Afghanistan - Pakistan

If you look on most maps, you will see a distinct border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. T'ain't so. Anyone with a pony or a pair of Reeboks can skip over the border and back. (Just don't try this at the official border crossings. Also, watch out for those land mines.) Even though the Durand line was created as an official demarcation between the two countries, it is not recognized by either of the Afghanistan or the Pathan tribes whose homeland it divides. Pakistan has absorbed most of the refugees created by the fighting in Afghanistan and keeps warm ties to whoever is in power. During the time Uncle Sam was supporting the mujahedin, Pakistan diverted arms to the mullahs rather than the various tribal chiefs, who were less religious but equally warlike. More specifically, the Pakistani government of General Zia-killed in a plane crash on July 18, 1988-supported the Ghilzai tribe from eastern Afghanistan, where most mujahedin leaders came from. The southern Durranis still support the Afghani royal family of former king Zahir Shah who lives in splendid luxury in Rome. There is also an intense desire for statehood among the Pathans for "Pahktunistan," with a bent toward Afghanistan that might remove most of the NWFP and the tribal areas from the map of Pakistan.

The Afghans

Any visitor to the Afghan refugee camps can't help notice thousands of men between 15 and 60 years of age just sitting around in the teahouses. They are out of work mujahedin. Veterans of the war against the Soviet Union, various Afghan warlords and the latest fighting between Talib and Massoud. Killers with hard, deeply lined faces. None had jobs. Ask anyone what they did in the war and you'll get enough for 20 action movie scripts.

Virtually every male in Afghanistan old enough to lift a rifle fought against the Russians. But Afghanis weren't the only ones. The other "Afghans" included more than 3,000 Algerians who fought in Afghanistan, as well as 2,000 Egyptians. Hundreds, if not thousands, of others arrived from Yemen, Sudan, Pakistan, Syria and other Muslim states.

In all, according to some estimates, 10,000 Arabs received training and combat experience in Afghanistan-of whom nearly half were Saudis. A big chunk of the financial backing for the Afghan warlords came-and continues to come-from the fundamentalist Wahhabi sect in Saudi Arabia.

The war in Afghanistan graduated a lot of students, and many are continuing their education in places as far away as Bosnia, the Philippines and the United States. In fact, fighters trained in Afghanistan have surfaced in at least a dozen different struggles, including conflicts in China, Kashmir, Chechnya and Algeria. More than 1000 veterans of the war in Afghanistan fought in Bosnia. Abu Sayyaf, a radical new Islamic group comprised of "Afghanis," has emerged as the principal Muslim guerrilla movement in the Philippines. Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the mastermind behind the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City, is an Iraqi who was trained in Afghanistan. In Algeria, the last two leaders of the radical Armed Islamic Group (GIA) were Afghan veterans.

And wherever the "Afghans" go, the conflicts become bloodier, and Islamic "justice" becomes unjust. Whereas 9 journalists were killed in Algeria by Islamic extremists in 1993, more than 50 were assassinated in 1994D1995. In the Philippines, Abu Sayyaf staged one of the most brutal attacks in the country's two decades of Muslim separatism when, in April 1995, 200 heavily armed Islamic guerrillas attacked the southern town of Ipil, killing 50 and razing the city. Yousef himself was involved in a plot to assassinate Pope John Paul II and was linked to the bombing of a Philippines Airlines plane in December 1994.

When Afghanistan's Taliban ave finished their task of uniting the country, one can only wonder what the 20,000 unemployed Talibaan will do. Revolution anyone?