Afghanistan, ten years of war
Antonella Vicini 10 October 2011

Ten years after the Coalition’s first bombs fell on Afghanistan, the sound of an electric guitar and rock music echo across Kabul. Or, at least, they try to. The concert, held a week ago in the Babur gardens, the largest green area in the city at ten hectares, was an explosion of sounds, voices and life. It was perhaps the most eloquent way to celebrate the first decade of formal freedom from the power of the Taliban, under whom all music, and above all rock music, had been forbidden. To tell the truth, nothing like this had happened in Kabul for more than thirty years. People even came from Australia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to play indie, death metal or the blues, wanting perhaps to defeat the idea that there is no way out for Afghanistan, without thinking about the security situation that has constantly deteriorated over the past decade. When the Taliban came to power at the end of a bloody civil war, it was precisely a return to law and order that initially guaranteed them support from some of the population. Now, ten years after their fall and the installation of a regime that, in spite of all its deficiencies, has the characteristics of a democracy, what is lacking is, once again, order.

The figures are clear. The first is for the average percentage of monthly attacks compared to last year, now +39 percent. The United Nations provided this figure in a report published at the end of September, according to which security-linked “incidents” were 2,108 every month. The main cause lies in armed clashes between insurgents — as NATO generically describes all those opposing the presence of foreigners — and soldiers, as well as in IEDs (improvised explosive devices), set off remotely or by pressure and one of the worst hazards for the troops. The “insurgents,” continues the United Nations report presented by Ban Ki-Moon, “continue to conduct a campaign of intimidation, including through the targeted assassination of high-ranking Government officials, members of the security forces and influential local political and religious leaders.” The most striking example was the murder of Burhanuddin Rabbani, a week after the 20-hour-long attack on ISAF headquarters, the US Embassy area and a number of Afghan police buildings near Kabul’s so-called Green Zone. In both cases the challenge was addressed at NATO and was won by the Taliban, who proved they can act undisturbed even in the centre of the capital in a district that should be among the most guarded, bringing to a halt the reconciliation process launched in January 2010 at the London Conference in the murder of one of its symbols.

Rabbani, a Tajik and a former War Lord hated by the part of the population that suffered violent repression by Ahmed Shah Massoud’s men, was the head of the Afghan High Peace Council. The jirga that Hamid Karzai planned to organise within a year of its creation has not yet been held, and, in recent days, the Afghan president announced that even the “dialogue with the Taliban” has been halted, because “we do not know their addresses and do not know where to find them.” Karzai was speaking from India, a place that is a symbol of the changing balance in the region.

In addition to reintegration and reconciliation, another key issue in the stabilization of Afghanistan set out in the London Conference’s road map is the regionalization of the issue. This includes regional cooperation in the battle against terrorism, implementing economic cooperation, cooperation on transit trade, the battle against drug trafficking, arms smuggling and strengthening security at the borders. Pakistan, considered a key ally by everyone and primarily by the United States, is now in this sense suffering a sort of marginalization due to the presence of militant groups opposing western and Afghan armed forces. This marginalization was sanctioned last Wednesday by a strategic partnership agreement signed between Afghanistan and India. Although Karzai did say specify that, “Pakistan is like a twin brother, India is a great friend,” Admiral Mike Mullen officially attributed to the Haqqani clan and to Pakistan’s secret services responsibility for the attack on ISAF’s headquarters, while Rabbani’s murder was blamed on its so-called “twin brother” by the Afghan government.

Security is another focal point, in fact the main focus that emerged from the London Conference. As mentioned above, the current situation does not provide comfort. The rise in the number of attacks carried out every month, as explained by Jacques Maio, the International Red Cross’ representative for South Asia, also affects access to medical treatment in the areas most involved in the conflict. In some cases hospitals have been closed due to the fighting, attacks on buildings or threats made to staff. “In spite of living standards having improved for part of the population over the past ten years, in some areas the situation remains alarming,” said Maio.

The UNAMA’s midyear report states clearly that civilian deaths have increased by 15%. “Afghan children, women and men continue to be killed and wounded at an alarming rate,” emphasized Ban Ki-Moon’s special envoy to Afghanistan, Staffan de Mistura. 1,462 civilians lost their lives by last June, 80% of which were killed by anti-government elements, 14% by Coalition forces and 6% in other incidents. Living standards certainly play a role. Mud and straw homes with no running water and at times no electricity have entered the collective imagination, as have those children who walk barefoot, covered by the sand that also envelops their mothers, hidden under their burqas. At times mothers are obliged to sell their children, and of course this does not only happen in Afghanistan. Save the Children, for example, has reported that in the province of Jawzjan, at the border with Turkmenistan, about 28% of young people aged between 5 and 15 have been sold by their parents or tutors.

Women and children remain the most frequent victims of human trafficking in Afghanistan. On June 27th 2011 Hillary Clinton presented the State Department’s report on this subject, and what emerges is that Afghanistan is a source, a destination and a transit location for human beings, with 60% of victims moved to within the country, and the rest to bordering nations such as Iran and Pakistan. Within Afghanistan, the trafficking is mostly of men and boys, used for heavy labour and with a few used for prostitution, while in Iran and Pakistan it involves girls obliged to become prostitutes, with a few exceptions set to work making carpets. Most of these people, however, say they do not wish to return home due to the situation in Afghanistan with its lack of security, jobs and a family ready to welcome them back.

Then there is the phenomenon of self-immolation, with women setting fire to their bodies, considering this tragic sacrifice the only way of escaping a world that offers no hope. These are mainly women oppressed by their families or by a violent husband often also addicted to opium. In Herat, the area under Italian control, there is a specialised burns centre. Little is said about this phenomenon, but it is far more widespread than people think, to the extent that this year a sensitizing government campaign was organized. According to data published by Afghan institutions, in 2010 hospitals reported 22,000 cases of self-immolation.

The security issue is paired with opium growing—the main source of income for militant groups. Addressing this problem is therefore one of the coalition’s primary objectives, and one not yet met. In 2009 alone, drug trafficking provided the Taliban with $155 million. That same year Admiral Mullen admitted that the fight against narco-trafficking undertaken by foreign armed forces had resulted in “almost no success.”

According to the UNODC, in 2010 the situation changed slightly, and while the cultivation of opium poppies rose a little at a global level, in Afghanistan it fell by 38%. One cannot however say that this was the result of a culture of legality spreading in the country or of United Nations polices, but was instead caused by a fungus that destroyed most of the crop. In 2011, without the fungus, cultivation fell a little in some regions in the south, such as Helmand and Kandahar, where opium growing is most prevalent, while growing increased in provinces in the north such as Badakhshan, Baghlan and Faryab. This flower, which provides latex precious to opium production, seems also deeply rooted in the country’s destiny for agricultural reasons. In a land so harsh and hostile, poppy seeds manage to grow with no need for water or pesticides. In the meantime, however, Afghan farmers have realised that cannabis is even more profitable than opium and have established a primacy in this sector too.

Ten years have passed since the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Reintegration and reconciliation, regionalization, security and the battle against drug trafficking are all issues still far from being resolved. At the same time, preparations are taking place for what is described as the country’s “afghanization,” with Afghanistan being returned to the Afghans. One deadline, 2014, has been established, but this is not, after all, that far off, and for now there are those, such as Malalai Joya, a former member of the Afghan parliament forced to resign after reporting the presence of new War Lords and characters linked to the Taliban inside Afghan institutions, who believe that, “after a decade, Afghanistan is still the most unstable, most corrupt and most war-torn country in the world.”

Translated by Francesca Simmons

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