In the absence of being able to influence the future of Afghanistan, France baptized, on Saturday March 27, an alley of the gardens bordering the Champs-Elysées, in Paris, in the name of Commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, a figure of the resistance against the Soviet troops until their departure from the country in 1989, then the last warlord to resist the Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001. He was killed by Al-Qaida in the heart of the Panshir valley, a stronghold held by the ethnic group Tajik, two days before the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. Having known how to secure the financial and military support of the Western camp, Commander Massoud had also benefited and played a certain infatuation tinged with romanticism in his favor in Europe and in particular in France.
At the end of the morning, Saturday, under a clement sky which let a beautiful light shine on the gardens of the Champs-Elysées, the son of Commander Massoud, in the presence of the former Afghan president, Hamid Karzai and the president of the High Council for national reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah, politely listened to the speeches of the mayor (PS) of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, and of the French secretary of state in charge of European affairs, Clément Beaune.
“By making a place for Commander Massoud in Paris, in our streets, assured Mme Hidalgo, we celebrate a deeply universal fight (…) for freedom and also for the rights of women. “ A somewhat lyrical statement because the women in the Panshir valley are just as invisible as in the regions held by the Taliban. But history will remember, she said, “The exceptional links that have existed between France and this hero of the Afghan resistance who will forever remain a figure in the fight against obscurantism”.
An endangered peace process
Wearing a pakol (traditional Afghan hat) the same color as M’s coatme Hidalgo, the commander’s son Ahmad, 31, expressed his gratitude: “Exactly twenty years ago, the late Commander Massoud landed in France at the invitation of the European Parliament, and it was from here that he launched his campaign against international terrorism and extremism. “ The political science graduate in the UK and the Sandhurst military academy has since made a name for himself on the political scene in his country and is trying to mobilize the Tajiks against the return of the Taliban.
This ceremony was the occasion for the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, to receive, on Friday, Mr. Abdullah in order to express the French position on an endangered peace process, totally in the hands of the Americans and including Paris and even Europe were excluded despite their financial and human commitment. “We want to continue our cooperation in health and education (…) and culture “, concluded Mr. Le Drian. He considered that the democratic gains of the last twenty years in Afghanistan, under Western protection, should be preserved, without calling into question the project and the timetable for the American withdrawal from the country – by the end of the year – which gives rise to fears. a return of the Taliban to power, with the risk of seeing the resurgence of authoritarian governance and rigorous Islam.