In an interview for VOR, Dr Shakh Mahmud Nek, one of our staff, who is just back from Afghanistan, said, “The country urgently needs effective international assistance to embark on its peaceful reconstruction. Contemporary Kabul, as a microcosm of the problems facing the entire country, best illustrates the crying need for a respite so that Afghanistan can rebuild. In spite of expectations, the situation in Afghanistan has not improved since the entry of coalition forces in 2001; rather, things have gone from bad to worse. Last year, a record 8,200 tons of opium puppies was harvested and the UN forecasts an increase in future. Internal squabbles are out of control and innocent Afghan civilians and foreign experts working in Afghanistan are bearing the brunt of it. Against this distressing backdrop, none of the fundamental problems have been solved”.
Dr Nek went on to say, “The situation is bad; Kabul is in ruins, the major problem in the country now is high unemployment. Young people can’t find work and the cost of living keeps soaring, especially food prices. Kabul is an absolutely squalid city; rubbish is uncollected, dirt is everywhere (“mud up to the elbows” in the original: editor’s note), and the stench is terrible, even near the presidential palace. Depressing scenes greet you everywhere on the streets, for you see children, invalids, and women begging for alms in the streets. Today, Kabul is not fit for human habitation; there is no central water supply, no natural gas, and no working sewer system. On seeing such a wretched place, any sober-minded person is shocked beyond measure. There is no evidence of the huge financial help by the world community that the world press has trumpeted about for a long time”.
Dr Nek laments, “The problem of security in Kabul grows sharper with each passing day. Over three weeks, I witnessed burning convoys of 30 to 60 vehicles on the Kabul-Kandahar road; large vehicles, they included petrol tankers. The blast in front of the Indian Embassy, which killed about 60 people, was particularly horrendous and gory. Explosions happen in Kabul and other towns with frightening regularity. But, you ask, what about the so-called peacekeepers? They live in well-protected compounds, shielded against bomb blasts. They rarely venture outside their strongpoints, and are generally unseen in the city”.
In three weeks, Dr Nek saw armoured troop carriers speeding across Kabul at least five times. “Soldiers shot indiscriminately at civilians, mortally afraid of the ubiquitous Taliban. Civilian homes and police stations have recently been bombed by the NATO forces in Paktia province, and ordinary Afghans believe that the coalition came to their country to destroy Afghan customs, culture, and religion. When you see that hundreds of harmless women, children, and the aged are mowed down in cold blood by the bombing, the question arises as to why the coalition troops came to Afghanistan”, Dr Nek asked.
A Pentagon source said that President Bush is considering sending extra troops to Afghanistan to beef up the current 36,000-strong US contingent, half of which is under NATO command. In the present situation, Afghanistan really needs international help, but, not armed men and women in uniform, but, friendly civilians to help rebuild the country’s economy and collapsing infrastructure.
25 July 2008
Yelena Studneva
Voice of Russia World Service
http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=78085&cid=19&p=25.07.2008 (in Russian)
