AN UNFORGETTABLE TRIP " The Great Escape"

I was lucky to visit Afghanistan recently. I had the most unbelievable trip to Faizabad, Bharak and Jurm , for capacity building of local journalists. You are reading the page eight of my diary of that unforgettable trip.
***

"Late autumn 2001 Taliban had collapsed. By mid 2003 the central government of President Hamid Karzai took charge to bring democracy and peace in the war beleaguered Afghan world.But it is still too weak to assert itself over provincial warlords.” I read somewhere before coming here but I hadn't understood its full import until an incident as recent as yesterday shook me up to the reality of Afghanistan... a simple altercation turning into a full fledged riot , nearly ensured the pages of this diary remains unfinished, incomplete.

This was on the last day of our field visit. We got a tad late returning from Baharak.Instead of starting at three as planned for us we started at four in the afternoon. A max two hours journey to Faizabad - we were hoping to get in there by nightfall. But invariably bad roads and bad light stretched the journey a little longer than expected.
I must have dozed off because I didn’t realise we had reached Julia’s home to drop her. “Please stay with me at my home tonight”, she extended a cursory invitation. I smiled warmly and declined as usual, “Next time. We meet tomorrow for class at 9.30 then?” “I think you will need a little more rest to recover from the back breaking ride” She quipped. “Yes a mule ride might have been easier…” we laughed over our little joke still happy from the days beautiful memories, said “khodahafiz” and parted.

A little sluggish from the day’s tiredness I looked out sleepily and found the little town wearing a quiet, abandoned look. I have not had the opportunity to go out after 5 in the evening ever. I had no idea how Faizabad looked after dark. I discovered like any remote mountainous region, by 6.30 in the evening the whole city had plunged into darkness .With just a few timid gas lights here and there in one or two shops along its main road, the place looked rather ominous infact, more like a haunted ghost town. When suddenly at a road corner two dozen unexpected young men appeared from no where. All in white salwar kameez they looked more like apparitions to me, walking right ahead into the car path. Naturally we came to a screeching halt to save a crisis, more curious than ever over the unexpected halt. Not for a moment did I harbour any fear even then. I was still in my India mode ready to unwind the pane and ask “What’s the matter .Are u mad to be walking right into a speeding car?” I shudder to think now had I actually forgotten in my sleepy state where I was and asked that question, what a disaster I would have courted. In the next split second I was completely awake to the reality of the time and place in history. These were no dumb ghosts. Armed with sticks and shovels this was a mob about to splutter and ignite. They spoke angrily in Dari. They ordered the panes to be winded down .They asked what business we had to be taking that way. My interpreter Dr Hafizi, explained that he was a local travelling with a guest “a woman”. Those last words could have been ill fated in southern Afg. In the north however among the peace loving ismailis, tajiks and Uzbeks guests and women deserve consideration. I was apprehensive by now but was equally eager to see the drama unfold… who are these people? What possibly can happen in the nest few mins? My mind was busy processing large chunks of unrelated, inadequate information. I had no idea what they were arguing about but when I saw one of them break the antennae off the car and heard Hafizi mutter something to the driver which was probably “can we turn back? Do it as quickly as you can”, I knew we could be in serious trouble. They were still all around us and looked happy to have had the catch of the day when another car pulled in. The driver took the occasion to quickly pull back and make a swift turn. No one came after us; no one hurled a grenade or a bomb; No one followed us in land cruisers. Those could have easily happened. Last time people came on road due to an ethnic conflict four women were burnt alive in their car.

We learnt later the next day how a small altercation between the local commander and a boy from a different community led to a demonstration that nearly fuelled a full fledged riot. The commander had taken his offender and jailed him in his own prison. The commanders here have their own prisons and next to the mullah, have the authority to get away with almost anything. Infact with a large community following they have made them almost invincible. The community too with the blessing of the commander can get unwieldy and riotous. Hundreds of men came out immediately to avenge their commander’s respect. Afer 48 hours the Police was still trying to negotiate with the commander to release the boy and not set a false precedence. Such an incident can flare up again anytime during the next few days and have bullets flying unless local law and order system take a strong control over things. A curfew had to be ordered in a hope to restore normalcy after all.

We were easy pawns and were plain lucky to escape alive, as I see it now.

At the root of Afg’s problem is this crisis of insecurity, which allows no development to take place. Following nearly a quarter century of war the common man on the road may be looking forward to some order in their life but the presence of warlords and mullahs, ethnic conflict and extremist Islamic approach to life continue to haunt and pull the country backwards into the dark ages. There can be no easy military solution to the Afghan problem. The UN mandate of peacekeeping brought in the NATO headed International security assistance force, ISAF, but outside Kabul they have very little say. According to my journalist friends and students here, security which forms the “fulcrum” of all development, will not be easy to restore as long as it remains in the dubious domain of power hungry, uneducated, rigid extremists...and they dominate the country. Besides, vast tracts of rural Afghanistan will remain inaccessible and bereft of all developmental programmes for a long time.

Pashtun dominated east and south are an extremely conservative and volatile lot who were perhaps better off under the autocratic rule of the Taliban. Infact a certain level of security may have been achieved under the Taliban rule (94-2001) in this region. I also learnt that the cultivation of poppy which had gone down under the Taliban rule to 200 tonnes in 2001 has sprung up more than half of the country’s annual GDP today. Narco –mafia joins the list of ills in Afghanistan today. Almost daily attacks on Afghans and foreigners alike by either pro Talibans , Islamic extremists or renegade mujahideens and mafias have prompted even the most dedicated donors and NGO’s to either cut down or wrap up their mission in these areas.

The problem of Afghanistan is peculiar. Yes it is true its strategic location has always made it the bone of contention between power wolves. But its tragic flaw lies in the patchwork fiefdoms in the south and east, controlled by the warlords and drug traffickers and Pashtuns, who do not wish to see any other Afghan ethnic groups in their land. They can neither live nor let live. The tragedy of Afghanistan is therefore somewhat what should I say buy now genetic in nature. The tragic dilemma of these hardy and impatient people lies in the need of established separate identities…it is this one crisis that led Germany to massacre Jews …. Identity and some peace within themselves, their country will continue to broil in civil strife, fuelling global contentions in a vicious cycle.

I see a lot of developmental work going on in the North at the moment and despite some resistance, some glitches and some serious planning errors here and there they continue to promise change. "Good change" I mean. But what I fear is all the developmental work pursued by the north will be raised to the ground by an extremist attack from the south someday only this time the phoenix will not rise as easily from its ashes.

I understand now why it has been so easy to divide and rule this country. Ever since the first revolts against the communists (PDPA) in 1978, millions of Afghans have died. They were either killed in war or by its aftermath of disease, malnutrition and extremist attacks. 6 million flee their country as refugees. It was followed by bombing at Herat, massacre at Kerala (Kunar province, where I am told 1000 men and boys were brutally gunned down). The Soviet attack in 1979 brought the country together in a sort of national resistance. The resistance succumbed under the regular large scale offensives conducted by the Russian who deliberately destroyed houses, irrigations systems, fruits orchards, roads and communications systems. Referred to as the “migratory genocide” at least 1/3 of Afghan population fled their country during the decade long soviet occupation (79-89).

More than the ghost towns which the regime left behind, it spread deep rooted cynicism, scepticism and wrath enveloping the life and thinking of the new generation Afghan. And so came the Mujaheedins to free the country of the PDPA govt and soviet invasion. The global politics is another story but what was to cause greater damage to the country was the infighting within the Mujaheedins. In the absence of one good leader, the struggle for control disintegrated into a “mad dogs war” with little regard for its inhabitants. Cross lines essential field guide to Afghanistan compares the Soviet atrocities as “remarkably little damage" compared to the devastation wrought by the Mujaheedins. “The large scale destruction in the urban areas was the result of the bitter intercine strife during 92 to 94.” Brutal assaults left 50,000 civilians killed and several thousands to flee their country, leaving everything behind to be looted and destroyed. In this intercine fight and the survival of the fittest, the new champions were the Taliban, (the worlds largest ever army with the greatest disabled commanders). They were no different from the rest, made of the sod only hardier, much more radical and violent ... Everyone is aware of the rest of the story. Where will this metamorphosis lead the Afghan community I wonder! Will there be peace ever in these parts?