AN ERÁ has ended in Afghanistan. A thirteen year experiment - • dominated by war and Soviet intervention - has been brushed aside. And that war - superficially, a straightforward Cold War confrontation - has moved from tragedy to tarce.
Now the war has shifted - to a tribal-based conflict between "moderate Muslims and the more extreme followers of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. hat the Afghani tragedy will continue, and in some respects worsen, is the easiest prediction to make. But what is it that has really happened in Afghanistan?
The thirteen Redear "communism", the Yes! I want to become a Socialist Outlook supporter O stalinist Peoples Democratic Party (PDPA), were indeed an experiment. The experiment was not just doomed because of the Soviet military intervention, though that nailed the lid on the coffin.
It was also an attempt at social advance in a society that was undeveloped in A small country of less than twenty million, 90 per cent its population live the countryside, and one in six of those are nomads. It is population deeply imbued both with Islam and with tribalism.
Tribal allegiances are a reference point for every section of society, not just the Mojahedinhe PDPA too was affected by tribal conflict, principally tween the majority Pushtuns Become a Socialist Outlook tion, particularly women, who will suffer Mojahedin rule. The few 'liberal democratic freedoms that Afghanistan's urban population were able to enjoy are already starting to be destroyed Alghan society is shattered. As in castern Burope, for most people the 'word" socialism signifies military domination of their country. And that association will not be easily dispelled.
The lesson that is driven home once again is that socialism can't be imposed. And when it is imposed in a backward country, with 'foreigners' who are seen militarily occupy the country, it is very damaging indeed. An Reabhloid