EDITORIAL - End of the road for the Taliban

Two months after the United States launched its retaliatory attacks in Afghanistan, the Taliban regime has collapsed. Yesterday the surrender of Kandahar, the southern city that served as the Taliban’s spiritual base, was underway. The city was handed over to tribal militias, whose sweep across Afghanistan from the strongholds of the Northern Alliance received a major boost from sustained air strikes by US-led troops. The fall of Kandahar came shortly after forces of the Northern Alliance overran the capital Kabul, freeing residents from five years of the Taliban’s brand of Islamic extremist oppression.

The rout of the Taliban, which harbored Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network, is a major victory for the forces ranged against international terrorism. As past events have shown, however, victory in battle does not necessarily mean a better life for the people of Afghanistan. With the fall of Kabul men became free to shave off their beards while women could take off their burqas. To this day, however, many women are still reluctant to get rid of their confining clothing, remembering the mass rapes after Soviet forces were driven out of their country.

That victory against the Soviet Union, followed by the abrupt withdrawal of US support for the mujahedin, turned Afghanistan into a tribal battleground. Into this chaos the Taliban stepped in, promising order and a return to a life based on faith. Bin Laden found kinship with the Islamist mullahs, who led their country to ruin and reduced women into non-entities who were not allowed to work, get an education or even get proper medical treatment.

Even before the dust has settled in Kandahar there is already squabbling over the fate of the Taliban’s Mullah Mohammad Omar, who is in hiding. Those who negotiated for Kandahar’s surrender say Omar should be allowed to live in his country in dignity. With the Americans and their allies saying no, there are speculations that Omar would simply carry out the guerrilla war he has threatened to wage.

Meanwhile, a new Afghan government has been cobbled together in Bonn, Germany. Whether it will be effective in rebuilding a country torn by years of warfare and oppression remains to be seen. Bin Laden’s whereabouts are unknown and his al-Qaeda supporters are scattering around the globe. The free world rejoices over the fall of the Taliban, but there is unease in the jubilation.