Afghans Honor Rebel Leaders

About 150 Southern California Afghans gathered in Santa Ana on Sunday to pay tribute to an assassinated leader of the rebel Northern Alliance at a religious ceremony marking the 40th day after his burial.

Many who attended the service for Ahmed Shah Masoud, who was one of the leaders in the military fight against the Taliban, said it will take more than his assassination and the execution of a second hero just three days ago, to defeat them.

“The demise of the leader does not mean the demise of hope,” said Mohammad Siddiq, 63, of San Diego, former head of the government’s media office in Afghanistan who attended Sunday’s service in a Ramada Inn conference room.

He and others paid tribute Sunday through readings from the Koran, special prayers and speeches that memorialized Masoud’s legacy.

Inspired Unity Among Afghans in the U.S.

“No one will forget him,” Siddiq said. “No one will forget his ideas. He was the symbol of unity, of freedom, of modern life.”

Pictures of Masoud, most with him dressed in army fatigues, lined the room. Mourners sat in folding chairs, men on one side, women--their heads covered with scarves--on the other.

Masoud was killed two days before the terrorist attacks in New York and at the Pentagon.

On Friday, the Taliban captured and killed Abdul Haq, a prominent commander who became a legendary freedom fighter during Afghanistan’s war against the Soviet Union. In recent months, he had been working closely with the exiled Afghanistan king to create a broad-based government.

Although the memorial was organized before the second killing, some took the opportunity to recall both men--the latest in a long string of warriors who have died fighting against Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

Masoud’s followers were largely Tajik and Haq’s were Pushtun. But both fought the Soviet invasion and communism; both hoped for democracy.

“Their mission was to get the country back,” said Abdul Satar, 42, a Buena Park resident who helped organize Sunday’s memorial. “Somebody else has to step forward.”

In many ways, their deaths are inspiring unity among Afghans in the United States who realize that they must stand in solidarity.

“We are Afghans,” Siddiq said. “We are one nation.”

Laguna Hills resident Hasan Nouri, a friend of Haq’s who attended the service, said that the Taliban has targeted the wrong people. Haq’s execution, Nouri said, was a “great mistake.”

“It’s a suicidal action,” Nouri said, adding that it would likely inspire many Afghans to fight the Taliban and push for a democratic government.

To many at Sunday’s memorial, Masoud’s and Haq’s deaths are a personal loss, but the Afghans understand disappointment after the pain of two decades of war.

While some considered the men their personal friends, most took news of their deaths in stride, almost as if it were expected. Who is next, they wondered.

“You keep going,” said Lida Ahmadzai, 28, of Irvine, who explained that she knows Afghanistan only as a country at war. Her brother died fighting the Soviet invasion. “We learn to live with a lot of unexpected situations.”