The Americans are in our House. What will the Taliban Think?
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan—Life in troubled Kunduz Province can be summed up in a word: precarious. Visiting there for a couple of days unembedded, I could only get a glimpse of it: The provincial council chairman cut short an interview because dusk was falling and he did not feel safe even in Kunduz City after dark.
The New York Times
A young man told me that it was best for him not to go too early in the morning to his home district of Char Dara because the Taliban had not yet cleared roadside bombs from the roads. “The Taliban are putting the mines and fuses across the roads for the government and the foreign forces at night, and they are clearing them up in the morning so local people can travel,” he said.
In Imam Sahib district in the north of the province, less than a mile from the district center, are Taliban checkpoints, said Samimi, a local citizen, who asked that only one name be used because he feared retribution. The fighting has slackened, but people are feeling pressure both from local militias, known as arbakais, who are former mujahedeen linked to the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance and from the Taliban.
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“There are no major skirmishes ongoing between the Taliban and arbakais now,” he said.
“There is a kind of unofficial cease-fire between them. Both sides are getting ready to loot ordinary people. As you may know people in Kunduz just harvested this season’s crop, which is rice, now both sides are busy illegally taxing ordinary people, villagers and farmers,” Samimi said.
“Taliban are charging 500 afghanis (about $12) per male family member and the arbakais are charging 1,000 afghanis ($24) per male family member. For those who can afford it, it will be fine, but for those who cannot afford it, then they should provide a man of fighting-age to fight alongside whichever group is asking. But no one wants to fight. People would sell all their belongings and pay the tax but not fight. Fighting alongside these armed men means death in many ways,” he said.
For the family of a New York Times employee in Kunduz, the last two weeks have been a waking nightmare, but not an uncommon one these days as Nato forces attempt to drive the Taliban from Char Dara district.
The extended family lives in Char Dara, in the hamlet of Baso, about 22 miles from Kunduz City. The area is largely Pashtun although the family has both Pashtun and Tajik members. On Dec. 10, in the evening, American troops accompanied by Afghan forces came to the village. The family was afraid and the soldiers brusquely searched the houses, then apologized and explained that operations were going on and that there could be shooting and they needed the family to leave because the soldiers needed to use their homes as a makeshift base, according to one of the elder family members.
The military corroborated the story. “In preparation for the operation, the forces engaged with the local residents and informed them that it would be safe thing for them to leave,” said Lt. Col. John Dorrian, a Nato spokesman.
Unsure of when they would be able to return home, the families, men, women and children, hurriedly packed a few things and left as soon as it was light. The military says it was 80 people who were forced to move; members of the family counted 120.
“On the night of the raid on our relatives’ houses, more than 150 Americans and Afghan National Security Forces descended from helicopters,” said the Times employee after talking to his family by phone. “The troops fought the Taliban and pushed the Taliban back. They stayed for a day or two and then went back to their places. You could still see their sandbags in our relatives windows and the holes they made in walls in order to go from one compound to another,” he said.
Once the Americans left, the Taliban returned and accused the families of aiding the Americans.
“The Taliban are saying to our family members: ‘Whenever Americans raid a village they kill and take away people they find there. Why didn’t they kill or arrest your males or youth? It shows you may have had some links with the Americans. And why don’t you stage demonstrations and why you don’t ask for compensation from Americans, they destroyed your houses. You should go to Kunduz and complain to the government and the Americans and ask for compensation of damages of your houses.’ ”
A younger family member counseled against that. “My older uncle called me and asked what to do? Shall we stage a demonstration? I told them to stay home and don’t even think about protesting or anything else. Firstly, it won’t work. Americans won’t listen. And, secondly, the Taliban are trying to provoke local people against foreigners.”
Colonel Dorrian said that the troops offer compensation for using people’s homes, but refused to say how much, or if the compensation takes into account the damage done in each place.
One thing is clear, said the elder uncle: life is more dangerous now.
“The Taliban are watching our village more closely and we fear the Americans will return.”
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