Right after the announcement of the 7 Nov 09 run-off election in Afghanistan, the Taliban issued a statement saying:
We believe the only way out of this vortex is that the Afghans should hold to their religious and national values and bravely confront and boycott the projects of the invaders categorically.
Now, the Taliban Info-Machine has issued a more specific statement (official English at Voice of Jihad here, PDF of English at non-terrorist site here), outlining in more detail what they’ll be doing, and calling on others to do.
Some highlights – “Washington is running the election, trying to distract folks from seeing their defeat in Afghanistan.”
The elections substantiated the well-known quotes of our leader who had said one year ago that the real decision was taken in Washington. It is never taken on the basis of the votes of the Afghans. The enemy is trying to prolong the drama which is now being in full swing. Therefore, they have decided to conduct the election once again and keep the attention of our countrymen and the public of the world diverted in order to hide their defeat at the military field.
“Here’s what we want you to do – don’t vote, for God’s Allah’s sake.”
The Islamic Emirate announces to all countrymen to avoide participating in the deceitful and foreign-made electoral process. On the command of your belief and the Afghani conscience, you should completely boycott the elections on the basis of the rule of Sharia.
“We’ll be doing our usual kinetic ops – killing civilians sort of thing – as well as info ops…”
All Mujahideen should make efforts to foil this wicked process; should carry out operations against their centers; prevent people from participating in the elections and block all roads and paths for all public and government vehicles one day before the day of the polling and inform people about this. Similarly, with the help of religious scholars , clerics and elders, educate people about the clandestine motives behind the elections. Create awareness among people regarding the conspiracies of the enemy.
“And if you get hurt or killed? Your fault – can’t say we didn’t warn you not to vote, right?” (Not the first time this has been offered up as rationalization)
The Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan have worked out programs to foil and prevent this process. They closely monitor all workers, officials and voters including other related programs hammered out in this regard. Every one is responsible for the harm he sustains as a result of his participation in the elections. The Mujahideen have repeatedly warned the people and announced their program of action.
“Don’t believe what the invaders say about the election….”
We know the enemy is not able to make the elections successful. So they will try to make exaggerations about this empty and failed process of the elections by using the mass media through coercion and bribes. They will falsely show that the election was successful.
“… and remember to speak to us, too, reporter folk.”
Therefore, we call on all impartial and independent media outlets to abide by the timeless rule of journalism and do not tarnish your reputation by partial reporting but rather fulfill the rightful mission in the best way it can be done.
I await with interest the media’s coverage of the Taliban killing civilians just because they want to vote or help the voting process.
Update (1): Brian Platt at the Canada-Afghanistan Blog raises an excellent point about how some media are phrasing the intent of the statement – they’re certainly NOT “calling for”, they’re telling.
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