Posted on 09/09/2005 6:49:22 AM PDT by Valin
KABUL (Reuters) - President Hamid Karzai reminded Afghanistan of the sacrifice of countless countrymen on Friday as he and other leaders marked the fourth anniversary of the assassination of mujahideen guerrilla leader Ahmad Shah Masood.
Masood was killed by al Qaeda suicide bombers two days before the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. His troops, among the mujahideen, or holy warrior, forces who ousted the Soviets, helped the United States rout the Taliban two months later.
"We didn't achieve this huge victory for free," Karzai said in a speech at a ceremony at Kabul's sports stadium.
Untold thousands of sons of the soil had died in holy war and resistance for the freedom and honour of the nation, he said.
The country will on Sept. 18 elect a lower house of parliament and provincial councils in the last step of a U.S- and U.N.-backed plan to restore democratic government and stability, drawn up days after the Taliban were ousted.
Karzai, who was also in the anti-Soviet mujahideen alliance, was elected president for a five-year term in October last year.
He did not refer to the elections in his speech.
The president does not have a political party and has promised not to interfere in the legislative elections but has called for people to shun ethnic factions and elect honest people who put the country first.
Yunus Qanuni, leader of a loose alliance of parties opposed to Karzai, was a top political official in Masood's faction and has inherited much of his support. He attended on Friday.
One of Masood's brothers, Ahmad Zia Masood, is Karzai's first vice president.
Masood was credited with playing a key role in defeating Afghanistan's Soviet occupation.
He was killed by two Tunisian al Qaeda militants who posed as journalists and died when they detonated a bomb packed in a video camera during an interview.
A huge portrait of Masood dominates the Kabul stadium where the Taliban used to stage public executions. Thousands of people watched as Karzai and other leaders laid wreathes and a guard of honour marched.
Karzai also did not refer to the Taliban insurgency in the south and east where 20,000 U.S. troops are trying to ensure security for the election. About 10,000 NATO-led peacekeepers are also helping to guard the vote.
More than 1,000 people have been killed in violence this year, the bloodiest period since U.S. troops arrived in late 2001.
Masood, an ethnic Tajik, was known as the "Lion of the Panjsher" after his home valley northeast of Kabul from where he battled the Soviets and the Taliban.
In May, a French court jailed three men for helping the al Qaeda agents who killed him.
Copyright © 2005 Reuters
Karzai is an admirable leader and an independent thinker. He's obviously studied American history and the Constitution. Mahmood was a terrific loss for the people of Afghanistan. My respects for them both.
Big apology...Masood, not mahmood
I remember that guy. When he was murdered a couple of days before 9/11 and concurrently with, I believe, the trashing of centuries old cultural monuments there, the big deal US MSM should have seen all the red flags. It was all of a piece and the lame MSM media here (so gratuitously watchful of 'other' and less pertinent global events) blew it all off. Presuming they even comprehended the significance of Masood in life, his murder should have been big news everywhere. But they were too busy trying to slam the new President of the US and couldn't be bothered with 'facts' coming out of that tinder box in Asia. Some media. What is worse, they NEVER learn! If they insist on selling toothpaste and employing photogenic bimbos we will NEVER get pertinent facts in a timely way. Isn't that what news broadcasting is? Oh I forgot, there is that necessary 'lag time' between events and the preparation to spin the information BEFORE broadcast and then too... photogenic bimbos cannot be expected to even properly pronounce something like 'Masood' much less comprehend and CONVEY the significance of his life/death.
Ahmad Shah Masood
Ahmad Shah Masood was was born in 1953 in the Jangalak district of Panjsher. He played one of the most important roles in Afghanistan's modern history. To his admirers, he is known as the "Lion of Panjsher", a name given to him for his successes as a military commander during the war against the Soviet occupation. In fact, his fight against the Soviets was so well known that the Wall Street Journal labeled him as the "Afghan who won the cold war". After the Communists were defeated, Masood's troops were the first Mujahideen group to enter Kabul, and help establish a Mujahideen government. He served as President Burhanuddin Rabbani's Defense Minister, and engaged in numerous battles to prevent Rabbani's rivals such as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar from taking over the government. Eventually, Rabbani's government fell, and the Taliban with secret financial and military help from the Pakistanis, took over the capital. Masood and his allies pulled their forces north and worked on defending the north and the central regions from being completely taken over by the Taliban. Masood was chosen as the military leader of UNIFSA when on September 9, 2001, two days before the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, Masood was killed. He was the victim of an Al Qaeda suicide attack. The attackers posed as television journalists, setting off a bomb packed inside their video camera.
http://www.afghan-web.com/bios/yest/asmasood.html
Underscores again what a tremendous loss his assassination means. I had not read that letter, obviously, the administration in charge in 1998 did not, either.
Thank you for posting that, I did not know much about him, but am learning.
Pretty amazing guy.
Shoulda coulda woulda.
They terrorist are many things, stupid is not one of them. They knew they had to get rid of him in order to have any chance to hold onto Afghanistan. Needless to say end the end it did them no good.
Underscores the duplicity of Pakistan.
bump
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