[Nampaknya banyak wartawan terkemuka dunia seperti Mark Baker dan Robert Fisk sudahpun berada di Pakistan. Bayangkan mereka ini tidak berugama Islam tetapi begitu perihatin dengan perkembangan semasa sehingga sanggup meredah benua untuk membuat tinjauan dan lapuran.

Tetapi banyak rakyat Malaysia asyik bergantung kepada berita 'second-hand' yang beragenda patutlah minda mereka lembab dan senang diputar. Mereka sepatutnya menggunakan peluang peperangan ini untuk menajamkan fikiran membaca tulisan penulis dan wartawan terkemuka dunia. Bila minda cukup tajam regim Umno pasti akan terluka.... - Editor]

The Age
Rabu 24 Oktober, 2001.

Amaran Perang Mendekati Ramadan

Oleh Mark Baker

Ketika pesawat perang AS menggugurkan bom di siang hari ke atas bandar Kandahar dan Kabul semalam, presiden Pakitan Jeneral Pervaiz Musharraf telah meminta agar pengeboman itu diamatkan awal.

Dia memberi amaran akan membisulnya penentangan di dunia Islam seandainya kempen serangan itu diteruskan menjangkau bulan suci Ramadan pada pertengahan November.

'Ada yang mengharapkan keadaan akan reda sepanjang bulan suci itu kerana sudah tentu ia akan mencetuskan kesan negatif di kalangan dunia islam,' katanya.

Jeneral Musharraf merupakan salah seorang sekutu terpenting Amerika dalam kempen mereka mengganyang Osama Laden dan Taliban. Pakistan telah membenarkan ruang udaranya digunakan oleh tentera Amerika dan membenarkan juga penggunaan tiga pengkalan udara.

Tetapi sebagai seorang pemimpin sebuah negara yang miskin dan tidak tenteram itu dia menghadapi protes dan kebangkitan keresahan di seluruh Pakistan ketika serangan tentera Amerika itu memasuki minggu yang ketiga. Berperang sepanjang Ramadan 'akan membawa kesan di dunia Islam,' kata beliau kepada CNN.

Bagaimanapun di Washington, serangan anthrax yang menakutkan itu telah membunuh dua orang petugas pos - para pegawai kerajaan memberi ingatan bahawa peperangan itu tidak akan diredakan.

Donald Rumsfeld, setiausaha pertahanan Amerika memberitahu bahawa kempen itu akan diteruskan sehinggalah ancaman serangan pengganas dapat ditamatkan. 'Sejarah kita penuhi dengan pelbagai kisah di mana negara Islam telah berperang sesama mereka ataupun dengan negara lain ketika musim agama yang penting,' katanya.

Rumsfeld juga memperakukan betapa serangan pada hari ketiga terhadap kubu hadapan Taliban di kawasan yang dikuasai oleh Pakatan Utara memang dirancang untuk menyokong kemarahan pasukan Pakatan Utara menghala Mazar-e-Sharif dan Kabul.

'Usaha kita di udara adalah untuk membantu mereka di darat untuk mara ke hadapan,' katanya.

Tetapi, Pakatan Utara menyebut tugas mereka ialah mengepong Kabul dan bukan menguasainya; kerana pasukan bersekutu bercadang menubuhkan satu pentadbiran kerajaan baru yang dianggotai pelbagai pasukan kaum sebaik sahaja Taliban dapat ditumpaskan.

Panglima perang Afghan, Abdul Rashid Dostum memberitahu Reuters bahawa pasukannya sedang bertarung dengan hebatnya menentang pasukan Taliban di utara. 'Pasukan kami menyerang semalam, dan pertarungan itu memang dahsyat,' kata beliau melalui telefon satelit daripada Barisan depan pasukannya.

Sementara itu Rumsfeld menafikan dakwaan Taliban bahwa serangan udara di Bandar Heart sudah pun membunuh 100 orang di hospital. Begitu juga dengan kisah Taliban menembak jatuh dua helikopter Amerika yang telah dinafikannya.

Britain telah mengumumkan semalam bahawa ia akan menghantar 1000 askar untuk memperkuatkan kempen yang dipimpin oleh Amerika Syarikat, termasuk komando dan unit pasukan Gurkha.

Tamat.

Terjemahan: SPAR.

Asal:

http://theage.com.au/news/world/2001/10/24/FFXQ79ML4TC.html

Ramadan warning on war

By MARK BAKER

ASIA EDITOR ISLAMABAD
Wednesday 24 October 2001

As US aircraft resumed daylight bombing raids against the Afghan cities of Kandahar and Kabul yesterday, Pakistani leader General Pervaiz Musharraf called for an early end to the attacks.

He warned of worsening opposition within the Muslim world if the campaign continued beyond the start of the holy month of Ramadan in mid-November.

"One would hope for restraint during the month of Ramadan because this would certainly have some negative effects in the Muslim world," he said.

General Musharraf is one of America's most important allies in the campaign against Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. Pakistan has opened its air space to US forces and has allowed them to use three air bases.

But as the leader of a poor and often unstable Islamic nation he is facing protests and growing unease across Pakistan as the military strikes enter their third week. He has already told the Americans the bombing campaign should be as short as possible. Fighting through Ramadan "may have some effects in the Muslim world", he told CNN.

However, in Washington - where the spreading anthrax scare was feared to have claimed the lives of two postal workers - officials indicated there would be no let-up in the war.

Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the campaign must be pursued until the threat of further terrorist attacks was ended. "History is replete with instances where Muslim nations have fought against themselves or with other countries during various important holy days," he said.

Mr Rumsfeld also confirmed that a third day of US air strikes against Taliban front-line positions in northern Afghanistan was designed to support a push by opposition forces against the northern cities of Mazar-e-Sharif and the capital, Kabul.

"Our efforts from the air clearly are to assist those forces on the ground being able to occupy more ground," he said.

But the opposition Northern Alliance said its objective would be to encircle but not capture Kabul, where the allies hope to install a new broad-based coalition government in the event that the Taliban regime is toppled.

Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum told Reuters that his forces were locked in fierce battles with Taliban forces in the north. "Our forces launched an attack yesterday and the fighting has been fierce," he said by satellite phone from his position near the front line.

Mr Rumsfeld, meanwhile, denied Taliban claims that air strikes in the western city of Herat had killed 100 hospital patients and staff and that the Taliban had shot down two US helicopters.

Britain yesterday announced that it was sending 1000 troops to reinforce the US-led campaign, including commando and Nepalese Gurkha units.

- with GUARDIAN, REUTERS