[Bloquez l'empire!] Kandahar Faces Daily Misery

[Dru Oja Jay]

http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/1143

April 30, 2007

Kandahar Faces Daily Misery
"You did not bring us freedom," say residents of Afghanistan's  
southern province

by Chris Sands, The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN--Anyone who values their life tries to avoid  
going out after dark in Kandahar. This place is a death trap at the  
best of times and the odds on survival plummet with the sun.

Security is almost non-existent here and the people have had enough.  
More than five years after they were promised peace, prosperity and  
liberty, all many want now is for the Taliban to come back.

“The Americans say they are democratic, modern and know everything,  
but they fuck us in so many different ways,” Faiz Mohammed Karigar, a  
local resident said. “How can we forgive them? How can we forgive the  
Americans?

“If I sit at a table with an American and he says he has brought us  
freedom, I will tell him he has fucked us. 'You did not bring us  
freedom'.”

As the world starts to acknowledge the full horror of Iraq,  
Afghanistan slips towards the same grim hell. With each passing week  
the list of the dead grows in a war Canadian Prime Minister Stephen  
Harper insists is being won.

“When the Taliban were here I escaped to the border with Iran, but I  
was never worried about my family,” Karigar told me. “Every single  
minute of the last three years I have been very worried. Maybe  
tonight the Americans will come to my house, touch my wife, touch my  
children and arrest me.

“I have already decided to stand against them. I will stand against  
them even when I see them on the road. I will fight them with my  
tongue, my hands, with guns – I will fight them in any way I can.”

The southern province of Kandahar is where the Taliban movement was  
born and it is here that is has come back to life, resuscitated by  
the widespread anger Afghans feel towards the foreign troops in their  
midst.

When Mullah Mohammed Omar was in power people could walk the streets  
safely as long as they complied with a strict interpretation of  
Islamic law. Now a simple outing to the market is seen as a risk.

“That’s right, [President Hamid] Karzai is always shouting about  
democracy and saying everything is fine, but it’s just words,” Maria  
Farah, a mother-of-five, said. “If you meet women their faces are  
very sad. I don’t just mean two or three women, all our faces are  
very sad. And if you go to houses you will see the same faces on  
husbands as well because they cannot get jobs, they worry about  
security and they worry about their children.

“I can only talk about Kandahar city. I think life under the Taliban  
was very good. If we did not have a full stomach we could at least  
get some food and go to sleep. If we went out somewhere there were no  
problems,” she continued.

“How about now? If we go out we don’t know if we will arrive home or  
not. If there is an explosion and the Americans are passing they will  
just open fire on everyone. The security problems are too much here.  
If someone is driving on the highway they will be stopped and  
beheaded. If women leave the house when it is getting dark people  
look at them with a hatred in their eyes.”

The 33-year-old finished our conversation with a simple request.

“Ask [George W.] Bush to come here once and meet with women who want  
to tear his skin off,” she said.

Soon after the Taliban first surfaced in Kandahar during the mid  
1990s they brought peace to an area previously ruled by rival warlords.

Today this is one of the most dangerous places in the country, with  
political and criminal violence spreading fear among the population.  
There are approximately 2,500 Canadian troops based here and  
casualties on all sides are mounting, with suicide attacks,  
firefights and roadside bombings increasingly common in the southern  
province.

But whatever the real cause of the bloodshed, Afghans almost always  
blame the foreign soldiers and local security forces. Many of them  
simply regard this as a US occupation, often seeing little or no  
difference between the various countries that make-up the NATO-led  
mission.

“Forget that a road has been built,” Haji Abdul Rahman, a tribal  
elder, said. “If a road has been built and you are killed, what good  
is it?

“Everyone is a robber. I guarantee if you sit in my car and we go for  
a drive no Taliban will take you away. But I cannot guarantee you  
about the police. If they stop you they will steal your money and  
your camera.”

His friend, Abdul Hamid, shared similar concerns. All of his six sons  
are unemployed and he believes jihad is he only way forward for  
Afghanistan.

“It’s much, much worse than when the Russians were here,” the 71-year- 
old said. “At that time maybe we were scared a rocket would land on  
our house, but we were not scared of them coming into our house.

“One of my sons wanted to join the military. I was not happy about  
that. I told him this country is fucked up, everyone is a robber and  
you have to make a stand and fight for the truth.”

Panjwayi is a Taliban stronghold in the west of Kandahar province.  
Last May US-led forces conducted an air strike on alleged insurgents  
in the district.

American officials claimed as many as 80 militants might have been  
killed, but villagers at the scene said a number of the casualties  
were civilians.

Mawlawi Abdul Hadid told me 18 members of his family died in the  
raid. He said 30 innocent people were killed in all, the youngest of  
them a two-year-old girl.

“In the beginning you had only one enemy. Then you made two, then  
three and now I also stand against you,” he declared. “You made me  
your enemy as well and I will stand against you.

“The Taliban are the sons of this country: my son is a Talib and your  
son is a Talib,” the 45-year-old added, gesturing towards another man  
in the room.

“The Taliban are fighting for our rights, they are fighting for  
humanity and they are fighting for the truth. Day by day the  
Americans are losing support, but lots of people support the Taliban.”

Asked how long it would take to defeat the foreign soldiers, Hadid  
gave the kind of response increasingly heard across Afghanistan.

“In Islam we don’t know what will happen tomorrow,” he said. “But one  
thing we do know is that God brought them here and God will take them  
away.”