'Little by Little,' Refugees Return

Afghans hope to rebuild, revitalize town

By Liam Pleven

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Newsday.com February 11, 2002

Istalef, Afghanistan - Almost everything here has been demolished.

Rows of crumbling walls jut up from the ground like jagged teeth. Houses that were burned down systematically when the Taliban swept up the valley north of Kabul now gape roofless and empty. Shards of broken pottery litter the silent street that snakes through the center of a once-bustling neighborhood.

One of the few things that wasn't obliterated, however, is also one of the most important. Though Istalef was on the front line of the Taliban's battle with the Northern Alliance, it never stopped being Abdul Ahmad's home. And soon after American bombs helped push the Taliban out, the 35-year-old farmer came back to the hillside he had fled three years earlier.

"That was the saddest moment of my life," Ahmad said of his departure. "And my return was the happiest." And, as he squatted near the tents that a handful of families have set up where the local school once stood, he added, "People are coming back, little by little."

Wooden beams are stacked all around, the future frames for homes that Ahmad and his neighbors plan to build amid the sloping land. Down in the plain, relief workers are clearing out the water system that the Taliban clogged with dirt to discourage farmers from cultivating the once-rich land. And when weather permits, residents are eager to grow crops again.

But so far, they represent just a trickle of refugees who are heading back to places like Istalef in the Shomali Plain, which was gradually transformed from plentifully fertile to mostly barren during almost a quarter-century of war in Afghanistan, culminating with the fierce fighting of the late 1990s.

Its location - between two rows of soaring mountains, and between the capital to the south and the Panjsher Valley, the virtually impenetrable stronghold of the Northern Alliance - had long made holding the territory strategically important. Buildings and fruit trees that sheltered and sustained the populace and could double as hideouts were eliminated.

Now, amid all the talk of billions in aid, the reconstruction of Afghanistan depends in significant part on whether hundreds of thousands of people make the same leap of faith as the Istalef returnees and embark on their own homecoming journeys in the months to come. Even now, though 125,000 Afghan refugees have returned to the country in recent months, more than 16,000 refugees also fled into Pakistan in January, according to UN figures.

Yusuf Hassan, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said of Afghans living outside Afghanistan: "Their return is crucial for the stability and the future development of this country. This cannot be overstated," he said.

According to Hassan, that is particularly true of the people who lived in the Shomali Plain, which may turn out to be as important for establishing peace in Afghanistan as it was for waging war.

"The Shomali fed Kabul and other urban centers," said Hassan, who added that 10,000 Shomali residents have made the trip so far.

Once, however, there were 200,000 people living in the plain, and nobody knows for sure when and whether onetime Shomali residents in Pakistan, Iran, and even Kabul will return as well when the weather improves and the growing season nears.

But some officials are struck by even a limited reversal of the exodus.

"It's astonishing because it's quite cold. Usually people wait until it's spring," said one Western diplomat. "Of course, it's not a large number. But it's a significant number for this time of year."

And Hassan said, "The people of the Shomali had a very good life. ... They will be one of the first people to return."

Many of those who have come back arrived with assistance from the United Nations and relief agencies that helped move them from the Panjsher Valley, where they had gone to escape the advancing Taliban. There, conditions were often not much better than the hardships they now face in Istalef.

Hidden mines prevent residents from returning to some parts of the Shomali, but even in Istalef, the reasons some refugees might be reluctant to come back are clear. Ahmad and others were given tents, mattresses and quilts for their return to Istalef, some of which have been arranged near the school.

Now, they have to carry firewood. Food comes from Kabul, and returnees were given distribution cards qualifying them to receive aid when trucks with supplies come. But the crowd of men lingering on the wrecked market street in mid-morning testified to the limits of what they can do for the moment.

"I'm a poor man, and I have no opportunity to rebuild my home," said Malang Agha, who owned a corner general store from which he sold sugar, tea and soap. Now, the remnants of that store more closely resemble a brick mason's abandoned storage shed. When asked what he will do about the shop, he responded, "I'm empty-handed. I have no money."

A similar lack of resources is keeping some former Shomali residents stuck in the former embassy compound of the Soviet Union, where many refugees from the area have taken up residence, a cruelly ironic twist years after the Soviet invasion made millions of Afghans homeless.

Zahir, a 25-year-old farmer who three years ago left for Kabul from one of the villages that make up the Istalef district, said he won't be able to go back to his home unless he receives aid like what was given those who have already returned.

"If they give us the same help, we will also go," he said. "We are not happy here for half a minute, but we can't go back now."

Yet the descriptions that residents of Istalef offer of how it once looked help explain why somebody would want to come back to a place that looks so desolate now.

"There were fruit trees, nice buildings, lots of people around, children playing," said Agha, his voice echoing off the walls of a deserted intersection of two narrow streets.

Grapes and walnuts, peaches and mulberries were in abundant supply, and the planting terraces that climb the hillside testify to the rich agriculture that helped sustain Istalef. The farmers tended livestock that included goats, sheep and cows.

"It was a king's life," Ahmad said.

When the Afghan New Year arrives in late March, Ahmad said he expects most of the other families of Istalef also will come back. Right now, he said, it is too cold. And Ahmad said he will be awaiting their return.

"We want them to come back," he said. "They are our relatives and friends. They are our own people."