Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, Second Edition

by Ahmed Rashid

  16. Interview with Maulana Samiul Haq, February 1999.

  17. Heraldmagazine, Binori madrassa, December 1997.

  18. After the Clinton administration classified them as a group supporting international terrorism in 1998, they changed their name to Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin.

  Chapter 7

  1. Sikorski, Radek, Dust of the Saints, Chatto and Windus, London 1989. This is the most comprehensive account of the field commanders meeting.

  2. Magnus, Ralph and Naby, Eden, Afghanistan: Mullah, Marx and Mujahid, Harper Collins, India 1998. I am grateful to the authors for providing this helpful division of the Mujaheddin leadership.

  3. There are 31 provinces (wilayat) in Afghanistan, each governed by a governor (wali). Each province is divided into districts (uluswali) and sub-districts (alaqdari). Kabul is divided into kartsand subdivided into smaller districts call nahia.

  4. At every opportunity during my visits to Kabul I would ask ministers their views on how they saw the future government of the Taliban. No two ministers had the same opinion and clearly there was very little thought being put into the subject.

  5. Al-Majallah, 23 October, 1996. Interview given to Arabic magazine.

  6. Interview with author. Kandahar, March 1997.

  7. The Nation, Four killed in revolt against Taliban, 10 January 1998.

  8. Interviews with international aid workers in Kandahar, who had met the village elders. Islamabad, February 1998.

  9. Interview with former inmate of Kandahar jail.

  10. AFP, Taliban arrest dozens of alleged coup plotter, 23 October 1998.

  Chapter 8

  1. Rubin, Barnett, The Fragmentation of Afghanistan: State Formation and Collapse in the International System, Yale University Press, 1995.

  2. Braudel, Ferdinand, A History of Civilizations, Penguin Books, London 1993.

  3. Interview with Maulvizada, Kabul, June 1997.

  4. UNDP Country Development Indicators, 1995.

  5. UNOCHA statement, October 1996.

  6. UNICEF statement, 11 December 1998.

  7. Rubin, Barnett: The Fragentation of Afghanistan: State Formation and Collapse in the International System.

  8. In The Firing Line: War and Children's Rights, Amnesty International 1999.

  9. Anders, Fange, Difficulties and Opportunities; Challenges of Aid in Afghanistan. Paper for Stockholm Conference on Afghanistan, 24 February 1999.

  10. Wali, Sima, Statement on Afghanistan to the US Congressional Human Rights Caucus, 30 October 1997. Wali is head of the Refugee Women in Development.

  11. Interview with Maulvizada, Kabul, June 1997.

  12. UNICEF issued an official communique on 10 November 1995 and Save the Children on 8 March 1996.

  13. Interview, Kabul, June 1996.

  14. Dupree, Nancy Hatch, Afghan women under the Taliban, in Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban,(Maley, William ed.) C. Hurst, London 1998. This is the best essay on the history of the gender issue under the Taliban.

  15. Power, Carla, City of Secrets, Newsweek,13 July 1998. Power's beautiful, tragic piece written with enormous flair, had a major influence on American feminists.

  16. UNOCHA statement, 31 October 1996.

  17. AFP, One survives Taliban death sentence for sodomy, 28 February 1998.

  18. Burns, John, With sugared tea and caustic rules, an Afghan leader explains himself, the New York Times,24 November 1996.

  19. AP, Taliban restrict music, 18 December 1996.

  20. Reuters, Iranian leader accuses Taliban of defaming Islam, 4 October 1996.

  Chapter 9

  1. I am grateful for interviews with officials from the UN International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) in Islamabad for their help in describing the opium-growing process.

  2. Interviews, Kandahar May 1997. See also Rashid, Ahmed, Drug the infidels, Far Eastern Economic Review, May 1997.

  3. As above.

  4. Lifschultz, Lawrence, Pakistan, the Empire of Heroin, in McCoy, Alfred and Block, Alan, War on Drugs, Studies in the Failure of US Narcotics Policy, Westview Press 1992.

  5. Rubin, Barnett, The Fragmentation of Afghanistan, State Formation and Collapse in the International System, Yale University Press 1995.

  6. Lifschulz, Lawrence, Pakistan: the Empire of Heroin, in McCoy, Alfred and Block, Alan, op.cit.

  7. Rashid, Ahmed, Dangerous Liaisons, Far Eastern Economic Review, 16 April 1998.

  8. Interviews with UNDCP and DEA officials, March 1998.

  9. Interviews with Iranian officials, Tehran, March 1998. Rashid, Ahmed: Dangerous Liaisons.

  10. Observatorie Geopolitique de Drogues, Paris, Report on Turkmenistan, March 1999.

  11. Interview with President Akayev in Davos, Switzerland, 29 January 1999.

  12. Interview with Ambassador, Islamabad, May 1998.

  13. UNDCP Report, 25 October 1998.

  14. Interview with Pino Arlacchi in Davos, January 1999.

  15. Interview with Arif, Kabul, May 1997.

  16. Interview with Jan, Kabul, May 1997.

  17. UN Demining office for Afghanistan. For several years the UN and other NGOs said there were more than ten million mines in Afghanistan. In 1997 they said that is an exaggerated figure, which at current clearance rates of mines would take 5,000 years to clear. The World Bank is now funding a more detailed survey but it is estimated that several thousand square miles of land are still mine infested. Only 19 per cent of that area, mostly in major cities, was cleared between 1992 and 1999.

  18. Interview with Cestari, Islamabad, June 1997.

  Chapter 10

  1. Interviews with Pakistani cabinet ministers who served under Zia.

  2. Roy, Olivier, Afghanistan, from Holy War to Civil War, Princeton University Press 1995.

  3. Roy, as above.

  4. Huntington, Samuel, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, Simon and Schuster, New York 1996.

  5. Personal interviews with Bin Laden's friends in Saudi Arabia and London in 1992, 1993 and 1999.

  6. AFP, Laden planned a global Islamic revolution in 1995, 27 August 1998.

  7. Al-Ahram, Interview with Masud, by Yahya Ghanim, 19 August 1997.

  8. Giacomo, Carol, US lists Saudi businessman as extremist sponsor, Washington Post, 14 August 1996.

  9. AFP, Bin Laden training young Islamists, alleges Egypt, 18 February 1997.

  10. Hiro, Dilip, Islamic militants, once encouraged by the US, now threaten it, the Nation, New York, 15 February 1999.

  11. Timemagazine, Interview with Bin Laden, 11 January 1999.

  12. Timemagazine, Inside the hunt for Osama, 21 December 1998.

  13. Newsweekmagazine, Making a symbol of terror, 1 March 1999. The article, using US sources, disputes that Bin Laden was involved in all these terrorist acts.

  14. Interviews with Algerian and Egyptian diplomats and politicans in Islamabad in 199293.

  15. Global Intelligence Update, Bangladesh Movement highlights new Pan-Islamic identity, 27 January 1999.

  16. Global Intelligence Update, Possible Bin Laden group attempts transit through Malaysia, 13 January 1999.

  17. Reid, Tim, Yemeni kidnappings were revenge for Iraq bombing, Daily Telegraph, 3 January, 1999. The FBI claimed that the Yemenis had lap-top computers and communication equipment and were directly in touch with Bin Laden.

  18. AFP, Bin Laden may be targeting Bangladesh, 19 February 1999.

  19. AFP, Suspected Bin Laden supporters held in Mauritania, 5 March 1999.

  20. AFP, Osama bankrolled Egypt's Jihad, 15 February 1999.

  21. AFP, Kashmir militant group issues Islamic dress order, 21 February 1999. Pakistani diplomats grew increasingly concerned about the activities of the Wahabbis in Kashmir. Interviews with diplomats, Islamabad March 1999.

  22. Timemagazine, Interview with Bin Laden, 11 January 1999.

  23. Interviews with senior Pakistani officials, Islamabad, December to March 1998-99. See also Mcgirk, Tim Guest of Hono
ur, Timemagazine, 31 August 1998.

  24. Timemagazine, Interview with Bin Laden, 11 January, 1999.

  25. Interviews with senior US diplomats, Islamabad January 1999.

  Chapter 11

  1. Interview with President Niyazov by the author, Ashkhabad, December 1991.

  2. US Energy Department, The Caspian Sea Region, October 1997.

  3. Rashid, Ahmed, The new Great Game the Battle for Central Asia's Oil, Far Eastern Economic Review, 10 April 1997.

  4. Rashid, Ahmed, The Resurgence of Central Asia, Islam or Nationalism?Zed Books, London 1994.

  5. Verrier, Anthony, Francis Younghusband and the Great Game, Jonathan Cape, London 1991.

  6. Rubin, Barnett, Russian hegemony and state breakdown in the periphery: Causes and consequences of the civil war in Tajikistan, in Rubin, Barnett and Synder, Jack, Post Soviet Political Order, Conflict and State Building, Routledge, London 1998.

  7. Barnett, as above.

  8. Allworth, Edward, The Modern Uzbeks from the 14th Century to the Present, Hoover Institute Press, 1990.

  9. In 1989 unemployment in Turkmenistan stood at 18.8 per cent, infant mortality was 54 per one thousand rising to 111 per one thousand in some desert regions or ten times higher than in Western Europe, child labour was widespread and 62 per cent of the population suffered from jaundice or hepatitis due to the inadequate health system. A quarter of the hospitals had no running water or electricity. See Rashid, Ahmed: The Resurgence of Central Asia, Islam or Nationalism?

  10. Interview with Kuliyev, Ashkhabad, December 1991.

  11. During the first three years (19982000), 58 per cent of the gas supplied will go towards paying Iran for the US$190 million construction costs of the pipeline. Exports from Korpedzhe, which reached 2 bcm/year in late 1998, were projected to rise to 8 bcm/year in 2000.

  12. The consortium was led by PSG International, a joint venture by two US companies Bechtel Enterprises and General Electric Capital Structured Finance Group.

  13. The Japanese company Mitsubishi and the US company Exxon are preparing a feasibility study.

  14. Pettifer, James, The Turkish Labyrinth Ataturk and the New Islam,Penguin Books 1997.

  15. Petroleum Finance Company, The Baku-Ceyhan Pipeline, Washington, May 1998.

  16. The Tenghiz-Chevroil joint venture is the single largest US-led investment in the former Soviet Union. It groups Chevron, Mobil and Arco through LukArco giving US companies a 72 per cent share. The Tenghiz-Chevroil Production Sharing Contract was signed in September 1993.

  17. AIOC is led by BP-Amoco and includes US companies Amerada Hess, Exxon, Pennzoil and Unocal with a total US share of 40 per cent. The other companies are Statoil, Itochu, Delta-Hess, Ramco, Socar and TPAO.

  18. It costs about US$5 dollars to produce a barrel of Caspian oil compared to US$1.5 a barrel for Saudi Arabia. Transport costs would add another US$5 per barrel.

  19. American Jewish groups such as B'nai B'rith and the American Jewish Congress took a strong public stance against Iran.

  20. Interview in Tehran, 26 April 1998.

  21. The Australian company BHP and Royal Dutch Shell were separately keen to build such a pipeline and BHP presented a feasibility study to Iran and Pakistan in 1998. The gas would be pumped from Iran's South Pars field in the Gulf.

  22. The two major Western consortia which presently produce oil in Central Asia are both dominated by US companies. The Tenghiz field in western Kazakhstan (Chevron/Mobil 70 per cent) and the Azerbaijan International Operating Company (Amoco/Unocal/Pennzoil/Exxon 40 per cent) in the Caspian Sea, could potentially produce 1.4 milion barrels per day by 2010. Other ventures such as Karachagnak field in Kazakhstan with a 20 per cent Texaco share and Mobil's stake in Turkmenistan will also need export outlets.

  23. Interview with Lakhdar Brahimi, Lahore 8 April 1998.

  24. Kinzer, Stephen, Caspian Competitors in race for power on sea of oil, New York Times,24 January 1999.

  25. Csongos, Frank, Official outlines US policy, RFE/RL Newservice, 18 March 1999.

  Chapter 12

  1. I interviewed Carlos Bulgheroni in Islamabad in June 1997 over several days and again on 30 January 1999 in Davos, Switzerland. Both times we spoke extensively on and off the record. I believe these are the only times he has spoken to a journalist at length on the Afghanistan pipeline. All the following quotes from Bulgheroni are drawn from these two interviews.

  2. Interview with Sureda, Islamabad, 27 February 1997.

  3. Interview with Zardari, Islamabad, 1 May 1995.

  4. The Qatar proposal was an undersea pipeline across the Gulf to Baluchistan. The Australian company BHP proposed to build an overland gas pipeline from southern Iran to Baluchistan.

  5. Interviews with Pakistani diplomats, Islamabad, June 1996.

  6. Interview with Bridas executives, Islamabad, 27 February 1997.

  7. Kissinger's comments were quoted to me by Bridas executives in Islamabad February 1997. The interview with Olaciregul was at the same time.

  8. Interview with Tudor, Islamabad, 27 February 1997.

  9. Interview with De La Rosa, Ashkhabad, 22 January 1997.

  10. Moscow became more amenable in April 1996, but only after Chevron gave Russia a 24 per cent stake in the consortium to build a US$1.5 billion pipeline to transport Tenghiz oil to Novorossiysk on the Black Sea. Mobil later bought a 25 per cent stake in Chevron's Tenghiz lease.

  11. Those hired by the oil companies working in the Caspian included Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former NSC Adviser, former Assistant Defence Secretary Richard Armitage, former Chief of Staff John Sununu, former Senate majority leader Howard Baker, former Secretaries of State Lawrence Eagleburger and Henry Kissinger.

  12. The working group included officials from the Departments of State, Energy, Commerce, CIA and the NSC.

  13. Interview with diplomat, Ashkhabad, January 1997.

  14. Hunter, Shireen, Central Asia since Independence,Praeger 1996.

  15. Interview with Olcott, Ashkhabad, 27 May 1997.

  16. Talbott, Strobe, Deepening US engagement with the States of Central Asia and the Caucasus: A Roadmap for the Future, speech delivered in Washington, 21 July 1997.

  17. Case No. 94144 deposited in the District Court of Fort Bend County, Texas. Bridas Corporation, plaintiff v Unocal Corporation, Marty Miller, and Delta Oil Company Ltd, defendants.

  18. Letter sent by John Imle to Carlos Bulgheroni on 11 October 1995 and submitted in court by Bridas. The letter stated that Unocal should look solely to the Government regarding potential pipeline projects from Turkmenistan to Pakistan and that the Government has not entered into any agreements, which would preclude or interfere in any way with any pipeline projects being discussed between Unocal and Turkmenistan.

  19. Interview with John Imle, Davos, Switzerland 31 January 1999. I had sent 30 questions to Imle and he gave me written answers to some of them and answered others verbally.

  20. I interviewed the aide and the cabinet minister on separate occasions in January and February 1997. I also interviewed Benazir Bhutto about the incident, which she confirmed but would not be quoted.

  21. Dobbs, Michael, Kabul's fall to end the anarchy, Washington Post,29 September 1996. Senator Brown, in his capacity as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Near East and South Asia, had invited all the Afghan warlords to Washington for a three-day round table discussion June 25- 27 1996. Pakistani diplomats in Washington told me that the air tickets of some of the participating Afghans had been paid by Unocal. Brown was one of the few US legislators who took an interest in Afghanistan at the time, partly because he backed the Unocal project.

  22. Reuters, US sending envoy to Taliban, Washington, 1 October 1996.

  23. Interview with Nazdjanov, Ashkhabad, 22 January 1997.

  24. Interview with Bridas executive, Islamabad, June 1997. Bridas held talks with Mobil, Amoco and Coastal oil companies in the USA in order to win backing from a major US oil company to offset Uno
cal's links with the US government. Bridas was also talking to British, French and Malaysian oil companies to join its consortium. It was also talking to a Russian oil company about joining, in order to offset Russian opposition to its pipeline project.

  25. Interview with Imle, Davos, Switzerland, 29 January 1999.

  26. Interview with Akashi, Ashkhabad, 22 January 1997.

  27. Ebel, Robert, Energy Choices in the Near Abroad. The Haves and Havenots face the future, Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, April 1997.

  Chapter 13

  1. Both companies had built up lobbies within the Taliban. We have still not decided which company we will accept, but we prefer Bridas. They give us confidence because they are neutral, Mullah Mohammed Sadeq, who had visited Buenos Aires, told me on 27 February 1997.

  2. Interview with Bridas executive, Islamabad June 1997.

  3. Interview with John Imle, in Davos, Switzerland, 31 January 1999.

  4. Interview with President Niyazov, Ashkhabad, 22 January 1997. Turkmenistan hosted a meeting of the UN-sponsored International Forum of Assistance to Afghanistan in a bid to play a larger role in Afghanistan.

  5. Three European companies were involved in the TurkeyTurkmenistan pipeline, Italy's Snamprogetti, Gas de France and Royal Dutch Shell.

  6. The breakdown of the deal gave Turkmenistan US$1 for supplying the gas, Unocal 6585 cents for transport costs and the Taliban 15 cents as royalty. This would have given the Taliban an estimated US$105 million dollars a year, but the Taliban rejected it.

  7. The new CentGas consortium announced on 25 October 1997, included Unocal 46.5 per cent, Delta Oil 15 per cent, Turkmenistan 7 per cent, Itochu (Japan) 6.5 per cent, Indonesia Petroleum (Japan) 6.5 per cent, Crescent Group (Pakistan) 3.5 per cent and Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co. (South Korea) 5 per cent. Ten per cent shares were reserved for Gazprom.

  8. After Gazprom's pullout, the CentGas shares were rearranged. Unocal 54.11 per cent, Delta Oil 15 per cent, Turkmenistan 7 per cent, Indonesia Petroleum (Japan) 7.22 per cent, CIECO TransAsia Gas Ltd (Japan) 7.22 per cent, Hyundai Ltd (South Korea) 5.56 per cent, Crescent Group (Pakistan) 3.89 per cent.