Shia political parties: Mohammad Akbari interview
Ustad Mohammad Akbari is the leader of the Islamic National Unity Party of Afghanistan. He is also a member of the Afghan Parliament’s Judicial and Justice Commission. Mr. Akbari emerged as one of the leading Shia jihadists during the Soviet-Afghan war. He was also a leading commander in the Hazara Civil War. The founder of the leading Hazara political party, Hizbe Wahdat ( Unity Party), Mr. Akbari was the only Hazara leader to publicly reconcile with the Taliban during their reign of power. Later he said he did this so Bamiyan Province could live in peace. After the Taliban were ousted from power, Mr. Akbari continued to meet with Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader. Kabul Direct interviewed Mr. Akbari at his home west of Kabul in March 2010.
Kabul Direct: Can you describe for our readers how the Shiite-Hazara political parties came into existence in Afghanistan?
Akbari: The Shiite parties came into being at the beginning of the jihad against the Soviets. At the time Central Afghanistan had spun out of the control of the government in Kabul. The Hazara were fighting for their independence
during this period, even before the communists came. But they were still not active in any of the organized political parties.
Islamist Hazara tended to follow the Late Grand Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic revolution in Iran. By the time of the communist coup in Afghanistan, Central Afghans had already been uprising against the regime in
Kabul. In a period of around seven months, the Shiite leaders seized control of Central
Afghanistan. It would take the mujahideen to get the area back.
At best, however, only the City of Bamiyan was ever under the government’s control. Otherwise, Hazarajat was an autonomous area, complete with its own form of government. Kabul still tried to come in occasionally and seize control but never to any avail, really. Eventually we formed the Islamic Revolutionary Council of Afghanistan to
handle some political issues. The leader of the council, Ayathullah Behishti, was an influential figure in the region. The council was not a party, however. Rather it was composed of local leaders who would gather to come up with ways to defend Hazarajat against outside invaders and to settle disputes. Even in its articles of association, the organization listed that it was not to become a political party. The council was to limit its role to administration and its jurisdiction to
Hazrajat, where there really wasn’t any central government influence.
Kabul Direct: Why did the council resist becoming a party?
Akbari: The thinking was if it became a party, other parties would be formed to compete with it. The fear was that even
Shia outside Afghanistan would see the formation of a party as a call to compete for control of the Hazara territories in the council’s domain. While I myself was not one of the founding members of the party, I think that calling it a party in the end prevented many people from wanting to join it. As a council, however, people would see it as a part of the establishment. They could participate without having to take a political side.
Kabul Direct: Did the council have foreign support?
Akbari: Never. I never saw any foreign hand behind the council. The members were exclusively from Hazarajat and by Hazarajat I mean to say the area that extends from the north of Ghazni to the east of Oruzgan to the west of Maidanwardak, then to the east of Ghor, the south of Sare Pol, the south of Samangan, and the south of Baghlan Province. In other words, all the influential men of the entire Hazara region gathered together to form this council to maintain security for the people of Hazarajat; defend the area; and to resolve internal disputes in the community. The so-called Shiite parties on the other hand had their origins outside Afghanistan. Ours, the only non-political group was in effect the controller of Hazarajat. It was formed at the start of anti-Soviet jihad group and never had any foreign support.
Kabul Direct: Did the Shiite political parties form around the same time?
Akbari: They might have been formed around the same time but I don’t remember exactly when they came into existence. I do know that the Unity Council was the only group that started exclusively in Afghanistan. Generally, as you know, the Shiite’s center of gravity is in Tehran and the Sunnis look to Peshawar. Some ten Shiite parties formed in Tehran around this time.
Kabul Direct: Which parties specifically are you referring to?
Akbari: The Islamic Movement (Nehzat e Islami); Harakat e Islami; the Nasr Organization; Islamic power (Niroy e Islami); Islamic invitation( Dawat e Islami); and Islam Devotees (Fadieeyan e Islam). Later on, some of the
founders of the Unity Council established a party they called the Coincidence Party. This was started as a secret faction at first formed by Sheikh Nadir Mahdawi, Ayatullah Nasir Bhishti, Mohammad Karmani, and Yonous Hesari. The Coincidence Party was the only Shiite party that was established inside Afghanistan.
At first the organizers wanted to hide what they were doing as theyknew they were going against the founding vision of the council. In the end, the establishment of the Shiite parties paved the way to the pluralization of politics that we see today.
Other important political parties Abdul Ali Mazari, Founding father of Hizbe Wahdat e Islami Afghanistan included the Nasr Organization and Islamic Movement that came out of Tehran. And thus the struggle for power began in Hazarajat.
Kabul Direct: Do you think ethnic rivalries are something that is rooted inside or outside Afghanistan? And do they need foreign sources of support?
Akbari: I don’t think such rivalries are rooted outside the country. In the case of the Hazara, the rivalries spring from the competing ambitions of the community’s leaders.
First and foremost, the central regions – Hazarajat – have always felt deprived of their political rights. They were never allowed full participation in the government. So Jihad was a way the Hazara could gain some political advantage. And today we see that they are at last the owners and governors of their own territory. For decades they remained unarmed.
Then Jihad enabled them to arm themselves. Shiite political parties that formed in Tehran were used to engage Afghan Shiite in the Anti-Soviet Jihad. The end goal, though, was to bring about Islamic revolution of Afghanistan. The Hazara that served on the ruling council of Hazarajat tried to take advantage of the opportunity the jihad created. This was the context in which the Civil War occurred.
Then of course there was the ruling regime’s interference in the affairs of Hazarajat that created tension.
Kabul Direct: What type of government interference are you talking about?
Akbari: One example was that the government’s official judges and administrators never allowed the people to unite. The government acted as a force to disunify the people out of fear of an opposition. The government instead encouraged people to take sides against one another. It would then profit by demanding money for each of the fighting factions. And the sides never realized they were both being milked. The idea however was make sure people could never ally against the government.
Kabul Direct: Who was the leading player in Hazarajat during the anti-Soviet jihad?
Akbari: It was the clerics and the mullahs who first led the people in the right direction. But they were not the only players. In some areas, it was the elders who became the leading commanders. But this was a different time. Then all Afghans were united against the Soviets
Kabul Direct: You mentioned something about other mujahedin parties having been formed in Peshwar in addition to those that were formed in Tehran. Tell us about the Peshawar-based parties. How did they come into existence?
Akbari: At the time I believe that every mujahedeen leader was vying for over all control of the mujahideen. The trouble was that no one leader was able to rise above all of the others. And none of these leaders could really tolerate each other. So it was the power struggle between the mujahideen that paved the way for the establishment of the other parties. Since Afghanistan was at war, Islamists in other countries wanted to help. So they helped establish parties outside the countries to influence affairs inside Afghanistan.
Kabul Direct: How would you rate the support that, say, Iran lent in this process?
Akbari: In the late 1970s, Iran hosted several of these parties. For Iran it was important as well to drive the Soviets out of Afghanistan. But the Iranians had a lot to do to defend themselves from Saddam Hussein during this period. Don’t forget, Iran was fighting a war with Iran that would go on from 1980 to 1988.
Iran nevertheless did as much as it could to help all seven of the major Shiite parties that formed during this period. Iran, in fact, encouraged the parties to unify. Iran thought that the Shia would be stronger if they came together. But there were too many fractious divisions to have that happen. The leaders of these parties could never agree enough to present a unified front. Nevertheless they did at least raise the profile of the community in the national consciousness.
When the Russian left Afghanistan, the Sunni parties tried to ignore the demands of the Shiite parties. This created even more divisions among the Shiites. I was a member of one of the groups that was vying for power during this time. I remember when the groups finally concluded that the seven Hazara parties should form a united front that was to go by the name of the Hizb-e Wahdat or United Party. The Nasr Organization, Jihad Guard, the Islamic Movement (Nehzat e Islami), Islamic Power, Islamic Invitation(Dawat e Islami), and Islamic United Revolution Front (Jebhe Inghelab e Mutahed Islami) all agreed to come together to form this front. The front would be centralized in Bamiyan province.
Kabul Direct: So, why were the Shiite Parties then ignored when the mujahidin government was formed in Peshawar?
Akbari: Ignoring Shiites was second nature in Afghanistan. It always has been. Ignoring the Shiites has been the case since governments existed in Afghanistan. Even after the Hazara played a key role in ousting the Soviets, the community’s interests were ignored. Perhaps this is because the Shiites’ relationship with Iran as opposed to the countries who back the Sunni parties which are closer to the West.
Since the Iranian revolution, Iran has been seen as an anti-Western power. All the aid that has flown into Afghanistan since 1979, the year of the Islamic revolution in Iran, has always been routed through Pakistan. And this is why Sunni jihadists especially in the South have gotten the bulk of the outside funding and attention. The Shiite were easy to ignore.
Kabul Direct: What did the Shiite Jihadists think of their counterparts among the Peshwar Mujahedin?
Akbari: They were critical of them. In fact, they drove the Shiites away from participating in the mujhaideen government.
Kabul Direct: And why did the Shiite Civil War break out?
Akbari: The Civil War broke out at the same time civil war broke out all over Afghanistan. The mujhaideen,
once the Soviets left, turned on each other. The mujahedin were able to gain power but they didn’t know how to wield it. They didn’t know how to run a country or how to take advantage of peace.
COPYRIGHT KABUL DIRECT 2010
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