From the mouth of the "Terrorist"! What did the Taliban really say?

What follows is a speech given by the Taliban Ambassador to the U.S. in March, 2001. If you do not want your concept of the Taliban shaped by the mainstream media shakened then don't read this article. But if you want to hear the Taliban side of the story not filtered by the media then continue reading. I think you will find what is expressed from their own mouth VERY interesting!


Taliban Ambassador Speech in the USA:

Respected Brothers/Sisters In Islam,

Assallaamu Alaykum Wa Rahamtullaahi Wa Barakaatuhu

Roving Afghanistan Ambassador Sayyid Rahmatullah Hashemi's Speech at
The University of Southern California on March 10, 2001

Allah says: "O you who believe! If a rebellious evil person comes to
you with a news, verify it, lest you harm people in ignorance, and
afterwards you become regretful to what you have done." (Qur`an 49:6)
Sayyid Rahmatullah Hashemi is the roving Ambassador from Afghanistan
who recently visited the US. He has been active in giving lectures on
the real situation regarding the Taliban in Afghanistan throughout
central and Southern California. The following is the transcribed
lecture given by Sayyid Rahmatullah Hashemi at the University Of
Southern California on March 10, 2001:

===============================
Sayyid Rahmatullah Hashemi
I was just coming from [a meeting with] a group of scholars, and the
first thing we started there was the statues. And the first thing we
started here was also the statues. It s very unfortunate how little
we see and how little we know. And it really confuses me, if people
really know that little or not. Nobody has seen the problems of
Afghanistan; nobody saw their problems before. And the only thing
that represents Afghanistan today are the statues.

The problem of Afghanistan was not new. As you know that Afghanistan
is called, The Crossroads of Asia. So, we are suffering because of
our geo-strategic location. We have suffered in the 18th century,
19th century, and we are still suffering in this century.

We have not attacked the British. We have not attacked the Russians.
It was them who attacked us. So the problems in Afghanistan you see
is not our creation. That reflects the image of the world. If you
don t like the image in the mirror, do not break the mirror; break
your face.

The problems in Afghanistan started in 1979. Afghanistan was a
peaceful country and it was doing its own job. The Russians, along
with their 140,000 troops attacked Afghanistan in the December of
1979, just 21 years ago, stayed there for a decade, killed one and a
half million people, maimed one million more people, and six million
out of the eighteen million people migrated because of the Russian
brutalities. Even today, our children are dying because of the
landmines that they planted for us. And nobody knows about this.
After the Russians left during the Russian occupation, on the other
side, the American government, the British government, the French,
the Chinese, and all of the rest, supported the counter-
revolutionaries called the Mujahideen; 7 parties only in Pakistan and
8 parties in Iran who fought the Russian occupation. And after the
Russians left, these parties went into Afghanistan. All of them had
different ideologies, a lot of weapon[s]. And instead of having a
single administration, they fought in Afghanistan.
The destruction that they brought was worse than the destruction the
Russians brought. 63,000 people were only killed in the capital,
Kabul. Seeing all this chaos, and the complete destruction of our
country, and I don't have to forget that after the Soviets left,
another million people migrated because of the lawlessness that
existed in Afghanistan 7 million people.

So seeing this destruction and lawlessness, a group of students
called the Taliban Taliban is the plural word of students in our
language; it may be two students in Arabic, but in our language it
means students so a group of students started a movement called the
Movement of Students. It first started in a village in the southern
province of Afghanistan, called Kandahar. It happened when a war-
lord, or a commander abducted two minor girls, raped them, and the
parents of those girls went to a school and asked the teacher of the
school to help them. The teacher of that school, along with his 53
students, finding only 16 guns, went and attacked the base of that
commander. After releasing those two girls, they hanged that
commander, and so many of their [the commander's] people were also
hanged. This story was told everywhere; and this was called the
terrorist story of the Taliban, or the Students. BBC also quoted this
story. Seeing or hearing this story, many other students joined this
movement and started disarming the rest of the warlords, who were
worse than these. I will not prolong this story so far, this same
students' movement controls 95% of the country; they captured the
capital, including the four major cities. And only a bunch of those
warlords are remaining in the
northern corridor of Afghanistan.

So our achievements are as follows. We are in a government for only
five years, and the following things that we have done, and many of
you may not know:

* The first thing we have done is re-unify the fragmented country.
Afghanistan was formerly fragmented into five parts. The first thing
we have done is to reunify that country. The United Nations, the
United States, everybody was confused as to how to reunify that
country, and nobody could do it. First thing we have done is to
reunify that country.

* Second thing we have done, which everybody failed to do, was
disarming a population. After dealing [with] the war of the Russians,
and the Americans I would say, every Afghan got a Kalashnikov, and
even sophisticated weapons such as stinger missiles, and they even
got fighter planes and fighter helicopters. So disarming these people
was impossible. The United Nations in 1992 passed an appeal asking
for 3 billion dollars to re-purchase that arms, to start a process of
repurchasing those arms. And suddenly, because of its
impracticalibility, that plan never materialized, and everybody
forgot about Afghanistan. So the second thing we have done is to
disarm 95% of that country.

* And the third thing that we have done is to establish a single
administration under Afghanistan, which did not exist for 10 years.

* And the fourth achievement that we have that is surprising to
everybody is that we have eradicated 75% of all worlds Opium
cultivation. Afghanistan produced 75% of all worlds Opium. The drug,
you know that Opium? The Narcotics business? And last year we issued
an edict asking the people to stop growing Opium, and this year, the
United Nations Drug Control Program, UNDCP, and their head, [Mr.]
Barnard F., proudly announced that there was 0% of Opium cultivation.
Not at all. And this was not good news for UN itself because many of
them lost their jobs. In the UNDCP, 700 so called experts were
working there and they got their
salaries and they never went into Afghanistan. So when we issued this
edict, I know that they were not happy. And this year they lost their
jobs. And this was our fourth achievement.

* The fifth achievement that we have, but it's a little
controversial, some of our friends will not know is the restoration
of Human rights. Now, YOU may think that is a violation of Human
Rights, but from OUR perspective that is the restoration of Human
Rights. Because usually [among] the fundamental rights of a human
being is the right to Live. Before us, nobody could live peacefully
in Afghanistan. So the first thing we have done, begun [to give] to
the people is a secure and peaceful life. The second major thing that
we have restored is to give them free and fair justice; you don t
have to buy justice, unlike here. You will have justice freely.
And you have criticized us for violating women's rights; now, who
knows what happened before us. Only some symbolic schools, or
symbolic posts were given to some women in the ministry, and that was
called the restoration of women's rights. I can see some Afghans
living here,and they will agree with me, that in the rural areas of
Afghanistan, women were used as animals. They were SOLD actually. The
first thing we have done is to give the self-determination to women,
and it happened not in the history of Afghanistan. Throughout the
history of Afghanistan, during all the so-called civilized kings or
whatever, they didn't give this right to women, so women were sold. !
They didn't have the right to select their husbands, or to reject
their husbands. First thing we have done is to let them choose their
future. And you will know that throughout south Asia, women are
killed under the title of honor killings. It happens when a woman's
relation is detected with a man, whether or not the relation was
sexual, they're both killed. But now this is not happening in our
country. And the third thing that happened only in Afghanistan, was
women were exchanged as gifts; this was not something religious; this
was something cultural. When two tribal tribes were fighting among
themselves, then in order to get their tribal issue reconciliated,
they would exchange women, and then [they] would make, or announce
reconciliation. And this has been stopped. If we [had to give]
fundamental rights of woman, we had to start from zero; we couldn't
jump in the middle. Now you've asked me about the rights of women s
education and the rights of women's work. Unlike what is said here,
women do work in Afghanistan. You're right that until 1997 I mean,
in 1996 when we captured the capital Kabul, we did ask women to stay
home. It didn't mean that we wanted them to stay at home forever, but
nobody listened to us. We said that there is no law, and there is no
order, and have to stay at home. They were raped before us, everyday.
So, after we disarmed the people, and after we brought law and order,
and now women are working. You are right that women are not working
in the ministry of defense, like here. We don t want our women to be
fighter pilot[s], or to be used as objects of decoration for
advertisements. But they do work.
They work in the Ministry of Health, Interior, Ministry of Education,
Ministry of Social Affairs, and so on. So, and we don t have any
problem with women's education. We have said that we want
education, and we will have education whether or not we are under
anybody's pressure, because that is part of our belief. We are
ordered to do that. When we say that there should be segregated
schools, it does not mean that we don't want our women to be
educated. It is true that we are against co-education; but it is not
true that we are against women's education. We do have schools even
now, but the problem is the resources. We cannot expand these
programs. Before our government there were numerous curriculums that
were going on; there were curriculums which preached the king for the
kings, and there were curriculums which preached for the communists,
and there were curriculums from all these seven parties [the
previously mentioned]. So, the Students were confused as to what to
study, and the first we have done today is to unify that curriculum,
and that's going on. But we are criticized, and we say that instead
of criticism, if you just help us once, that will make a difference.
Because criticism will not make a difference. If you [talk?]
criticism from New York, thousands of miles away, we don t care. But
if you come there and help us, we do care. So actually there are more
girls students studying in the faculty of medical sciences than boys
are. This is not me who is saying this, it is the United Nations who
has announced this. Recently we reopened the faculty of medical
science in all major cities of Afghanistan and in Kandahar, there
are more girl students than boys. ! But they are segregated. And
the Swedish committees have also established schools for girls. I
know they are not enough, but that s what we can do. So, that is
what I say that we have restored. I don't say we are 100% perfect,
and nobody will say that they are 100% perfect. We do have
shortcomings, and we do need to amend our policies. But we can't do
everything overnight. * And the sixth problem, that we are is it
sixth or seventh? Seventh I think the seventh problem that we are
accused of is Terrorism, or the existence of terrorists in
Afghanistan. And for Americans terrorism or terrorist means only bin
Laden. Now you will not know that Afghanistan, or bin Laden was in
Afghanistan 17 years before even we existed. Bin Laden was in
Afghanistan, fought the Soviet Union, and Mr. Ronald Reagan, the
president of America in that time, and Dick, Mr. Dick Chaney called
such people freedom fighters or the Heroes of Independence, because
they were fighting for their cause. So Osama bin Laden was one of
those guys who was instigated by such media reports, so in that
provocation by these countries to go to Afghanistan and fight the
Soviets there. And now when the Soviet Union is fragmented, such
people were not needed anymore, and they were transformed into
terrorists from heroes to terrorists. So exactly like Mr. Yassir
Arafat was transformed from a terrorist to a hero. So we don t know
as to what is the definition of Terrorism. We do regret that the
terrorists were actually horrific acts and they were terrorist acts.
But if they are terrorist acts, what is the difference between those
terrorist acts and the attacks on Afghanistan when in 1998 attacks,
cruise missile attacks on Afghanistan. Neither of the two were
declared and both of them killed civilians. So we are confused as to
what is the definition of Terrorism. If it means killing civilians
blindly, both of them killed civilians blindly. And the fact is, I m
not going to be offensive or rude, or rude about this, I m going to
be frank. And I think it's sometimes honest to be rude. If the
United States says that it has acted for its defense, lets see. The
United States government tried to kill a man without even giving him
a fair trial. In 1998,they just sent cruise missiles into Afghanistan
and they announced that they were trying to kill Osama bin Laden. We
didn't know Osama bin Laden then. I didn't know him; he was just a
simple man. So we were all shocked. I was one of those men who was
sitting at home at night, I was called for an immediate council
meeting and we all were told the United States have attacked
Afghanistan. With 75 cruise missiles and trying to kill one man. And
they missed that man; killed 19 other students and never apologized
for those killings. So what would you do if you were in our status;
if we were to go and send 75 cruise missiles into the United States
and say that we were going to kill a man that we thought not believed
that we thought was responsible for our embassy, and we missed that
man, and we killed 19 other Americans what would the United States
do? An instant declaration of war. But we were polite. We didn't
declare war. We had a lot of problems at home; we didn't want further
problem[s]. And since then, we are very open-minded on this issue. We
have said, that if really this man is involved in the Kenya/Tanzania
acts, if anybody can give us proof or evidence about his involvement
in these horrific acts, we will punish him. Nobody gave us evidence.
We put him on trial for 45 days and nobody gave us any kind of
evidence. The fact is that the United States told us they did not
believe in our judicial system. We were surprised as to what kind of
judicial system they have?! They showed us as to what they are doing
to the people they just tried to kill a man without even giving him a
fair trial, even if one of us is a criminal here, the police is not
going to blow his house, he must go to a court first. So, that was
rejected. Our first proposal, despite all these things, was rejected.
They said they will not believe in our judicial system, and we must
give him to New York. The second proposal that we gave after the
rejection of this first proposal we gave was, we are ready to accept
an international monitoring group to come into Afghanistan
and monitor this man s activities in Afghanistan. So that he does
nothing. Even that he has no telecommunications [--]. That proposal
was also rejected. And the third proposal we gave, six months ago,
was that we were ready, that we were ready to try or accept a third
Islamic country s decision, or the trial of [--] in a third Islamic
country, with consent of Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan that was also
rejected. So we don t know, as to what is the problem behind. If bin
Laden was the only issue, we are still very open minded, and for the
fourth time, I'm here, with a letter from my leadership that I m
going to submit to the state department hoping that they will resolve
the problem. But I don t think so [that] they ll solve the problem.
Because we think, and I personally think now that maybe the United
States is looking for a Boogy Man always. Remember what Gorbachev
said? He said, that he s going to do the worst thing ever to the
United States. And everybody thought that he s going to blow the
United States with nuclear weapon[s]. But he said, I'm going to
remove their enemy. And then he fragmented Soviet Union. And he was
right. After he fragmented Soviet Union, a lot of people lost their
jobs in the Pentagon, in the CIA, and the FBI, because they were not
needed anymore. So we think that maybe these guys are looking for a
Boogy Man now. Maybe they want to justify their annual budget, maybe
they want to make their citizens feel that they are still needed to
defend them. Afghanistan is not a terrorist state; we cannot even
make a needle. How are we going to be a terrorist state? How are we
going to be a threat to the world?If the world terrorism is really
derived from the word terror, then there are countries making weapons
of mass destruction, countries making nuclear weapons, forest
deforestation, soil, air, and water pollution they are terrorist
states; we are not. We cannot even make a needle; how are we going to
be a threat to the world? So as I said in the beginning, the
situation in Afghanistan is not our creation. The situation in
Afghanistan reflects the world's image. If you don t like the image
in the mirror, do not break the mirror; break your face.

Now, we are under sanctions. And the sanctions have caused a lot of
problems, despite that we are going under so many problems, the 23
years of continuous war, the total destruction of our infrastructure,
and the problem of refugees, and the problem of land mines in our
agricultural lands, all of a sudden the United Nations, with the
provocation of Russia, is imposing sanctions on Afghanistan. And the
sanctions have been approved; we are under sanctions. Several hundred
children died a month ago, here it is (holds up pamphlet). Seven
hundred children died because of malnutrition and the severe cold
weather. Nobody even talked about that. Everybody knows about the
statues. For us, we are surprised, that the world is destroying our
future with economic sanctions, then they have no right to worry
about our past. Everybody is saying that they are destroying their
heritage they don t have any right to talk about that. They are
destroying the future of our children with economic sanctions, how
are they going to justify talking about our past? I know it's not
rational and logical to blow the statues for, for retaliation of
economic sanctions. But this is how it is. I called, after this
announcements, I called my headquarters, and I found out, I was
really confused, I asked them, why are they going to blow the
statues, and I talked to the head of the council of scholars of
people, who had actually decided this, he told me that UNESCO and NGO
from Sweden, or from one of these Scandinavian countries Norway,
Sweden, one of these they had actually come, with a project of
rebuilding the face of these statues, which have worn by rain. So the
council of people had told them to spend that money in saving the
lives of these children, instead of spending that money to [restore
these] statues. And these guys said that, No, this money is only for
the statues. And the people were really pissed off. They said that,
If you don t care about our children, we are going to blow those
statues.


[Person from the Audience yells, Takbeer! ]

[Audience responds, Allahu Akbar! ]

I don't say that he s right or wrong, the decision is yours. Think
of yourself. If you are in such a problem, what would you do? If
your children are dying in front of your eyes, and you are under
sanctions, and then the same people who have imposed sanctions and
are coming and building statues here? What will you do? So, I talked
to my headquarters today, and they said that the statues have not
been blown so far. But the people are so angry. They are really
angry, they want to blow them. And there is Kofi Annan is going, you
know Kofi Annan, the Secretary General o! f United Nations? He went
to [--], to Pakistan, and he said he s going to meet our
representative there. This man never bothered to enter, to talk about
these children, he never bothered himself to talk about six million
refugees, and he never talked about [the] poverty of Afghanistan. He
only goes to that region because of these statues. And the OIC is
also, they've also sent a mission to go to Kabul and talk about those
statues. So we'e really confused. That the world is really caring
about the statues, and then they don t care about human beings. I don
t say we have to retaliate in blowing the statues; we have not done
that. But if we were to destroy those statues! , we would have
destroyed them three years before now, because we captured those
areas three years before now. We didn't want to blow them. And now
the situation has come, and it's not our decision. This is the
decision of the scholars and the people. And that is the decision has
been approved by the Supreme Court. We cannot reject this decision.
So these guys are there, the OIC and some, even I think some
ministers from different countries are there to save the lives of
these statutes. I think they will not be blown because of the
concerns of these people. But it is really, really ridiculous. These
people do not care about children, about people who are dying there,
about the foreign interference that still exists, they only care
about the statues. And I m sure they don t care about our heritage.
They don't care about our heritage; they only care about their picnic
site one time. Maybe they'll have a good picnic site there, seeing
those statues. They don't care about our heritage, I'm sure. If they
were to care about our past, they wouldn't destroy our future. And
I'm sure these sanctions which are imposed on our government will
never change us, because for us, our ideology is everything. To try
to change our ideology with economic sanctions will never work. It
may work in the United States, where the economy is everything, but
for us, our ideology is everything. [--] And we believe that it is
better to die for something than to live for nothing.

We are still open-minded. We are still, we have still opened our
doors for negotiations, but our offices are closed everywhere our
office was closed in New York a week ago. They are trying to shut our
offices in other countries, trying to isolate us, and they don't know
that isolation is counter-productive. Because they don't have
experts; the only experts they have are those people who speak
English. They don t even speak the language. Those experts who are
advising the sanctions, or the sanction committee have not even been
to Afghanistan. And they are setting benchmarks for us to achieve.

I'm prolonging this speech, I'm sorry, because I have been repeating
it everywhere, so I may have left some thing in it, and I will let
you ask me questions.

[Applause from Audience]


"Strive as in a race to achieve the goal of excellence in all that you do."