Democracy is never achieved through occupation – Afghan activist

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RT has spoken to Malalai Joya, a former Afghan MP and human rights activist, who has been fiercely criticizing the current regime and the occupational force for "throwing Afghans from the frying pan into the fire".

She says her country is suffering from three evils at the moment: overwhelming corruption of the regime, indiscriminate violence of the occupational force and regional warlords whose actions differ little from those of the Taliban.“These fundamentalist warlords are mentally the same as the Taliban. They were in power before the domination of the Taliban and in Kabul alone they killed more than 65,000 innocent people. They destroyed our national unity… They committed many crimes against our people similar to the Taliban. And with their bloody hands, but under a mask of democracy they came in power after 9/11, imposed on our people,” she said.Joya says the US troops may enforce some positive change wherever they are in control, but in the provinces the situation is very bad. The major failure of the occupation strategy is that it does not help ordinary Afghans, rather it alienates them.“I think people of the US and around the world agree with my people that democracy never comes by occupation. Democracy never comes by military invasion. Democracy never comes by cluster bombs, by white phosphorus, by massacre, by bombing out wedding parties,” she said.The keys to change for Afghanistan are education for the people and real justice, the activist says.“Education is the key regarding resistance of the Afghan people against occupation and against ignorance. And democracy without justice is meaningless,” Joya believes.