Ahmad Shah Massoud

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Portrait of Massoud at a checkpoint in the Punjir Valley

Ahmad Shah Massoud ( Persian احمد شاه مسعود; in German mostly: Ahmed Shah Masud ; international mostly: Ahmad Shah Massoud ; * September 1, 1953 in Punjir ; † September 9, 2001 in Tachar ) was an Afghan mujahideen fighter and national hero. He was the leader of the Afghan resistance against the Taliban . At the end of 2001 he was named "National Hero of the Afghan Nation".

Massoud, who belonged to the Tajik ethnic group, was a deeply religious Muslim and a staunch opponent of extremist (including Wahabi ) interpretations of Islam such as those persecuted by the Taliban, al-Qaeda and the Saudi royal family. Massoud, a Sunni , always carried a book of al-Ghazālī with him. For his followers, he was not only a military leader, but also a teacher and religious role model. They also call him Āmer Sāheb-e Shahīd (free German translation: "[Our] beloved commander [and] martyrs").

Massoud played a major role in the military withdrawal of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan, which earned him the legendary name "Lion of Punjjir". The Wall Street Journal named him on its cover: "The Afghan who won the Cold War". After the withdrawal of the Soviet Army and the fall of the communist regime in 1992, Massoud was appointed Minister of Defense in the government of President Burhānuddin Rabbāni under the Peshawar Accords, a peace treaty between various Afghan political parties . The militia leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyār , who was under the control of the Pakistani secret service ISI and was striving for dictatorial power, started a year-long war in the capital Kabul with the help of Pakistan. Since Hekmatyār remained unsuccessful, Pakistan turned to the Taliban in 1994, who launched a military offensive in early 1995 and captured Kabul in September 1996 after a siege of several months. Massoud withdrew to northern Afghanistan. Under his leadership, the United Front became a national military and political resistance movement against the Taliban, which included representatives of all ethnic groups in Afghanistan ( Tajiks , Pashtuns , Uzbeks , Hazara , Turkmen and others). Between 400,000 and 1,000,000 Afghan civilians fled the Taliban into the areas it controlled. Shortly after the fatal assassination attempt on Massoud, who saw democracy as the only form of government to bring lasting peace to Afghanistan, the United Front finally overthrew the Taliban regime in Kabul at the end of 2001 with American air support and established a transitional government that lasted until the democratic elections ruled in 2004.

biography

Childhood and youth

At the beginning of the 1970s there was a mood of upheaval in Kabul, as the people were dissatisfied with the king, who was considered to be corrupt. Massoud, at that time still a student at the “Kabul Polytechnic Institute for Engineering and Architecture”, joined the Islamist and anti-communist movement - albeit not entirely out of conviction, but for lack of alternatives. Initially involved in a youth organization he joined in 1976 finally officially the political party Jamiat-e Islami of Burhanuddin Rabbani at.

After a failed coup attempt by the Islamists against the government, Massoud was forced to leave Afghanistan and briefly go into hiding in Pakistan, where he received military training. Back in Afghanistan, however, he joined Rabbāni for a more peaceful change in Afghanistan. As a result, two Pakistani agents and the leader of the radical forces of the Islamist movement, Gulbuddin Hekmatyār , carried out the first assassination attempt on Massoud in 1975, which he repulsed.

Resistance to the Soviet Army

Resistance groups against Soviet troops in 1985; Army green shows positions of the Jamiat-i Islami, to which Massoud belonged. The Shura-e Nazar led by Massoud from 1984 included many Jamiat positions, but also those of other groups and controlled the supply routes required by the Soviet troops through the Hindu Kush and on the border with the Soviet Union.

In 1978 it was the Afghan Communists of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan who took power in a violent coup . They pursued strict reform projects, but also a tyranny. Human Rights Watch estimates that between April 1978 and the invasion of the Soviet Union in December 1979 up to 100,000 people were murdered in the countryside alone.

In 1979 Soviet troops marched into Afghanistan after Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin murdered President Nur Muhammad Taraki and the civil war escalated. The goal of the invasion was to get rid of Amin, who was feared to switch sides with the USA. The uprisings had reached 24 of the country's 28 provinces by this time. Part of the Afghan army deserted. Even before the Soviet troops marched in, Massoud had returned to his birthplace, the Punjjir Valley on the Hindukush. Starting from the Panjshir, he played a central role in the Afghan resistance struggle. His guerrilla struggle and his military skills led to central defeats for the Soviet troops. Nine major offensives of the Soviet Army with tens of thousands of soldiers failed in Punjjir.

Robert D. Kaplan wrote:

“One must count Ahmad Shah Massoud among the greatest leaders of the resistance movements in the 20th century. Massoud defeated his opponent just as Marshal Tito, Ho Chi Minh and Che Guevara did. Massoud controlled a larger area that was much more difficult to hold from a military point of view and was under constant fire from the enemy. The area under his control was more heavily attacked by the enemy compared to the areas under the control of the resistance movement of Marshal Tito, Mao Tse Tung, Ho Chi Minh and Che Guevara. "

- Robert D. Kaplan : The Soldiers of God. 1991

The militarily brilliant resistance assigned to him soon earned Massoud the name "Lion of Punjjir". Massoud successfully defended Punjjir until the Soviet Army withdrew. Ahmad Shah Massoud is assigned a very central role in the defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

War in Kabul

After the final fall of the communist government in 1992, the Islamic State of Afghanistan was established by the Peshawar Accords. With the exception of Gulbuddin Hekmatyārs , all political parties had agreed on this peace treaty in April 1992. Massoud was appointed Minister of Defense by the Peshawar Accords.

However, Afghanistan's neighbors, particularly Pakistan , Iran and Uzbekistan , attempted to achieve strategic supremacy over Afghanistan by funding, armed and directed various criminal elements and militias within Afghanistan. Although he was repeatedly offered the position of prime minister, Gulbuddin Hekmatyār, with the support of Pakistan's claim to sole rulership, laid Kabul to rubble and ashes with a large-scale, long-term, massive bombing campaign. The Afghanistan expert and director of the Center for Arabic and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University , Amin Saikal , concluded in Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival :

“Pakistan was aiming for a breakthrough in Central Asia . ... Islamabad knew that the newly appointed members of the Islamic government [in Afghanistan] ... would not subordinate their own national interests to those of Pakistan in order for Pakistan to fulfill its regional ambitions. ... Without the logistical support and the delivery of a large number of rockets by the ISI [Pakistani secret service], Hekmatyar's troops would not have been able to fire on and destroy half of Kabul. "

Various attempts to integrate Hekmatyār into the interim government as prime minister failed because of his unwillingness to make compromises. In 1993 Hekmatyār explicitly demanded Massoud's resignation, in return he declared that he wanted to stop the bombing of Kabul. Massoud accepted the offer, officially resigned as defense minister and retired to a town north of the capital. Massoud's terms included an end to the bombing of Kabul and democratic elections to be held at a later date. Hekmatyār, who has been described as a "psychopath" by observers such as Pulitzer Prize winner Roy Gutman of the United States Institute of Peace , resumed the bombing of Kabul after an initial cabinet meeting because he was unwilling to work towards or participate in democratic elections other parties to compromise. After a phase in which a defense council had taken on the role of defense minister but remained ineffective, Massoud, who led the strongest military alliance of the time, was reinstated as defense minister. His goal was to defend the capital, to enforce the Peshawar agreements, which provided for democratic elections, and to reinstate the liberal constitution of 1964.

In addition to the bombings by Hekmatyār, tensions had escalated in mid-1992 between the Saudi Arabia- backed Wahhabi Ittihad-i Islami of Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and the Iran- backed Shiite Hezb-i Wahdat of Abdul Ali Mazari. The militias started a bloody war against each other. The Hezb-i Wahdat militia entered into an alliance with Hekmatyār in late 1992. Abdul Raschid Dostum and his Junbish-i Milli militia joined this alliance in early 1994. During the most intense phase of the bombing by the Hekmatyar Alliance, over 25,000 people died in Kabul. Due to the rapid start of the war shortly after the establishment of the Islamic State, there was no functioning police force and no functioning legal system, so that large parts of Kabul sank into chaos. A major contributor to the prevailing chaos was the fact that Gulbuddin Hekmatyār released 10,000 dangerous criminals from prisons into the city.

In the wars started by Hekmatyār, Ittihad and Wahdat, large parts of Kabul were destroyed and thousands of civilians were killed. Individuals of all militias - including individuals in the government forces of Massoud and criminals released from prisons by Hekmatyār who pretended to be members of the militia - exploited the chaos and lawlessness to commit crimes against civilians. Massoud condemned the crimes taking place. The Afghanistan Justice Project, which also serves as a resource for Human Rights Watch , concluded in its investigation in the context of attacks by armed individuals on civilians:

"As in some of the other instances of violence against civilians documented in this report, there is no indication that senior Shura-e Nazar leaders [which included Massoud] ordered the abuses.
(Eng: As with some of the other incidents of violence against civilians documented in this report, there is no evidence that high-ranking Shura-e Nazar leaders [including Massoud] ordered ill-treatment). "

- Afghanistan Justice Project (2005)

Massoud was the leader of the Shura-e Nazar military and political alliance, which brought together over 130 commanders from seven provinces and their troops. Due to the heavy bombing raids against Kabul, starting from several fronts (on some days Hekmatyār bombed Kabul with up to 3,000 rockets), commanders of the Shura-e Nazar sent 10,000 additional fighters to Kabul, under the general command of Massoud, but not under were under immediate and daily control. Individuals from the Shuar-e Nazar troops who committed crimes were, in the situation at that time in Kabul, individually acting sub-commanders or individuals who turned against the civilian population and / or became corrupt because the chaos gave them the opportunity to do so gave. One example that comes up frequently in this context is the military operation in Afshar, in western Kabul. As the Afghanistan Justice Project analyzed, this offensive had a "clear and comprehensible military goal". Starting from Afshar, the Pakistani and Iranian-backed troops bombed Hekmatyārs and Mazaris, civilian residential areas in Kabul, killing thousands in the process to prevent the Islamic State from stabilizing. To stop these bombing raids, Defense Minister Massoud's troops and allied troops attacked the positions of Hezb-i Wahdat, allied with Hekmatyār, in Afshar. Towards the end of the military operation, after the military objectives had been achieved, while posts were set up and houses searched for Wahdat fighters, the Wahhabi Ittihad troops of Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, who were also involved in the offensive and had their headquarters near Afshar, caught and officially fought on the side of the state of Afghanistan to target Shiite civilians. Sayyaf's Ittihad forces were not under the control of the Afghan Ministry of Defense, but were under the direct control of Sayyaf and Wahhabi elements in Saudi Arabia. Ahmad Shah Massoud reacted to the atrocities taking place, quoting Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, who would play a role in Massoud's murder eight years later, as well as other leading commanders at a meeting and ordered an immediate end to the crimes on the second day of the offensive. He appointed a Shiite commander, Hussain Anwari, to restore security to the Shiite civilian population.

Edward Girardet, Director of the Global Journalism Network in Geneva, who was on site as an observer at the time, explains:

“When Massoud was operating in the north during the fight against Soviet troops and towards the end of the Taliban period, he closely watched and controlled his commanders, but this was not the case in Kabul. ... He couldn't control them all. "

- Edward Girardet : Global Journalism Network Geneva

Human Rights Watch reports no human rights crimes by the troops under the direct control of Ahmad Shah Massoud during the resistance against the Taliban for the period from October 1996 to Massoud's assassination in September 2001. Farid Amin reports on an exemplary incident for the time in Kabul :

“One day Massoud was on his way from Kabul to Shamali, and he saw a truck that looked suspicious to him. He stopped it, and when he opened it, there were valuables in it, things that belonged to other people and had probably been stolen from homes or government buildings. He accused them: 'You are thieves and you try to steal.' Then he saw his own picture in their truck - people were trying to use Massoud's name and picture to gain power or gain an advantage - and he said, 'First, remove the image of your guide, the guide of thieves.' In his own way he was telling them that if you say I am your guide and you do things like that, you make me a guide of thieves. "

- Farid Amin : in Massoud (Webster University Press 2009)

John Jennings, a journalist for the Associated Press and The Economist , was an observer a. a. for Human Rights Watch on site in Kabul and also present during the Afshar operation. He reports the following:

“He [Massoud] can hardly be blamed for the presence of irresponsible armed groups in the capital, having done everything in his power to prevent that presence. Until November 1994 I experienced firsthand the dilemma that arose for him and the astonishing reluctance with which he encountered them ... Every popular movement, if it really comes from the people, harbors a criminal element, if only because every larger population is a criminal Element houses. ... Crimes by his troops were rare and punished whenever they could be convicted. ... His enemies, on the other hand, committed mass murder, theft and ethnic cleansing as systematic policies. ... If Massoud hadn't fought to hold Kabul against the attacks by these militias, the human rights situation in Afghanistan and in the entire region would have been considerably worse than it was. "

- John Jennings : Associated Press

The militias that fought for the Islamic State and thus against Defense Minister Massoud were notorious for their targeted actions against the civilian population. Gulbuddin Hekmatyār cut Kabul off from the food, water and energy supplies. Iran-controlled Shiite Wahdat troops (as well as the Sunni-Wahhabi Ittehad, supported by Saudi Arabia) kidnapped and killed thousands of people from the (respective) “opposing sides” in targeted campaigns. Some of Raschid Dostum's troops were particularly feared by the civilian population at the time because of their attacks on families. The Taliban would later commit massacres, which United Nations observers compared to those during the Bosnian War .

According to many eyewitness testimony, Massoud was personally very exposed to the crimes. In 1993 he founded the “Mohammad Ghazali Culture Foundation” ( Bonyad-e Farhangi wa Ta'wani Mohammad-e Ghazali ) which became the largest Afghan humanitarian partner for the International Red Cross and promoted non-partisan and politically independent Afghan culture. Part of the Ghazali Foundation employed doctors who, a few days a week, provided free medical treatment and care for residents of Kabul who could not have financed it any other way. The Ghazali Foundation also employed social workers to advise families.

In late 1994 / early 1995, Massoud defeated the militias that had been fighting for control of the capital Kabul in Kabul. The bombing of the capital came to a halt. The government of the Islamic State took measures to restore law and order and the courts resumed their work. Some individuals within the government forces who had committed crimes and were convicted have been held accountable and convicted. Massoud initiated a nationwide political process with the aim of national consolidation, stabilization and democratic elections. Three conferences were held with representatives from most of the provinces of Afghanistan. Massoud also invited the Taliban to join this process and help create stability.

Kandahar in the south of the country had also seen bloody fighting in 1994. The south of Afghanistan was neither under the control of the central government nor under the control of outside controlled militias such as the Hekmatyars. Local militia or tribal leaders had ruled this part of Afghanistan. In 1994 the Taliban first appeared in the southern city of Kandahar. They took control of Kandahar city ​​on November 5, 1994 . Until November 25, 1994, they controlled the city of Laschkar Gah and Helmand Province . In the course of 1994 they had conquered other provinces in the south and west of the country that were not under the control of the central government. The Taliban rejected a democratic form of government.

In early 1995 the Taliban launched a large-scale bombing and siege campaign against Kabul that lasted two years. Amnesty International wrote:

"This is the first time in a few months that the civilians of Kabul have been the target of bombing attacks on residential areas in the city."

- Amnesty International (1995)

The Taliban initially suffered heavy defeats against Massoud's troops. International observers already suspected the end of the Taliban movement. The Taliban besieged and bombed Kabul for two years. In September 1996 the Taliban regrouped with military support from Pakistan and financial aid from Saudi Arabia and were planning a major offensive against Kabul. The then general and later President Pervez Musharraf and Interior Minister Nasirullah Babar, who referred to the Taliban as "our boys", played a key role in the financial and material support of the Taliban by Pakistan .

On September 26, 1996, Massoud ordered a strategic withdrawal of his troops to northern Afghanistan. On September 27, 1996 the Taliban invaded Kabul and established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which was only recognized by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The government of the Islamic State of Afghanistan remained the internationally recognized government of Afghanistan (with a seat at the United Nations).

The rural regions devastated in the Soviet-Afghan War were hardly affected by fighting during the war in Kabul and reconstruction had begun. That changed when the Taliban tried to take control of Afghanistan and pursued a scorched earth policy.

Resistance to the Taliban

Territorial control in Afghanistan at the end of 1996: Massoud (blue), Taliban (green), Dostum (pink), Hezb-i Wahdat (yellow)

According to a United Nations report, the Taliban systematically massacred civilians while trying to consolidate their position in western and northern Afghanistan. The United Nations named 15 massacres in the years 1996 to 2001. These were comparable to the ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian war , "were highly systematic and all were due to the Ministry of Defense [the Taliban] or Mullah Omar personally." The so-called 055 Brigade al- Qaeda has also been involved in atrocities against Afghan civilians. The United Nations report cites testimonies which describe Arab militia officers carrying long knives with which they slit throats and skinned people.

Massoud and Abdul Raschid Dostum , former opponents, originally founded the United Front in response to massive Taliban offensives against the areas under Massoud's control on the one hand and the areas under Dostum's control on the other. However, the United Front soon developed into a national political resistance movement against the Taliban. This was joined by the Hazara ethnic group persecuted by the Taliban through ethnic cleansing , as well as Pashtun anti-Taliban leaders such as the later President Hamid Karzai , who comes from southern Afghanistan, or Abdul Qadir. Qadir came from an influential family who enjoyed great influence in the Pashtun east of Afghanistan around Jalalabad . Overall, representatives from all parts and all ethnicities of Afghanistan joined the United Front.

The human rights situation depended on the respective commanders who controlled certain areas. Human Rights Watch recorded no human rights crimes committed by the forces under Massoud's direct control for the period from October 1996 to his assassination in September 2001. Massoud had control of Punjjir, Thakar, parts of Parvan and Badakshan. In the meantime, Nuristan, Kunduz and the areas north of Kabul were also under his control.

After the defeat of Dostum and other regional leaders, Massoud remained the only commander who was able to successfully defend his territories against the Taliban. Pakistan intervened militarily on the side of the Taliban, but could not bring about a defeat for Massoud.

The Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf - then u. a. as chief of staff of the military - dispatched tens of thousands of Pakistanis to fight alongside the Taliban and al-Qaeda against the United Front. A total of 28,000 Pakistani citizens are estimated to have fought within Afghanistan. 20,000 of them were regular Pakistani soldiers of the so-called Frontier Corps or the army. Another estimated 8,000 were militiamen who were recruited in so-called madrassas to fight within the Taliban army. A 1998 US State Department document affirmed, “20-40 percent of [regular] Taliban soldiers are Pakistani.” The State Department report also states that the parents of Pakistani citizens “are not aware of their children's military involvement with the Taliban will know until their [dead] bodies are brought back to Pakistan. "

Another 3,000 soldiers in the regular Taliban army were militiamen from Arab countries or Central Asia. From 1996 to 2001 the al-Qaeda of Osama bin Laden and Aiman ​​az-Zawahiri became a state within the Taliban state. Bin Laden sent his recruits against the United Front.

Out of an estimated 45,000 soldiers who fought against the United Front within Afghanistan, only about 14,000 were Afghans.

Massoud turned down repeated offers from the Taliban to give him a position of power. He stated in an interview:

“The Taliban say, 'Come and accept the office of prime minister and join us,' and they would keep the highest office in the country, the presidency. But for what price ?! The difference between us lies in how we think about the most basic principles of society and the state. We cannot accept their terms for a compromise, otherwise we would have to give up the principles of modern democracy. We are fundamentally against the system which is called 'the emirate of Afghanistan'. [...] There should be an Afghanistan in which every Afghan can feel happy. And I think this can only be ensured by a democracy based on consensus. "

Massoud's peace proposal was aimed at democratic elections in which the Afghan people should decide for themselves how to lead. In early 2001 the United Front applied a new strategy of local military pressure and a global political agenda. Resentment and resistance to the Taliban, based on the roots of Afghan society, grew stronger. This also affected the Pashtun areas. In total, an estimated one million people fled the Taliban, the majority of them in the areas of Massoud. The National Geographic came in his documentary Inside the Taliban concludes:

"The only thing standing in the way of future Taliban massacres is Ahmad Shah Massoud."

- National Geographic : Inside the Taliban

In the areas under his control, Massoud established democratic institutions and signed the Declaration on Women's Rights. He trained more police forces to prevent a repetition of the chaos in Kabul (1992-1994) if the United Front were to be successful.

In spring 2001 Massoud addressed the European Parliament in Brussels and asked the international community for humanitarian aid for the people of Afghanistan. He stated that the Taliban and al-Qaeda had introduced a "very wrong interpretation of Islam" and that if the Taliban did not have the support of Pakistan, they would not be able to continue their military campaigns for one year. During his visit to Europe, during which the President of the European Parliament Nicole Fontaine called him the "pole of freedom in Afghanistan", Massoud warned that his secret service had information that a large-scale attack on American soil was imminent.

September 9, 2001

On September 9, 2001 , while interviewing Massoud in Tachar , Abd al-Sattar and Bouraoui el Ouaer, two al-Qaida suicide bombers who had posed as Belgian journalists, set off a bomb they had hidden in their video camera. Massoud died a little later from his injuries. Immediately afterwards, the Taliban began an offensive against the forces of Massoud, whose death had initially been denied by official authorities. According to the latest findings, groups in 21 nations were working on the murder of Massoud. Before that, several assassination attempts by the Soviet, Afghan Communist and Pakistani intelligence services, as well as Hekmatyars, the Taliban and al-Qaeda had failed for over 26 years. Close confidants of Massoud report that Massoud had a premonition of his death in the weeks before his death and that family members increasingly tried to prepare for this possibility. Contrary to Islamic tradition, the funeral did not take place until September 16, a week after Massoud's death. Although the funeral took place in the very rural Punjir Valley, tens of thousands of grieving Afghans attended it. The modus operandi of the assassination attempt corresponded to that of the La Penca assassination attempt on Edén Pastora Gómez in 1984 in the border area of Costa Rica / Nicaragua during the Contra War .

National hero and "Lion of Pandschir"

A portrait of Massoud in the football stadium in Ghazni

Massoud has played a central and very important role in Afghanistan's recent history. In 2001 he was officially declared the “national hero of the Afghan nation” by Afghan President Hamid Karzai . The day of Massoud's death, September 9th, is a national day of remembrance.

The new memorial inside with the body of Massoud (2010)

In 1989, when the Soviet Union had to withdraw from Afghanistan after ten years defeated and humiliated, the Wall Street Journal dedicated a cover page to Ahmad Shah Massoud: The Afghan Who Won The Cold War . During the Taliban rule, Massoud was the only protection for persecuted people and the only resistance to the Taliban. While other leaders went into exile, he was the only known military and political leader in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion and later the Pakistan-backed Taliban never left Afghanistan.

Many Afghans consider him a folk hero - also outside of Afghanistan, such as in Tajikistan and Iran . He is seen differently by supporters of the Taliban or Hekmatyar. Massoud had always called for national unity and placed Afghan identity above ethnic affiliations that were insignificant to him. The well-known American journalist Sebastian Junge says of Massoud: "Many people who knew him felt that he represented the best hope for that part of the world." Another analyst wrote in 2004 before the Afghan elections: "A man has a stronger political weight than all 18 living Afghan presidential candidates. Although dead for three years ... Since his death on September 9, 2001 ... Massoud went from a mujahid to a national hero - if not a saint. Massoud's images [in the streets, buildings, and households of Afghanistan] ... far surpass those of any other Afghan including those of [President] Karzais. " Abdullah Abdullah , one of Massoud's closest friends and Karzai's strongest rival in the 2009 presidential election, said of Massoud: “He was everything. He was a friend. He was a leader. He was a teacher without acting like a teacher. ”In 2003, former companions of Massoud founded the Massoud Foundation as an independent and non-partisan aid organization. It supports and undertakes projects in the field of education, health care as well as in the field of culture and reconstruction.

There are various documentaries such as the documentary Massoud - Destiny's Afghan by Iqbal Malhotra or the French documentary Massoud: L'Afghan . Massoud is z. B. also part of the plot of Ken Follett's novel The Lions or in James McGee's thriller Crow's War . In the American series The Path to 9/11 , his warnings of a terrorist attack and his murder are discussed and presented.

The most detailed portrait of Massoud to date was written by the Argentine Marcela Grad with her work Massoud. An intimate portrait of the legendary Afghan leader , published in 2009 by the publishing house of the American Webster University.

family

Massoud left a wife and six children who now live in Iran. In 2005 his wife, Sediqa Massoud, together with two friends and suffragettes, Chékéba Hachemi and Marie-Francoise Colombani, published the book “Pour l'amour de Massoud” about their life with Massoud. In this she describes a very honorable and loving husband and father.

The first vice president after the overthrow of the Taliban, Ahmad Zia Massoud , is the younger brother of Ahmad Shah Massoud. At the end of 2011, Ahmad Zia Massoud and other Afghan leaders founded the National Front of Afghanistan, which is viewed as the rebirth of the United Front (Northern Alliance), which the Taliban removed from power in late 2001. The Asia Times analyzed, “As the Northern Alliance groups see it, Pakistan [Taliban supporters] is pursuing a sit-out strategy for the period from today to 2014 - the date for the withdrawal of US troops - and then the Taliban anew to form and make an attempt to usurp power in Kabul. The strong unity [of the Northern Alliance] in Berlin shows that they are not simply standing on the sidelines and will give way to an exclusive US-Taliban-Pakistan deal imposed on their nation [from which they are excluded]. "

Quotes

“Our policy has always been that we have good and friendly relationships with everyone. But we have never accepted our submission and will never accept it. "

“If you go to Chay Ab jail, you'll find Ghollam Salim, the drug trafficking tycoon. In a single operation we confiscated half a ton of opium from him. He's been in prison for three years now. Despite all his money and influence. "

“The future government should be determined in direct elections by the votes of the entire population. Both men and women should be part of it. The only type of government that would be able to create a social balance between the various ethnic groups is democracy. "

See also

Web links

Commons : Ahmad Shah Massoud  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Ahmad Shah Massoud - Destiny's Afghan (documentary about Massoud's life by Iqbal Malhotra)
Ahmad Shah Massoud in Europe
Commander Massoud's Struggle (1992 documentary by Nagakura Hiromi about the beginning of the war in Kabul)
Massoud's fight against the Taliban (eyewitness reports from the Australian ABC / Journeyman Pictures)
Massoud's Conversation with Hekmatyar (original document from 1992)
Funeral procession in honor of Massoud
Who Killed Massoud? (Documentary) by Didier Martiny
Massoud l'Afghan (documentary) by Christophe de Ponfilly
The Lion Of Panjshir (Symphony No. 2) for narrator and symphonic band by composer David Gaines
Text links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Latham, Judith (March 12, 2008). Author Roy Gutman Talks About What Went Wrong in the Decade Before 9/11 Attacks ( April 9, 2008 memento on the Internet Archive ), Voice of America News .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Marcela Grad: Massoud - Portrait of the Legendary Afghan Leader; Webster University Press; 2009
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h GUTMAN, Roy (2008): How We Missed the Story: Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban and the Hijacking of Afghanistan, Endowment of the United States Institute of Peace, 1st ed., Washington DC
  4. ↑ a b c Amin Saikal (2004): Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival. IB Tauris & Co Ltd., London / New York.
  5. ↑ a b National Geographic: Inside the Taliban.
  6. ↑ a b 1979. The Afghanistan war changed the world. Gulya Mirzoeva, 2014
  7. ↑ a b c Human Rights Watch (2001): Afghanistan, Crisis of Impunity, The Role of Pakistan, Russia, and Iran in Fueling the Civil War
  8. ↑ a b c d Amin Saikal: Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival . IB Tauris & Co Ltd., London / New York 2006, ISBN 1-85043-437-9 , pp. 352 .
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Afghanistan Justice Project (2005): Casting Shadows: War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity 1978–2001, Documentation and analysis of major patterns of abuse in the war in Afghanistan
  10. ↑ Casting Shadows: War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity: 1978-2001. (PDF; 1.3 MB) Afghanistan Justice Project, 2005, archived from the original on October 4, 2013 ; Retrieved January 22, 2011 .
  11. ↑ II. BACKGROUND. Human Rights Watch, accessed January 22, 2011 .
  12. ↑ a b Human Rights Watch Backgrounder, October 2001. Human Rights Watch , October 2001, accessed January 21, 2011 .
  13. ↑ a b c d e Taliban massacres outlined for UN. In: Chicago Tribune. Newsday, October 2001, accessed January 21, 2011 .
  14. ↑ a b c d e Confidential UN report details mass killings of civilian villagers. In: newsday.org. Newsday, 2001, archived from the original on November 18, 2002 ; Retrieved October 12, 2001 .
  15. ↑ a b Sediqa Massoud / Chékéba Hachemi / Marie-Francoise Colombani: Pour l'amour de Massoud; document XO Editions; 2005
  16. ^ Afghanistan Online: Biography Ahmad Shah Massoud
  17. ↑ a b c Amnesty International. "DOCUMENT - AFGHANISTAN: FURTHER INFORMATION ON FEAR FOR SAFETY AND NEW CONCERN: DELIBERATE AND ARBITRARY KILLINGS: CIVILIANS IN KABUL." November 16, 1995, retrieved from DOCUMENT - AFGHANISTAN: FURTHER INFORMATION ON FEAR FOR SAFETY AND NEW CONCILLINGS : CIVILIANS IN KABUL ( Memento from July 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  18. ↑ Afghanistan escalation of indiscriminate shelling in Kabul. International Committee of the Red Cross, 1995, accessed January 21, 2011 .
  19. ^ BBC Newsnight 1995 on YouTube
  20. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Marcela Grad: Massoud: An Intimate Portrait of the Legendary Afghan Leader . Webster University Press, March 1, 2009, pp. 310 .
  21. ↑ Kamal Matinuddin: The Taliban Phenomenon, Afghanistan 1994–1997. Oxford University Press, (1999)
  22. ↑ Support for the Taliban of Pakistan
  23. ^ Coll, Ghost Wars (New York: Penguin, 2005), 14.
  24. ^ Re-Creating Afghanistan: Returning to Istalif. In: NPR. Retrieved August 1, 2002 .
  25. ^ Larry P. Goodson: Afghanistan's Endless War: State Failure, Regional Politics and the Rise of the Taliban . University of Washington Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0-295-98111-6 , pp. 121 .
  26. ↑ a b c d Afghanistan resistance leader feared dead in blast. Ahmed Rashid in the Telegraph, 2001, accessed January 21, 2011 .
  27. ^ A b c Documents Detail Years of Pakistani Support for Taliban, Extremists. George Washington University , 2007, accessed January 21, 2011 .
  28. ↑ a b c Inside the Taliban, 2007, National Geographic, January 21, 2011 on YouTube
  29. ^ History Commons. History Commons, 2010, archived from the original on January 25, 2014 ; Retrieved January 21, 2011 .
  30. ↑ a b BOOK REVIEW: The inside track on Afghan wars by Khaled Ahmed. Daily Times (Pakistan), 2008, archived from the original on September 13, 2008 ; Retrieved January 21, 2011 .
  31. ↑ a b c Brigade 055 CNN, Jan. 21, 2011
  32. ↑ a b The Last Interview with Ahmad Shah Massoud. Piotr Balcerowicz, 2001, archived from the original on September 25, 2006 ; Retrieved January 21, 2011 .
  33. ^ The man who would have led Afghanistan. St. Petersburg Times, 2002, accessed January 21, 2011 .
  34. ^ Proposal for Peace, promoted by Commander Massoud. peace-initiatives.com, 1998, archived from the original on March 10, 2012 ; Retrieved January 21, 2011 .
  35. ↑ a b c Steve Coll : Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 . Penguin Press HC, February 23, 2004, p. 720 .
  36. ↑ a b c Massoud in the European Parliament 2001 on YouTube EU media, January 21, 2011
  37. ↑ Inside the Taliban. National Geographic , 2007, archived from the original on August 13, 2011 ; Retrieved January 21, 2011 .
  38. ↑ Defense Intelligence Agency (2001) report (PDF)
  39. ↑ Massoud warns America and the world on YouTube
  40. ^ Seth G. Jones : In the Graveyard of Empires . America's War in Afghanistan. WW Norton & Company, New York 2009, ISBN 978-0-393-06898-6 , Operation Enduring Freedom, pp. 86, 87 .
  41. ^ The Mujahideen leader Massud died , Neue Zürcher Zeitung of September 17, 2001, accessed on August 19, 2013.
  42. ^ "Rebel Chief Who Fought The Taliban Is Buried"
  43. ↑ Afghanistan: Taliban attack rebels , Spiegel Online, September 11, 2001, accessed August 19, 2013.
  44. ↑ Assassination attempt against Achmed Shah Massud, the legendary war commander in Afghanistan , SRF daily news from September 10, 2001, accessed on August 19, 2013.
  45. ^ Riddle about Massoud assassination , Wiener Zeitung of September 11, 2001, accessed on August 19, 2013.
  46. ↑ Next Uncertainty about the fate of the Taliban opponent Sheikh Massud , welt.de of September 12, 2001, accessed on August 19, 2013.
  47. ↑ Panjshir TV broadcast of Massoud's funeral
  48. ^ Playing the Massoud card. Eurasianet.org, 2004, archived from the original on June 11, 2011 ; Retrieved October 7, 2010 .
  49. ↑ He would have found Bin Laden on YouTube 2007, CNN , October 7, 2010
  50. ↑ Ahmad Shah Massoud's warning to the United States, The Path to 9/11 on YouTube ( video clip)
  51. ↑ Assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud, The Path to 9/11 on YouTube ( video clip)
  52. ↑ There's more to peace than the Taliban. In: Asia Times. January 9, 2012, accessed January 14, 2012 .
personal data
SURNAME Massoud, Ahmad Shah
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Afghan mujahideen fighter and national hero
DATE OF BIRTH September 1, 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Punjjir
DATE OF DEATH September 9, 2001
Place of death Tachar