the practice of religion by detainees.
The detention facility, opened in 2002, currently holds about 520 detainees, many of them al-Qaida and Taleban suspects of various nationalities detained in the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.
More than 200 of the original detainees have either been sent home and released or transferred to the custody of their countries of origin.
Muslims' Anti-American Protests Spread From Afghanistan
By CARLOTTA GALL Published: May 14, 2005 KABUL, Afghanistan, May 13 - Thousands of Muslims, from Gaza to Pakistan to Indonesia, emerged from prayer services on Friday to join Afghans in rapidly spreading protests over the reported desecration of a Koran by American interrogators at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
In Afghanistan, at least 8 people were killed and more than 40 injured in clashes, bringing the death toll over four days of anti-American rioting to at least 16, with more than 100 injured. For the first time a policeman was killed in the violence.
Three protesters were killed and 23 people wounded as the police grappled with a crowd of more than 1,500 in Baharak, in far northeastern Badakhstan, the police chief of the province, Gen. Shah Jehan Nuri, said in a telephone interview. Ten police officers and members of the border police, who are based in the town, were among the injured, he said.
In three Pakistan cities, Peshawar, Quetta and Multan, hundreds of protesters led largely by religious parties burned American flags and chanted anti-American slogans after Friday Prayer. The protests were peaceful, though, thanks in large part to the large numbers of police officers deployed outside mosques and official buildings.
Hundreds of people gathered peacefully outside a mosque in Jakarta on Friday while a statement was read condemning the United States for the reported abuses. In Gaza, about 1,500 members of the radical Islamic group Hamas marched through the Jabaliya refugee camp as outrage spread over the reports, including a brief item in Newsweek, that interrogators at Guantánamo Bay had flushed a Koran down the toilet in an effort to upset detainees.
Protesters carrying the green banners of Islam and Hamas shouted, "Protect our holy book!" Some burned American and Israeli flags. Anti-American protests are rare among militant Palestinians, who decry American support for Israel but emphasize that their struggle is with Israel, not the United States.
The White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said Friday that officials at the Department of Defense were investigating reports of the desecration, and that "they take such allegations very seriously," but he did not indicate when the investigation would be completed, Reuters reported. "We will not tolerate any disrespect for the holy Koran," he added.
In Afghanistan, where the protests began Wednesday, the violence seemed to be spreading, with demonstrations in several provincial towns. Police officers and Afghan National Army troops were prepared in many places but still had trouble quelling the violence, which was directed at the government and international organizations.
The protest in Baharak formed as men emerged from the mosque after Friday Prayer and moved on the offices of three international aid organizations. They looted and burned the office of Focus Humanitarian Assistance, which is financed by the Agha Khan, and broke into offices of a British organization, Afghanaid. Some in the crowd were armed and masked, General Nuri said.
The fighting lasted for two hours. "The main issue was the insulting of the Koran, but unfortunately among the protesters there were some anti-government people, and criminals and robbers, who don't want peace and stability," the commander said.
Violent clashes were also reported in Ghazni, southwest of Kabul, where hundreds of protesters tried to storm the governor's office. Officials told The Associated Press that two protesters and a policeman were killed. Twenty people were injured as police officers and Afghan National Army troops opened fire to quell the riot, according to Bakhtar, the government news agency. Residents said three civilians were killed as well, but that account could not be confirmed. Local officials refused to comment on the situation.
The Bakhtar agency said that several people were arrested, and that the violence had been organized by extremist groups. Some of the armed people were from outside the province, it said.
One protester was killed and one wounded in Qala-i-Nau, in Badghis Province, where a crowd of some 1,000 people gathered outside the offices of the United States-based aid group, World Vision, and of Malteser. a German group backed by the Knights of Malta.
"Police fired in the air to disperse the crowd, and as a result one man was killed and one injured," the local police chief, Amir Shah Nayebzada, said in a telephone interview.
Four protesters were wounded, one seriously, in Gardez, southeast of the capital, Bakhtar reported. Other news agencies reported that one protester was killed and that American forces were deployed to protect the United Nations mission in the town.
Small gatherings took place in Kabul but remained peaceful. One of the most eminent religious leaders and loyal supporters of the government, Sebaghatullah Mojadeddi, led prayers at Kabul's main mosque, Hajji Yaqub. "We respect the Koran and support those who demonstrate," he said in his remarks. "But we want peaceful demonstrations."
Across town in Wazir Akbar Khan, an affluent residential area, Mullah Mohammad Ayaz Niazi, 39, called on people not to turn to violence, and for the police and security forces also to show restraint. "When our brothers are losing control, they should treat them very carefully," he said. "They should not punish them by bullet or sword, because that will be more dangerous."
Steven Erlanger contributed reporting from Jerusalem for this article and Salman Masood from Islamabad, Pakistan.
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