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Not Another Afghanistan

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By Nadia Ali Maiwandi

AlterNet
May 28, 2003

The city of Kabul, Afghanistan is polluted. It overwhelms your senses from the moment you step into the street. Car horns blow incessantly. Diesel-powered cars spit out plumes of black smoke and crowd Kabul's streets. A flattened lot quickly becomes an unofficial dumping site in a city that has no sanitation. Raw sewage corrodes the air. Dust from hard-packed dirt roads clouds vision. The Afghan sky, once famous for its lapis-blue color, is a murky brownish gray.


These are the pollutants that come to your senses – that fill your ears, eyes, nose and touch.

But there are other, less noticeable pollutants. Remnants of war that lie unseen. They come from years of bombing, chemicals that pollute the earth and poison the crops. They come in the form of an estimated 10 million landmines resting silently, waiting for their unwitting victims. They are the countless unmentionable acts that have been done to the Afghan people, through war, greed and silence.

I traveled through Kabul and nearby areas during the time America was bombing Iraq and making claims of "liberating" that nation. It's chilling to watch war coverage while you are surrounded by ruins and the ghosts of war. I watched images of the once-glorious city of Baghdad come to look too much like the ruins I passed everyday in Kabul. I wanted to know how the Afghan people, who had been promised liberation by so many and paid dearly for it, felt about their country now and the situation in Iraq.

Waheed Aminyar looks years beyond his 39. He is tall and thin, and his hair shows little signs of its former black. He tells me that the depression he suffered moving back to Kabul eight months ago from Pakistan has aged him. Aminyar describes the shock he underwent seeing Kabul for the first time in 17 years. "Everything was in ruins," he says, using his hands to make sweeping gestures. "It doesn't look like how it was. I didn't recognize this place."

Aminyar is my hired driver. Other than his premature gray and aged face, his depression doesn't show. His payrahan tumban (the long cotton shirt and baggy pants worn by Afghan men) is always clean and pressed. He meets me with a smile everyday and has a jovial personality. Nearly everywhere he goes, he's stopped by a friend or two and greeted with expressions of joy. Some are old friends he knew when he worked as a police officer in Kabul. Others are new friends, many recently returned to Kabul themselves.

There are things to be happy about, Aminyar tells me. "Afghanistan is slowly getting better. We are hopeful; people are feeling secure. Since I have been back in these eight months, I have seen a lot of good changes. Men and women are going to school and to work."

But there were many dark years. And Afghans fear Iraqis will go through what they did, years of unrest, countless dead and desperate poverty. "The American government's aim is clearly personal [in the invasion of Iraq]," Aminyar says, "because if they were there to help, they would be helping the people of Palestine. This was not a collective decision. There was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction, and America's decision to act alone was not right, legally or morally."

Aminyar sees no end in sight. "Bush went and invaded Iraq and couldn't keep the security there. But now he is on to Sudan and Syria." And there is concern about how all this will affect Afghanistan. "People are worried that because of the war and reconstruction of Iraq, America and Europe will forget about us," he says. "We still need aid; we still need help from the outside. Without this, our country will slip into the wrong hands again."

Dr. Abdullah Abduallah, Minister of Foreign Affairs, says continued support from the international community is critical. "But the responsibility of rebuilding Afghanistan is for the Afghans," he says sitting in his Kabul office, an aide on either side of him.

The Minister says Afghanistan will not be a dependent country forever, but that serious aid is needed to establish security and rebuild the infrastructure. "Afghanistan contributed to world peace and was a major factor in ending the Cold War, and it has suffered for it," he says.

Dr. Abdullah says he is confident Afghanistan won't be forgotten again, and America and the other international donors will continue to live up to their promises. Although, he is quick to add, "Somehow this year when it came to allocating money, someone in the [U.S.] executive branch forgot Afghanistan," referring to President Bush's "forgetfulness" to include Afghanistan in the foreign budget, until the Congress made it an issue. Iraq though, he says, doesn't face all the same issues in rebuilding. "Their situation has similarities to ours, but there are also differences. Theirs is a much richer nation than ours; they have resources, oil. Also, they have most of their educated people; in Afghanistan, most of our educated people got out of the country.

"We hope the Iraqi people will succeed [in rebuilding their country]," he says. Like many Afghans old enough to remember the days before war, Masood Khalili, ambassador to India, talks of an Afghanistan that no longer exists. With a glimmer in his eye, he counters his feelings: "But we must close the chapter on that Afghanistan. It will live in our hearts, in our memories, but it doesn't live here. Things have changed – the landscape has changed, the clothes have changed, the way of life has changed."

He feels certain America will do what it can for Afghanistan because the two countries have a shared interest. "One hundred percent it is the interest of America to chase their enemies, and 200 percent our interest that Americans should help Afghans and stabilize the country," the ambassador says.

In Kabul's Herat Restaurant, Fahima Hidiat Mujadidi dines with her husband. Mujadidi is in her mid-50s and has been in Afghanistan through all the years of war. She works as the president of the Women's Association in Jalalabad, and is dressed business-like with a thin headscarf.

"Nobody likes war. We Afghans are tired of war," she says. "The people of Iraq will go through what we went through, and we don't want that for anyone." Mujadidi is happy with the international assistance. "All the foreign countries here are here to help. When things get worse, they step up security and people feel safe. They are helping to build our country up again."

Mujadidi said she experienced some anxiety about how the Iraqi war will affect Afghans. "Before war started, I thought this would have a very negative effect on Afghans. But now I see that reconstruction is still going on. We have been assured we will be taken care of."

Aminyar echoes the sentiment. "Now that the war is almost over," he says, "we are hopeful again that help will arrive. ... Afghanistan's biggest needs are education and construction." He says the international peacekeepers have made a noticeable difference in Kabul. "The people of Kabul are happy that ISAF [International Security Assistant Force] are here. Everything is calm here because of their presence."

But not everyone is happy with the presence, Aminyar adds. "Some people outside Kabul don't like ISAF and the foreigners. They don't know why the people are here, and think they may be dictating to us how to live or ruining our culture. Even I would be against them if they did something against our culture, but so far I see that they are helping."

Nadia Ali Maiwandi is an Afghan-American freelance journalist. She lives in Portland, Oregon



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FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.