Kabul (AFP)
Hitherto kept out of the Afghan political arena, Ahmad Massoud, the only son of the legendary commander Massoud, has decided to take back the banner "left" by his father and to launch a union movement to face the Taliban.
On September 5 in the Panchir Valley, cradle of the family and "symbol of resistance" both during the Soviet invasion (1979-89) and under the Taliban regime (1996-2001), Ahmad Massoud says he wants to gather "different groups different parties "to avoid" a new chaos in the country, a return to the dark hours ".
He intends to gather the supporters of his late father and build a great anti-Taliban coalition able to oppose the insurgents politically first, and militarily if necessary.
"God forbid, but if it happens, not only me but hundreds of thousands of young people are ready to take up arms," he says.
This movement is the heir to the Islamic and National United Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan, known as the Northern Alliance, which the famous guerrilla Ahmad Shah Massoud had spearheaded and directed until his assassination in 2001. , two days before Al-Qaida attacks on Washington and New York.
The United Front was a group of several Mujahideen armed groups who fought against the Soviets, then with each other during a civil war, and then regrouped to fight the Taliban after taking power in 1996.
After a life of exile, including in London where he studied for seven years, Ahmad Massoud directed since his homecoming in 2016 the Foundation that bears the name of his father and works for peace through educational programs, social, economic or cultural.
But today, "my goal is to continue where (my father) stopped," said Ahmad, 30, interviewed by AFP in a family home in Kabul.
- Rearmament of militias -
The timing is not trivial as the United States looks set to conclude an agreement with the Taliban to withdraw troops from Afghanistan in exchange for counterterrorism guarantees.
"A majority of Afghans are worried about the consequences of the ongoing process, they feel isolated," said the young man as a new beard covers his cheeks and he now wears the same pakol -un traditional brown wool hat worn by his father.
"It's not an Afghan-led process, it's something that's happening between the United States and the Taliban, between the regional powers and the Taliban, where are the Afghans?" he wins.
Ahmad Massoud, a sibling elder who also has five sisters, was trained as an officer at the Sandhurst Military Academy in Britain and warned that a precipitous US withdrawal could lead to the collapse of the United States. Afghan security forces.
"Unfortunately, the government is not in a position to continue the fight against the Taliban," he says, assuring that various militias, especially in the Panchir Valley, are rearming in anticipation of the US withdrawal.
- striking resemblance -
According to Ahmad Massoud, the US-Taliban agreement does not attack the heart of the problem: the brutal Afghan political system where only the conquest of absolute power, source of "wars in Afghanistan", counts.
"If we do not engage in a process that decentralizes power in Afghanistan, which distributes it to all, we will not solve anything," he says.
On the contrary, he believes that this agreement "will give a feeling of triumph to the Taliban: + we fought you and we won +". According to him, having "legitimized" the insurgent group "will give hope to terrorist groups around the world".
Ahmad Massoud, whose resemblance to his father is striking, says he wants to work for "the sole interests of Afghanistan".
He swears "to want nothing" for him: "we are here to continue where our ancestors and the previous generation have left us".
But comparisons with the iconic commander are unavoidable, especially in a country where the power stick often goes from father to son and where unifying political figures are rare.
"He was a unique character in the history of Afghanistan and I do not think anyone can be like him," he says.
© 2019 AFP