After the fall of the Soviet puppet regime in Afghanistan, the UN trumpeted the creation of a transitional government consisting of various mujahdeen leaders in an effort to stabilize the country and bring "peace." Warnings from groups like RAWA were ignored and history, in the context of the current tragedies in Afghanistan, appears to be repeating itself. As the UN scrambles to gather Afghan "representatives," women will likely not, in any significant way, be a part of the equation, while the Taliban members are assured of a spot in the government, along with any other warring faction.

In February of 2000, the Vancouver women's newspaper Kinesis interviewed a RAWA member about the UN's creation of the transitional government after the fall of the Soviet regime. There is an eerie resemblance to the current situation and the words of RAWA apply now, more than ever.

Kinesis: Why do you think the UN has done virtually nothing to stop the gross human rights violations in Afghanistan?

Habiba (RAWA member): The UN has always been engaged in reconciling and forging [bonds] among criminal, warring factions without paying the least attention to the democratic-minded forces in the country. Nor does it care about the consequences of its efforts. RAWA has always asked that since the fundamentalists' bands have committed so many crimes when divided, what will happen when they come to an agreement and act "hand in glove"?

What the "respectable", world bodies do not give a second thought to is their pandering to a bunch of misogynist, democracy-hating, barbarian criminals (the Afghan fundamentalist "leaders").

For all intents and purposes, they are putting our people under the butchers' knives so that fundamentalists can "jointly" and "in consensus" slash and hack the Afghan people's political, social, economic, material and spiritual identity and existence.

We demand to know why the United Nations and other world bodies insist on delivering the destiny of our people in to hands of fundamentalist murderers? Why is there no recognition of the hatred and revulsion of the fettered struggles and gagged voices of pro-democracy forces like RAWA?