Many rivers flow through the mountain gorges. Snow melt and rain that flow out of the Hindu Kush pool into a low area and never reach the ocean. The mountain passes in Afghanistan allow travelers passage across Asia. The country was a busy section of the Silk Road, a route that merchants have traveled over land between China , India , and Europe for over 2, years.
The country is made of many different groups. About 15 million people, nearly half of Afghanistan's population are Pashtuns and live in the south around Kandahar. They are descendants of people who came to the country 3, years ago. Many other groups live in the country as well—Pashtuns are related to the Persian people of Iran, the Tajiks are also Persian, but speak another language called Dari, and the Uzbeks speak a language similar to Turkish.
The Hazaras live in the mountains of central Afghanistan and are believed to be descendents of the Mongols because their Dari language contains many Mongol words. Due to many years of war, the countryside is littered with unexploded mines and children who herd animals are often killed by stepping on mines. Many schools have been destroyed, but children, including girls, go to school in ruins or wherever possible. Over the centuries, travelers have braved the dangerous high mountain passes to find shelter in the valleys and plains of Afghanistan.
Today nomads called Kuchi lead their herds of animals across the country and into the mountain pastures for grazing. Afghans take pride in making and flying their own kites. They even have kite fights and use wire or glass in their kites to cut the kite strings of rival kite flyers. Tea is the favorite Afghan drink and a popular meal is palau, made from rice, sheep and goat meats, and fruit. Decades of war, hunting, and years of drought have reduced the wildlife population in Afghanistan.
Tigers used to roam the hills, but they are now extinct. That said, according to the Taliban's Acting Public Health Minister, Dr Qalandar Ebad, the new government has agreed to launch a four-day polio vaccination programme. Vaccination teams have been unable to work in parts of the country for much of the past three years, meaning that since , an estimated 3.
A few years ago, one of its members wondered how U. There were no working banks at the time — and no oversight of the billions pouring into the country. Most of it passed through the hands of U. American generals were often used by their Afghan allies to exact revenge. Mohabullah, an Afghan who had left the Taliban to return home to the central province of Ghazni, once laughed as he recounted how easily fooled the Americans were by their Afghan partners. He recalled how a gas station owner was turned in to U.
American forces often unwittingly found themselves enmeshed in such local rivalries during those early months and years when they were utterly dependent on their warlord allies. In , one U. For many of those men, the desperation to depart was less about fear for their life — and more about finding a new one. Bin Laden is dead and gone, slain by U. Kabul is a city that many returning Taliban no longer recognize.
The repercussions of the past few weeks will be with the U. Create a level playing field for corruption free business. Let the women join the workforce; it will help households boost their finances. Call on the diaspora to come back, invest and help build the country. Avoid driving the country into isolation. It is the people who will end up paying the price of sanctions. Sections U. Science Technology Business U.
In particular he takes steps to mend fences with Pakistan. But in the perception of Afghanistan's radicals he is drifting back towards old royalist ways. A new constitution in promotes Daud to the role of president.
It also brings in what is seen as a cabinet of cronies, including some of his own royal relatives. The result, in , is a violent revolution setting Afghanistan upon an entirely new course. Daud's government is overthrown and he and most of his family killed by a lef-wing faction within the army. When the coup is complete, the officers hand over control to the nation's two leftist political parties - Khalq the People's party and Parcham the Banner party.
The two are for once working in harmony, though only briefly. Once in government, the two Khalq leaders seize power. Nur Mohammad Taraki becomes president and prime minister, with Hafizullah Amin as one of two deputy prime ministers. The Parcham leader, Babrak Karmal, is the other deputy prime minister - but he is soon despatched abroad as ambassador to Prague.
Taraki and Amin press ahead with a rapid programme of reform along communist lines. Equal rights for women are introduced, land is redistributed - all against the advice of Moscow, which favours a more cautious approach for fear of a Muslim backlash.
Meanwhile the leaders of the Parcham party are persecuted and in several cases killed. Many, including Babrak Karmal, take refuge in Russia. The Kremlin is soon proved right. Within months insurrection is breaking out all over the country. In March a resistance group declares a jihad , or holy war, against the godless regime in Kabul.
In the same month more than Soviet citizens living in Herat are seized and killed. Meanwhile the two Khalq leaders are themselves at loggerheads.
In September the president, Taraqi, attempts to assassinate his prime minister, Amin. Instead, within two days, Taraqi is in the hands of Amin supporters. Three weeks later he dies - 'of a serious illness', according to the official announcement. Since the Soviet presence has been gradually increasing in Afghanistan - their most recent puppet state, and potentially a prestigious scalp in the Cold War.
Now, in the anarchy of late , Moscow decides to take a more active role. In December Soviet troops move into Kabul. As Britain always feared, Russia finally bids to control Afghanistan. And as Britain long ago discovered, this is a most unwise ambition. The communist prime minister, Hafizullah Amin, is either shot or commits suicide within a day of the Soviet invasion.
In his place the Russians bring Babrak Karmal from Moscow, as their puppet ruler. But ruling Afghanistan in these circumstances proves impossible. Russian tanks can take any town and Russian planes can bomb even remote valleys into temporary submission, but as soon as the focus of military might shifts elsewhere the guerrillas return to take control on the ground.
Only Kabul remains a relatively safe area in ten years of devastation. And once the USA begins supplying the guerrillas with Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, even Soviet air attacks become dangerous missions. The most striking Soviet achievement is inadvertently persuading seven Afghan guerrilla groups to come together in a common cause. The mujaheddin from the same Arabic root as jihad , holy war become famous throughout the world as the latest manifestation of the Afghan fighting spirit.
The warfare between Russia and the mujaheddin not only devastates an already poor country. It also depopulates it. Eventually some 2 million refugees flee into Pakistan and another 1. When Mikhail Gorbachev comes to power in the Soviet Union in , the festering sore of Afghanistan is one of the urgent problems confronting him. He attempts first a political solution, replacing the useless Babrak Karmal with a former chief of police, Mohammad Najibullah. Najibullah proves equally ineffective in reconciling the Afghan people to a Soviet presence, and in Gorbachev decides to cut his losses.
He announces that Soviet troops will begin a phased withdrawal. The last battalion crosses the Friendship Bridge over the Amu Darya river in February - leaving President Najibullah to try and run a communist Afghan state on his own.
Contrary to expectations Najibullah contrives to remain in power for three years, holding at bay the mujaheddin. But in Kabul falls to his opponents. He secures promise of a safe passage from the UN forces, who prove unable to escort him out of the city.
He is given asylum in the UN compound in Kabul. An Islamic state is immediately declared. On occasion the seven factions in the IUAW, together with three Shia groups from western Afghanistan, do manage to work in harmony. But it is a fragile truce, shattered by outbreaks of internecine warfare around Kabul.
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