Afghan Rebels Talk of Military Rule : Field Commanders Prepared to Act if Political Talks Fail

Afghan guerrilla commanders, disillusioned by incessant wrangling among the political leaders of the Afghan resistance, are drawing up a “security plan”--a military operation to keep order in Afghanistan if the Soviet-backed regime falls with no interim rebel government ready to take its place.

This was disclosed Sunday by Abdul Haq, a prominent rebel commander who has spent about a third of his life at the forefront of the moujahedeen’s war against the Moscow-installed regime in his country.

Surveying the infighting among rebel politicians as they try to agree on how things should be run when the Kabul government of President Najibullah collapses, as expected, Haq said:

“The people are tired. I am tired. Everybody’s tired. Up to now there was some hope they (the rebel political leaders) would come up with a solution. Maybe some (of us) lost hope six months ago, maybe some two months ago, maybe some now, maybe some a month from now.”

Wounded 15 Times

The 30-year-old Haq, who has been wounded 15 times and lost a foot and most of his hair in the war, echoed the sentiments of many other rebel military commanders interviewed by The Times during the past week as the political wrangling continued.

“We watch them, we give them a chance,” he said of the rebels’ political leaders. “But if we see they are doing nothing, well then, maybe we will have to decide ourselves.”

Interviewed in his hotel room as leaders of the seven political parties in the rebel alliance continued informal weekend meetings and bargaining aimed at breaking impasses that forced a temporary adjournment of Friday’s rebel assembly here, Haq talked about the “security plan.” He said that rebel commanders inside Afghanistan have a plan to secure all government buildings, embassies, international agencies and private property in the Afghan capital of Kabul and other major cities.

“If they (the rebel political parties) cannot come together for whatever reasons, we cannot just let the country finish and burn and die and be destroyed just because of this problem,” said Haq, who is regarded as one of the most powerful rebel commanders in the Kabul region.

“The best way is to have an interim government to install. But in case there is disagreement, we have to be prepared. If the (Najibullah) regime collapses . . . there should be at least some security.”

In disclosing the plan, Haq also confirmed recent speculation by senior diplomats and other analysts here that the guerrilla commanders increasingly are taking over the direction of the war, as the seven-party rebel alliance appears to be collapsing into internal squabbling. The alliance was created largely to funnel U.S.-supplied arms and other support to moujahedeen commanders inside Afghanistan.

“We have been loyal to the (political) leaders,” said Haq, who has been fighting under the auspices of one of the seven parties, despite the fact that most of his operations have been on individual initiative. “We are still loyal to the leaders. But when we know there is something they are doing that is no good for anybody, then it is not enough to be loyal to them.”

The focus of the commanders’ criticism is the so-called shoora, or assembly, convened in Islamabad by the alliance last Friday. Haq, like many other commanders, intellectuals and influential tribal chiefs who have formed the core of the resistance, is a delegate to the 420-member shoora, which seemed to have collapsed in chaos an hour after it was called to order Friday afternoon.

In fact, the shoora was just suspended indefinitely, and the rebel leaders met informally throughout the weekend to sort out differences between the Pakistan-based, hard-line fundamentalist Islamic parties that dominate the rebel alliance and the moderate parties, which are allied with Shiite Afghan groups based in Iran.

An example of the squabbling was provided in a Sunday morning press conference by the Afghanistan National Liberation Front, a moderate party headed by Sibghatullah Mojaddidi. Mojaddidi’s son, Zabiullah, charged that there is “a conspiracy to insult” his party’s delegates by fundamentalist groups and the Pakistani government, which, he claimed, jailed two of the party’s representatives to keep them from attending the shoora.

Asked if his party will now boycott the shoora when it reconvenes, which is expected to occur before Wednesday, the younger Mojaddidi said, “Our pulling out of the shoora is not at this time a certain issue; it is a possible issue.”

In another development, Pakistan’s government, which has favored the fundamentalists in the past but now describes itself as interested mainly in any compromise that will bring political stability to Afghanistan, was trying to persuade the leader of the Iran-based rebel groups to attend the next session.

Back Into Afghanistan

Some of the commanders of the smaller, rural rebel groups have been so alienated by the political fracas that they have crossed back into Afghanistan. But Haq said the recess in the shoora was welcome because it gave quarreling groups time to discuss their differences.

Yet he confessed that he was as confused as any outsider trying to understand the political developments within the rebel movement.

“Honestly, I have more questions than answers,” he said. “We still don’t know what’s going on. It’s a critical moment of the war. People want answers. People want to see the result of the struggle and the sacrifice they made for 10 years.”

Haq explained that most of the commanders inside Afghanistan formed alliances with the Pakistan-based parties simply because, in a war that appeared without end, a continuing supply of arms and ammunition meant survival.

At one point during the interview, Haq--who describes himself as neither a fundamentalist nor a moderate but as a fervent nationalist--was asked if he could live in an Afghanistan dominated by fundamentalist leaders such as Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, who called a press conference Saturday to spend an hour reprimanding the foreign press for allegedly misreporting Friday’s shoora and demanding, “You must correct your mistakes.”

“We’re really tired of being told how to live, what to wear, where to go, what to eat,” he said. “I don’t think this will last.”