Afghans Lionize Masood on Anniversary of His Death

KABUL (Reuters) - More than 20,000 Afghans gathered in Kabul on Wednesday to remember Northern Alliance military commander Ahmad Shah Masood, slain by al Qaeda operatives two days before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

The ceremony at Kabul's National Stadium commemorated the third anniversary of Masood's assassination, and was held a day after campaigning began for Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s first ever presidential election on October 9.

Masood, known as "the Lion of the Panjsher," was the military and political leader of the Northern Alliance, a coalition of factions that helped U.S.-led forces overthrow the fundamentalist Taliban regime which sheltered Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) and senior members of his al Qaeda network.

"The martyred Masood, the national hero of Afghanistan, is one of the most glittering and luminous figures of the jihad (holy struggle) and resistance," President Hamid Karzai said in a speech at the crowded and colorful national stadium.

The alliance has gradually lost cohesion in the past three years since the Taliban's overthrow.

Some of its key leaders are arrayed against the U.S.-backed Karzai for the presidential poll, which is seen as a crucial test of U.S. nation-building efforts ahead of President Bush (news - web sites)'s own bid for re-election in November.

But other alliance heavyweights, including Masood's brother Ahmad Zia Masood, have thrown their lot behind Karzai -- the favorite to win the poll -- and accused challenger Yunus Qanuni of exploiting Masood's legacy to boost their campaigns.

Qanuni is backed by Defense Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim, who became military commander of the Northern Alliance after Masood's death. Karzai's decision to drop Fahim from his ticket precipitated Qanuni's bid for the presidency.

Masood was a leading member of the mujahideen, or holy warriors, who fought Soviet occupation in the 1980s mostly from his base in the Panjsher valley. The allies squabbled among themselves, reducing Kabul to ruins after the Russians were driven out.

Two Arabs, suspected to be members of al Qaeda, killed Masood on Sept. 9, 2001, while posing as journalists, detonating explosives packed into their television camera.

Many experts believe bin Laden was given protection by the Taliban after the Sept. 11 attacks in exchange for ridding the hardline Islamic group of the biggest threat to their leadership.

Since then a personality cult has grown up around Masood's legacy and pictures of him dominate the capital, outnumbering those of Karzai.

Qanuni supporters have pasted election portraits of their candidate next to those of Masood.

Security was tight at the stadium where an honor guard paraded on a pitch where the Taliban once carried out public executions and floggings.

A giant mural bearing a portrait of Masood was unveiled at the stadium, and workers were putting the finishing touches on a monument and fountain at a busy intersection in the capital.

Karzai's government has declared Masood a national hero, although he is remembered less fondly by many Pashtuns, Uzbeks and Hazaras than by his own Tajik ethnic group.

Sebastian Junger on Afghanistan’s Slain Rebel Leader
The Perfect Storm author spent a month with anti-Taliban warrior Ahmad Shah Massoud in 2000. Now he offers his reaction to the recent murder of the Northern Alliance leader—and the subsequent attacks on the U.S.

In November 2000 Adventure sent contributing editor Sebastian Junger and photojournalist Reza (see photo gallery) to profile Afghan resistance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud. The resulting article (read an excerpt) appeared in our March/April 2001 issue and has just been reprinted in Fire, a collection of Junger’s journalistic work.

On September 9, 2001, suicide bombers killed Massoud. Two days later the U.S. was under attack. Here Junger offers his thoughts on those two days of terror and their implications.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0110/junger.html

The Lion in Winter
By Sebastian Junger

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0103/story.html#story_1

A genius of guerrilla warfare, Ahmad Shah Massoud drove the Soviets out of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Now—even as he dreams of peace—the “Lion of Panjshir” is his beleaguered country’s last defense against the Taliban onslaught.

The fighters were down by the river, getting ready to cross over, and we drove out there in the late afternoon to see them off. We parked our truck behind a mud wall, where it was out of sight, and then walked one by one down to the position. In an hour or so, it would be dark, and they’d go over. Some were loading up an old Soviet truck with crates of ammunition, and some were cleaning their rifles, and some were just standing in loose bunches behind the trees, where the enemy couldn’t see them. They were wearing old snow parkas and blankets thrown over their shoulders, and some had old Soviet army pants, and others didn’t have any shoes. They drew themselves into an uneven line when we walked up, and they stood there with their Kalashnikovs and their RPGs cradled in their arms, smiling shyly.

Across the floodplain, low, grassy hills turned purple as the sun sank behind them, and those were the hills these men were going to attack. They were fighting for Ahmad Shah Massoud—genius guerrilla leader, last hope of the shattered Afghan government—and all along those hills were trenches filled with Taliban soldiers. The Taliban had grown out of the madrasahs, or religious schools, that had sprung up in Pakistan during the Soviet invasion, and they had emerged in 1994 as Afghanistan sank into anarchy following the Soviet withdrawal. Armed and trained by Pakistan and driven by moral principles so extreme that many Muslims feel they can only be described as a perversion of Islam, the Taliban quickly overran most of the country and imposed their iron-fisted version of koranic law. Adulterers faced stoning; women’s rights became nonexistent. Only Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates recognize their government as legitimate, but it is generally thought that the rest of the world will have to follow suit if the Taliban complete their takeover of the country. The only thing that still stands in their way are the last-ditch defenses of Ahmad Shah Massoud.

The sun set, and the valley edged into darkness. It was a clear, cold November night, and we could see artillery rounds flashing against the ridgeline in the distance. Hundreds of Taliban soldiers were dug in up there, waiting to be attacked, and hundreds of Massoud’s soldiers were down here along the Kowkcheh River, waiting to attack them. In a few hours, they would cross the river by truck and make their way through the fields and destroyed villages of no-man’s-land. Then it would begin.

We wished Massoud’s men well and walked back to the truck. The stars had come out, and the only sound was of dogs baying in the distance. Then the whole front line, from the Tajik border to Farkhar Gorge, rumbled to life.

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