His Excellency Mr. Antonio Guterres Secretary-General
United Nations Headquarters
New York City
Dear Mr. Secretary-General,
I am writing to you on behalf of Afghanistan Culture, Integration, and Solidarity (AKIS), the largest Afghan Diaspora Organization in Austria to draw your attention to the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan. As an Afghan diaspora organization, we ask the UN Secretary General to send the UN Peacekeeping Force (Blue Helmets) to Afghanistan and prevent another disastrous crisis that is to take place in my country of origin.
It is evident that Pakistani government have continued to provide military equipment to the Taliban and deploy them to Afghanistan to kill the civilians and destroy Afghanistan. For several decades, the innocent people of Afghanistan have been slaughtered in this senseless war for which the neighboring Pakistan is responsible. Your lack of attention and being just bystander will undermine the credibility of the UN and its mandate to promote peace.
You and the world know that Afghan government has lost the control of the current war against the Taliban. Pakistan is determined on sending Taliban to destroy public infrastructure, conduct ethnic cleansing and provide them further military equipment and training. The government of Iran is searching its own interests by inviting the Taliban to Iran, securing their border against the Taliban while heavily involved in the instability of Afghanistan. At the same time, some warlords have distributed weapons and ammunition to their militias under the name of war against the Taliban. From ideological perspective, the same warlords are not very different from Taliban. Afghan government is divided within itself, one section is allied with the U.S. and the other part is allied with the neighboring countries. The leaders of these sections of the government have opposing and irreconcilable views.
I have experienced the civil war and displacement, and I know how it feels to see the women of my country are deprived from their basic human rights and have seen them go through injustice in life. I am also fully aware of the corrupt nature of Afghan politicians. My life represents part of a history book and have seen and felt everything that Afghanistan has gone through since the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union and subsequent civil war and the Taliban takeover in 1996. I don’t believe that making peace with terrorists will produce any positive results and we all know Taliban are terrorists. I don’t believe either that Pakistan as the master of Taliban will allow the Taliban terror group to make peace with the Afghan government.
With billions of dollars of aid money by international community in the last 20 years, Afghanistan was moving towards democratic country where men and women enjoyed equal rights. These developments that Afghanistan has made with the support of the world are in serious risk. It is with regret that the government, army, and Afghanistan’s infrastructure are being destroyed in short period of time since President Biden announced the unconditional departure of the U.S. forces from Afghanistan by the 31 of August. It is not far to see a human catastrophe in Afghanistan if the UN and the rest of the international community allow it to happen.
We, AKIS and its members, call on all UN member states, the UN General Assembly and the US Security Council to exercise all their available power within the UN Charter to consider two measures; First, to pressurize Pakistan as the main sponsor of Taliban not to send their proxies to kill Afghan civilians and destroy the infrastructure of Afghanistan. We are committed to democracy and value our equal partnership with the members of the global community. Second, to avoid the collapse of the current government, we call on the UN to send its Peacekeeping Force (Blue Helmets) to Afghanistan and support our country and our people.
On behalf of Afghan diaspora in Austria
Ghousudden Mir
The head of Afghanistan Culture, Integration and Solidarity (AKIS)
The founder of Banu Magazine, the largest Afghan Magazine in the diaspora
1 August 2021
Vienna, Austria