by K. Govindan AFGHAN mujahedin are fighting each other as bitterly as they once fought occupying Soviet forces.
The fall of the Soviet-backed PPDA regime of Mohammed Najibullah in April 1992 unleashed squabbling among the diverse Muslim sects and ethnic/linguistic groups cobbled together in an 'anti-communist' front.
Over 11,000 Afghans, mainly civilians, have died and tens of thousands seriously injured. The capital Kabul lies in ruins. Most of the population have fled to the devastated countryside.
The government of national unity, comprising the major militia leaders, was doomed to failure when General Rasid Dostum, who controls nine of Afghanistan's 29 provinces, was left out.
Gulbuddin Hikmatyar, an arch fundamentalist from the traditionally dominant Pushtun people who leads the Hizb e Islami has joined forces with Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek and former Najibullah loyalist.
Their enemy is 'President' Burhaneddin Rabbani who leads the Jamaate Islami party. Fellow Tajik, Ahmad Shah Massoud, is Rabbani's main ally.
The new war in Afghanistan has significant regional dimensions. Saudi Arabia backs the Ittihad e Islami party, while Iran finances the Shia Hizb e Wahadat e Islami. Pakistan officially supports Rabbani and Massoud, while attempting to mediate between rival factions. Afghan ex-president Najibullah However, the Pakistani intelligence agency ISis thought to be arming Hikmatyar, who has ethnic affiliations with the Pathans of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province.
New players are the central Asian republics of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan which share a common ethnicity and culture with some mujahedin leaders.
The governments in these formerly 'communist' republics are secular and deeply worried about the strength of fundamentalist forces in their own states.
Uzbekistan backs General Dostum not only because he is Uzbek but also because he has secular credentials.
Tajikistan may have been expected to support the ethnic Tajik Massoud. But he has ambitions beyond the borders of Afghanistan.
Unification
He wishes to unify Tajik areas of the country with Tajikistan, an idea the Russians don't warm to easily. The Tajikistan government fears Moscow more than Massoud.
Popular support for the mujahedin had less to do with sympathy for Muslim fundamentalism than hatred of an occupying army. Their ability to offer a credible alternative has been seriously damaged.
In late March, in Kabul, there was a sizeable demonstration of civilians demanding wages an end to war and expressing no confidence in any of the factions.
Nevertheless, the break-up of Afghanistan into ethnic/linguistic regions seems a likely stretch.