Durand line
From Free net encyclopedia
The Durand Line is a term for the poorly marked 2,640 kilometer (1,610 mile) border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
After being defeated in two wars against Afghans, the British succeeded in 1893 in imposing the Durand Line dividing Afghanistan and what was then British India (now the North-West Frontier Province and Balochistan of Pakistan). Named for Sir Mortimer Durand, the foreign secretary of the British Indian government, it was agreed upon by representatives of both Afghanistan and the British Empire, but deeply resented by the Afghan Emir Abdur Rahman Khan. One of the two representatives of the Afghan government was the Ahmadi Sahibzada Abdul Latif of Khost. The border was drawn intentionally to cut through the Afghan tribes whom the British feared and may have tried to disunite.
Afghanistan's loya jirga of 1949 declared the Durand Line invalid as they saw it as ex parte on their side (since British India ceased to exist in 1947 with the Partition of India). This had no tangible effect as there has never been a move to enforce such a declaration. Additionally, world courts have universally upheld uti possidetis juris, i.e, binding bilateral agreements with or between colonial powers are "passed down" to successor independent states, as with most of Africa. A unilateral declaration by one party has no effect; boundary changes must be made bilaterally. Thus, the Durand Line boundary remains in effect today as the international boundary and is recognized as such by nearly all nations.
Today, the line is often referred to as one drawn on water, symbolizing the porous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Nevertheless, excluding the desert portion southwest of 66 degrees 15 minutes east longitude, 84% of the line follows clear physical features (rivers or watershed divides). The precise route of the remaining 16% straight line segments is also quite clearly demarcated from the 1894-95 demarcation reports and subsequent mapping, so the legal location of the line is not in doubt and is quite accurate on readily available mapping such as the detailed (1:50,000 scale) Russian maps of the 1980s.
The line has come under special attention of late, as the area has become notorious for Taliban fighters and terrorists freely traveling back and forth, finding safety and shelter in the autonomous Pashtun regions of northwestern Pakistan.
September 2005 statements by the Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf calling for the building of a fence delineating the Afghanistan/Pakistan border have been met with opposition from Pashtuns political groups and Afghanis who view the border as illegitimate. The Durand Line continues to be a source of tension between Afghanistan and Pakistan due to the Afghan belief that the people of the Pakistani provinces of NWFP, Baluchistan and FATA want to separate from Pakistan and are the property of Afghans.
