Burhānuddin Rabbāni

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Rabbāni in November 2001
Rabbāni is interviewed by the journalist Armin-Paul Hampel , Kabul , 2003

Burhānuddin Rabbāni (* 1940 in Faizabad , Badachschan ; †  September 20, 2011 in Kabul ) was an Afghan politician , warlord and state president . He belonged to the Tajik ethnic group and was the political leader of the Northern Alliance during the rule of the Taliban .

He was charged with various war crimes.

Life

Ascent

Rabbāni studied Islamic law and theology at the Shariat Faculty of Kabul University . After his graduation in 1963, he became professor of philosophy there . In 1966 he went to al-Azhar University in Cairo , Egypt, where he obtained a master's degree in Islamic philosophy . He was one of the first to translate the works of Sayyid Qutb into Persian . In 1968 Rabbāni returned to Afghanistan and was commissioned by the Jamiat-i Islāmi Council to organize the students. In 1972 he became chairman of this group. In 1974 Rabbāni was supposed to be arrested for his pro-Islamic attitudes, but was able to escape the police with the help of his students and flee to Pakistan . After 1978 his group was one of the most successful resistance groups against the communist government.

After the withdrawal of the Red Army

After the fall of Mohammed Najibullah in April 1992, he returned to Kabul. On April 28, the Islamic State of Afghanistan was proclaimed and on June 28, 1992, Rabbāni took over the presidency of the Islamic Council of Afghanistan, the mujahideen- led transitional government after the resignation of the interim president Sibghatullah Modschaddedi . While a new civil war broke out between the rival mujahideen parties, he was elected President on December 30, 1992 by an electoral assembly ("Council of Wise Men") for two years. Relevant mujahideen leaders considered this illegitimate.

After an arrangement with other mujahideen groups, he was to resign in 1994. Rabbāni did not comply with this agreement.

In September 1996 he fled the approaching Taliban to the north of the country and made the city of Faizabad the center of his resistance against the Taliban. In June 1997 he co-founded the National Islamic United Front for the Rescue of Afghanistan , better known in the western media as the Northern Alliance, which continued to be recognized by the United Nations as the government of the country. Rabbāni remained the internationally recognized president of Afghanistan, even if the Taliban controlled most of the country.

After the fall of the Taliban regime

After the invasion of US troops and the overthrow of the Taliban regime, Rabbāni returned to Kabul on November 17, 2001. He handed over the presidency to Hamid Karzai on December 22, 2001 . Since then he was still in front of the Jamiat-i Islāmi group, but had no major influence.

Most recently he was chairman of the High Peace Council , which was supposed to negotiate with the Taliban on behalf of the Afghan government.

death

On September 20, 2011, Rabbāni was killed by a suicide bomber in his apartment in the sealed off diplomatic quarter of Kabul. According to the BBC , he met two Taliban representatives to negotiate peace. A Taliban spokesman first assumed responsibility for the attack. According to him, one of the two representatives, who often met with Rabbāni and therefore enjoyed his trust, set off a bomb hidden in the turban. The next day, another Taliban spokesman, Sabihullah Mujahed , denied any involvement in the attack. In addition to Rabbāni and the two Taliban, four security forces also died.

Reactions and investigations

President Hamid Karzai then broke off his visit to the United States and returned to Afghanistan. The US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Chief of Staff Michael G. Mullen described the attack as a sign of the Taliban's weakness. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was appalled by the attack.

The morning after Rabbani's murder, a demonstration with several hundred participants took place in Kabul. The protesters wore black headbands as a sign of mourning and showed portraits and posters of the deceased.

Rabbāni's body was first laid out in the presidential palace and buried on September 23 in Kabul as part of a state funeral. Large areas of the city center had to be cordoned off for the ceremony. Thousands of Afghans took part.

Hamid Karzai stated in a video message on October 1 that the attack on Rabbāni had undermined his peace efforts, since it was no longer possible to establish contact without putting the negotiators at risk. Lutifullah Maschal , a spokesman for the Afghan secret service , announced on the same day that the attack was planned in the area of Quetta , Pakistan. In addition, the assassin was a Pakistani citizen.

On October 2, a rally of several hundred Afghans against Pakistan took place in Kabul. It has been accused of sabotaging the peace process.

The next day, on October 3rd, the BBC published an interview with Sirajuddin Haqqani , a leader of the Haqqani network . In it, he claims that his group was not responsible for the attack.

Web links

Commons : Burhanuddin Rabbani  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Burhanuddin Rabbani in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
  2. ↑ a b c Former Afghan President Rabbani killed in attack. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . September 20, 2011, accessed September 21, 2011 .
  3. ^ BBC News
  4. ↑ a b Taliban profess to attack Rabbani. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . September 21, 2011, accessed September 21, 2011 .
  5. ↑ Afghan employee shoots US citizens. In: Frankfurter Rundschau . September 26, 2011, accessed September 27, 2011 .
  6. ↑ Ex-President Rabbani killed. In: ORF . September 20, 2011, accessed September 20, 2011 .
  7. ↑ Agnes Tandler: Hardly any prospects of peace in Kabul. In: the daily newspaper . September 21, 2011, accessed September 22, 2011 .
  8. ↑ Taliban murdered former Afghan presidents. In: ORF. September 21, 2011, accessed September 21, 2011 .
  9. ↑ Explosive device in a turban. In: the daily newspaper. September 21, 2011, accessed September 21, 2011 .
  10. ^ State funeral for Rabbani in Afghanistan. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. September 23, 2011, accessed September 23, 2011 .
  11. ↑ Karzai wants to break off negotiations with the Taliban. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. October 1, 2011, accessed October 3, 2011 .
  12. ↑ a b c Agnes Tandler: More than just a quarrel among neighbors. In: the daily newspaper. October 3, 2011, accessed October 3, 2011 .
personal data
SURNAME Rabbāni, Burhānuddin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES برهان‌الدین رباني (Persian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Afghan politician, leader of the Afghan Jamiat-i Islami
DATE OF BIRTH 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Faizabad , Badakhshan
DATE OF DEATH September 20, 2011
Place of death Kabul