Pashtun elders remain defiant

Chris Sands, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: September 29. 2009 1:30AM UAE / September 28. 2009 9:30PM GMT

KABUL // The elders of Zirkoh are quite clear about where their allegiance lies. They are on the side of their fellow Pashtuns and they will stand against anyone who threatens them.

“There have been 30 years of fighting in Afghanistan and during these 30 years we have never before faced the kind of problems we have now because of these foreigners,” Haji Amir Mohammed, one of the town’s elders, said.

Although people from all walks of life have suffered in what the United States describes as a “war of necessity”, one section of the population has borne the brunt of the violence more than any other.

Living predominantly in the south and east, Pashtuns are Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group and the country’s traditional rulers. The invasion of 2001 and the subsequent occupation have in many ways been a direct attack on them. The US military removed a Taliban government drawn almost exclusively from the Pashtun community and radically altered the balance of power, with militia commanders from the north effectively taking their place.

Men who worked or fought for the old regime were seen as guilty by association and became the target of house raids and arbitrary detentions. When the insurgency began in earnest, it caught fire in the Pashtun heartlands.

Zirkoh lies in the Shindand district of Herat, in the west of the country. During a visit to Kabul, elders gave valuable insight into a war that is for them very much about nationalism and ethnic identity, not religious extremism. “We don’t have foreign Taliban in our area, but we have Afghan Taliban. They are our neighbours, they are our sons, they are our nephews. They are keeping security well and they are under our control,” Mr Mohammed said.

Most of the resistance to the occupation in the past eight years has been in overwhelmingly Pashtun provinces like Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul and Kunar. In these regions the rebels are not only believed to be fighting for Islam, they are regarded as defending local culture.

The war has also reignited an age-old dispute over Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan. Drawn up by Britain in 1893 to create a buffer zone between Afghanistan and the lands of the Raj, the boundary divided Pashtun communities and an insurgency now rages across the frontier.

“If [foreign countries] don’t make an agreement with Pashtuns on this side of the Durand Line and that side of the Durand Line, then of course no one will accept them and there will be lots of fighting. There are five fingers on a hand and if one is cut off then the hand is injured. That is like how it is with Pashtun people,” Mr Mohammed said.

Ethnicity has been a crucial point in the presidential election, which has still not been resolved. Hamid Karzai, the incumbent, made deals with mujahideen commanders from the Tajik, Hazara and Uzbek communities to win key swing votes. It displeased many in his core constituency, but they still chose to support him because his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah, is seen as solely representing the interests of the former Northern Alliance network.

Mr Mohammed said the villagers of Zirkoh voted for Mr Karzai because he is Pashtun. “We couldn’t find anyone better than him even though everyone knows he is up to his neck in corruption,” he claimed.

He and his colleagues have two main enemies, Mr Mohammed explained. They are the foreign troops and the Northern Alliance. “If anytime we catch these people, we will eat their flesh,” he said.

Rural parts of Herat have become increasingly volatile in recent years, with occasional attacks also taking place in the provincial capital.

Zainul Abuddin, another resident of Zirkoh, suggested the insurgency was a reaction to events on the ground, where discontent with the occupation has risen. “At the beginning we were very optimistic. We thought there would be reconstruction and peace, but they didn’t talk with the elders and the religious leaders,” Mr Abuddin said.

Gen Stanley McChrystal, the head of US and Nato forces, has formally submitted a request for extra soldiers to be added to the more than 100,000 already in the country. His plan has yet to be approved amid growing concern that it may provoke a backlash. As a third elder from Zirkoh pointed out, the more troops that arrive, the bloodier the war seems to get.

“The international forces have made the situation worse,” Abdul Rahman said. “When they came, the fighting had gone from the centre of Afghanistan to the borders. Eight years later the fighting is close to the gates of Kabul.”



csands@thenational.ae