The Taliban regime and the Northern Alliance

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 358.

The Northern Alliance is a loose confederation of Afghan militias and warlords assembled from different ethnic minorities living in the north of Afghanistan. It was brought into being in 1979 as a result of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. After the battered Soviets withdrew in 1989 the Northern Alliance turned against Afghanistan's communist president, Muhammad Najibullah, and dropped him in 1992. The Northern Alliance then cruelly ruled Afghanistan for the next four years. It was a period marred by civil war between the Northern Alliance and Pashtun warlords and infighting among Alliance factions. The Northern Alliance held about 15 percent of the country in the northern parts of Afghanistan before the Afghanistan War started

The Taliban movement was founded in Kandahar in 1994 by Islamic students who interpreted the Islam very radically. They occupied Kabul in September 1996 and banished the former regime. The Taliban government had only been accepted by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and United Arab Republic and had been supported by the Pakistani military regime, not only financially. The United Nations and other international communities condemned the Taliban regime because of its violation of human rights and suppression of women, especially their exclusion from the workforce. In October 1999 the U.S. government declared political and economic sanctions against the Taliban regime for supporting and offering safe haven to Osama Bin Laden.

The Taliban regime had already made headlines before 9/11. On March 10, 2001 Taliban fighters blew up two Buddha statues in Bamiyan, which were built in the fourth and sixth century, although there were loud protests from archaeologists, museums and governments from all over the world. On August 3 eight members of a charity organisation called Shelter Now were arrested. They were freed months later by American soldiers. On September 9 the Northern Alliance's military leader Ahmad Shah Massoud was assassinated by Taliban warriors.