The Future of the Mujahideen: Legitimacy, Legacy and Demobilization in Post-Bonn Afghanistan

Abstract

Contemporary Afghan politics is marked by a debate over the ‘mujahideen.’ This contest involves the mythologizing, demythologizing and appropriation of the term by a wide variety of actors, from warlords, tribal combatants, the Taliban and Anti-Coalition Forces to rights activists and journalists. This struggle is a competition for legitimacy over the ‘right to rule’ and the ‘right to conduct violence’; and it is critical to understanding the dilemmas of statebuilding in Afghanistan. Through such an examination, policy lessons are acquired concerning the role of the Afghan government and members of the international community in confronting armed groups.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Although they were not involved in the conceptualization or execution of this article, and may disagree with the tone and argument, I owe a substantial debt of gratitude to the following individuals for supporting my research: Alexander Thier, Jonathan Goodhand, Andrew Wilder, Julie Sirrs, His Excellency Haneef Atmar, Suleiman Mohammed, Masood Karokhel, Susanne Shmeidl, Ehsan Zahine and Chris Freeman. The ANBP hospitably allowed me to accompany their disarmament/demobilization teams. Gurpawan Singh, Vikram Bhatia, Peter Babbington, Basil Massey, Paul Cruickshank and Steven Feller were particularly responsive to my innumerable requests. Interpretation was provided by two Afghan citizens who endured long hours and harsh living conditions. Field research grants for projects related to this article were provided by the Small Arms Survey, the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission and the British Committee on Central and Inner Asia.

Notes

1. Marcus George, ‘Afghan anniversary gives pause for thought’, BBC News Online, 28 Apr. 2002, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1956830.stm; ‘Ragtag Afghan Military Holds Parade’, Associated Press, 28 Apr. 2002. There is no consistent spelling of the mujahideen, which is regularly spelled mujahidin, mujahiden, mujahedin, mojahedin, etc.

2. Whitney Azoy, ‘Masood's Parade: Iconography, Revitalization, and Ethnicity in Afghanistan’, Expedition Magazine, Vol.45, No.1, spring 2003, www.museum.upenn.edu/publications.

3. Danish Karokhel, ‘Mujahedin Victory Event Falls Flat’, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, 4 May 2003, www.iwpr.net/?p = arr&s = f&o = 154059&apc_state = heniarr97b6ccc19196af 7670e3fb5401eb96f2.

4. Gwyn Harries-Jenkins and Jacques van Doorn, ‘Editorial Introduction’, in Gwyn Harries-Jenkins and Jacques van Doorn (eds), The Military and the Problem of Legitimacy, London: Sage, 1976, p.3; Fred von der Mehden, Comparative Political Violence, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1973, pp.78–9.

5. The Oxford English Dictionary, Vol. 8, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, pp.811–12.

6. John Schaar, ‘Legitimacy in the Modern State’, in W. Connolly (ed.), Legitimacy and the State, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1984, p.108.

7. Harry Eckstein, ‘Introduction: Toward the Theoretical Study of Internal War’, in H. Eckstein (ed.), Internal War, New York: Free Press, 1964, pp.1–32.

8. Joseph Bensman, ‘Max Weber's Concept of Legitimacy: An Evaluation’, in Arnold and Ronald Glassman (eds.) Conflict and Control: Challenge to Legitimacy of Modern Governments, London: Sage, 1979, p.18.

9. Dirk Käsler (trans. Philippa Hurd), Max Weber: An Introduction to His Life and Work, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1988, pp.163–4.

10. Jacques van Doorn, ‘The Military and the Crisis of Legitimacy’, in Gwyn Harries-Jenkins and van Doorn (eds.), The Military and the Problem of Legitimacy, London: Sage, 1976, p.20.

11. Ronald Glassman, ‘Rational and Irrational Legitimacy’, in Arnold Vidich and Ronald Glassman (eds.), Conflict and Control, London: Sage, 1979, pp.50–51.

12. Charles Tilly, ‘War Making and State Making as Organized Crime’, in Peter Evans, Dietrich Reuschemeyer and Theda Skocpol (eds), Bringing the State Back In, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985, p.169.

13. Athanasios Moulakis, ‘Introduction’, in Athanasios Moulakis (ed.), Legitimacy/Legitimité: Proceedings of a Conference held in Florence, 3–4 June 1982, New York: Walter de Gruyer, 1986, p.6.

14. Gilbert Cuthbertson, Political Myth and Epic, East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 1975, p.156.

15. William Maley, ‘Political Legitimation in Contemporary Afghanistan’, Asian Survey, Vol. 27, No.6, June 1987, p.707.

16. Olivier Roy, ‘Afghanistan – War as a Factor of Entry into Politics’, Central Asian Survey, Vol. 8, No.4, 1989, p.61.

17. Cuthbertson (see n.14 above), p.160.

18. See forthcoming book on Afghanistan by the Small Arms Survey (2007), also work by Gilles Dorronsoro, Revolution Unending: Afghanistan: 1979 to the Present, London: Hurst, 2005, p.151.

19. Christopher Clapham, Third World Politics: An Introduction, Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985, p.169.

20. Human Rights Watch, ‘Afghanistan: Poor Rights Record of Opposition Commanders’, 6 Oct. 2001; ‘Military Assistance to the Afghan Opposition’, Human Rights Watch Backgrounder, Oct. 2001.

21. Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, ‘End to On-going April 28 Misery Possible Only Through Wrathful Uprising’, 28 April 1998, www.rawa.org/28april-e.html; See also RAWA, ‘RAWA statement on the odious day of April 28’, 28 April 2005.

22. Tom Coghlan, ‘Afghan MP says she will not be silenced’, BBC, 28 Jan. 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4606174.stm.

23. Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, A Call for Justice: A National Consultation on Past Human Rights Abuses in Afghanistan January 2005, Kabul, pp.74–5, 77.

24. ‘President Karzai Promises to Act Against Warlords in Rostaq District’, Kabul Radio Afghanistan, 2005.

25. John Jennings, ‘Afghanistan: The Gulf Between Report and Reality’, Middle East Intelligence Bulletin, Vol.6, No.1, Jan. 2004, www.meib.org/articles/0401_afg1.htm.

26. Kabul Hindokosh News Agency, 4 July 2005.

27. ‘Life history’ interviews were conducted with 345 combatants in summer 2004 and spring/summer 2005. Interviews were semi-structured, involving combatants from 1978 to 2005, and largely arranged through the Afghanistan New Beginnings Programme. Citations list combatants by number, location of interview, and date of interview.

28. Combatant #7, Kabul, July 2004.

29. Combatant #8, Kabul, July 2004.

30. Combatant #64, Salang, Apr. 2005.

31. Nasreen Ghufran, ‘The Taliban and the Civil War Entanglement in Afghanistan’, Asian Survey, Vol.41, No.3, May/June 2001, p.467.

32. ‘Group Calling Itself “Mojahedin Secret Army” Lists Series of Attacks’, Peshawar Afghan Islamic Press, 4 June 2005.

33. Afghanistan NGO Security Organization, ‘Incident Report: Insurgent Propaganda’, 18 Apr. 2004.

34. Tehran IRNA, 15 May 2005.

35. Cuthbertson (see n.14 above), p.159

36. Hamid Karzai, ‘Attitude of the Leadership of Afghan Tribes Towards the Regime from 1953–1978’, Central Asian Survey, Vol.7, No.2/3, 1988, p.34.

37. Barnett Rubin, ‘Political Elites in Afghanistan: Rentier State Building, Rentier State Wrecking’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol.24, No.1, Feb. 1992, p.77; Nazif Shahrani, ‘Introduction: Marxist “Revolution” and Islamic Resistance in Afghanistan’, in Shahrani and Robert Canfield, eds., Revolutions & Rebellions in Afghanistan: Anthropological Perspectives, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1984, pp.34–5.

38. Maley (see n.15 above), p.709.

39. Shah Tarzi, ‘Politics of the Afghan Resistance Movement: Cleavages, Disunity and Fragmentation’, Asian Survey, Vol.31, No.6, June 1991, p.485.

40. David Edwards, ‘Charismatic Leadership and Political Process in Afghanistan’, Central Asian Survey, Vol.5, No.3/4, 1986, p.273.

41. Jon Anderson, ‘Of Khans and Khels: Dialectics of Pakhtun Tribalism’, in Richard Tapper (ed.), The Conflict of Tribe and State in Iran and Afghanistan. New York: 1983, pp.119–49.

42. Antonio Giustozzi, ‘The Debate on Warlordism: The Importance of Military Legitimacy’, LSE Crisis States Programme Discussion Paper, No.13, Oct. 2005, p.7; Antonio Giustozzi, ‘Respectable Warlords?: The Politics of State-Building in Post-Taleban Afghanistan’, LSE Crisis States Programme Working Paper, No.33, Sept. 2003, p.5.

43. Roy (see n.16 above), p.57.

44. Tarzi (see n.39 above) p.495.

45. Ibid., pp.480–81.

46. Barnett Rubin and Helena Malikyar, ‘The Politics of Center-Periphery Relations in Afghanistan’, Center on International Cooperation, New York University, Mar. 2003, p.8.

47. Gilles Dorronsoro, Revolution Unending: Afghanistan: 1979 to the Present, London: Hurst, 2005, pp.225–6.

48. Sardar Ahmad, ‘Warlord Woes in Afghan Polls’, Agence France Press, 16 Sept. 2005.

49. Anthony Hyman, ‘Reading Afghan Public Opinion: Voices from the Camps’, Central Asian Survey, Vol.9, No.4, 1990, p.118

50. Rama Mani, ‘Ending Impunity and Building Justice in Afghanistan’, AREU Issues Paper, Kabul, Dec. 2003, pp.10–11. Human Rights Watch, ‘Warlords Emerge from Loya Jirga More Powerful Than Ever’, 20 June 2002.

51. Carlotta Gall, ‘Islamists and Mujahedeen Secure Victory in Afghan Vote’, New York Times, 21 Oct. 2005, http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/afghanistan/index.html?offset = 195&&&8qa.

52. Max Weber, ‘Legitimacy, Politics and the State’, in William Connolly, Legitimacy and the State, Oxford: Blackwell, 1984, p.37.

53. Interview with General Rahim Wardak, Minister of Defence, Afghanistan, Feb. 2005.

54. ‘Legal Prosecution of the violators of the Disarmament and Demobilization Program’, Afghanistan Presidential Decree, Kabul, 14 July 2004.

55. Emmanuel Duparcq, ‘Warlords in Afghan Poll Could Spell Trouble: Analysts Say’, Agency France Press [Hong Kong], 25 July 2005.

56. Global Security, ‘Afghan Military Forces [AMF]’, 15 May 2006, www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/afghanistan/ddr.htm.

57. Tilly (see n.12 above), p.171.

58. Combatant #64, Salang, April 2005.

59. Interview with UNAMA officials, Mazar-i-Sharif, February 2005.

60. Combatant #112, Ghor, Apr. 2005.

61. Combatant #269, Kandahar, June 2005.

62. Combatant #18, Shahristan, July 2004.

63. Porter Barron, ‘Afghanistan struggles to Keep Warlords off the Ballot’, Christian Science Monitor [Boston], 8 Sept. 2005, www.csmonitor.com/2005/0908/p07s01-wosc.html.

64. ‘Violence in western Afghan city left three dead, 11 wounded, official says’, Associated Press, 1 May 2005.

65. See Nancy Dupree, ‘Revolutionary Rhetoric and Afghan Women’, in Shahrani and Canfield (n. 37 above), pp.306–40.