Integrity Score 380
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Chapter 2 Continues...
Training of Mujahideen in secret camps and covert assistance by the Pakistani army teams inside Afghanistan to the guerrillas were provided. In fact, the Mujahideen were fed, cared for, and supplied with every necessity and were recruited from among the thousands of refugees. The refugee camps were a huge reservoir of potential recruits for Jehad.30
Refugees poured in large numbers into the neighbouring countries, particularly into Iran and Pakistan. Some three million settled in camps along the Pakistani border, while another two million fled to Iran. The Pakistani authorities encouraged organization of Mujahideen parties within the camps. A ‘Commissariat for Afghan Refugees’ was established but, to be eligible for support, refugees had to be registered with one of seven Afghan Sunni Muslim parties to which Pakistan had accorded its formal approval, thereby ensuring the politicisation of refugees and the provision of aid to them.31 There was also reported disunity among the different Mujahideen factions and efforts to unify the insurgent groups often ran into difficulty.32
During this period, several non-governmental organizations established their operations in Peshawar, the Pakistani city in the North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan. Aid channelled to the Mujahideen controlled areas in Afghanistan through these NGOs were highly politicised as the ‘just cause’ of the Mujahideen took precedence over issues like human rights, drug production or gender issues. Humanitarian assistance was provided to the refugees but ‘aid practice’ established in this context was characterized by free handouts and an absence of monitoring. There also developed a naïve trust in military commanders, on whom agency personnel relied for access and security guarantees. Apart from that, this phase also witnessed the erosion of rural Afghan social institutions due to large-scale human displacement resulting in the erosion of village hierarchies.
It was the Geneva Accords of 1988, which finally resulted in the withdrawal of the Soviet forces in 1989. Official Soviet figures tell that 13,310 Soviet soldiers were killed, 35,478 wounded and 311 were missing in the decade long occupation period.
To be continued...