Afghanistan News January 7, 2005

January 7, 2005

Afghanistan Expresses Deep Grief at Tsunami Devastation
Kabul - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan sent messages of sympathy and condolences to the countries affected and the countries suffered Human casualties due to the Tsunami Disaster.

H.E Hamid Karzai the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and H.E Dr. Abdullah Abdullah the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan conveyed their heartfelt condolences on behalf of the People and the Government of Afghanistan to the Leaders and Foreign Ministers of the Countries directly hit by the disaster.

H.E Hamid Karzai and H.E Dr. Abdullah also expressed their deepest sympathies to the Leaders and Foreign Ministers of those Countries which suffered human casualties and lost citizens due to their presence in the devastated regions.

The messages of sympathy and condolence were sent to India, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Maldives, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Burma, Philippine, Singapore, China, South Korea, South Africa, Tanzania, Somalia, Poland, Russia, Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Luxemburg, Greece, Brazil, The United States of America and Canada.

Released by the Office of the Spokesperson
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Kabul, Afghanistan
Jan, 6, 2005

Taliban kill two Afghan soldiers on drugs raid
KABUL, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Taliban fighters killed two Afghan government soldiers on Thursday as the troops carried out a raid to destroy opium poppies in the south of the country, the provincial governor said.

President Hamid Karzai has vowed to wage war on a drugs trade that earned some $2.8 billion last year, equivalent to 60 percent of Afghanistan's gross domestic product.

Uruzgan governor Jan Mohammad Khan told Reuters two other government soldiers were wounded in the attack as some 600 troops from the fledgling Afghan National Army destroyed the newly planted poppies in the province's Deh Rawud district.

The troops later mounted a counter-attack and killed two Taliban fighters, he said. Uruzgan, and Deh Rawud district in particular, has long been a hotbed of activity for Taliban guerrillas driven from power by U.S.-led forces in late 2001.

Two U.S. soldiers were killed by an improvised bomb in the district some 400 km (250 miles) southwest of the capital Kabul in late November and another two were killed there by a similar blast in October.

The Taliban has vowed to pursue a "jihad", or holy war, until foreign forces quit Afghanistan. production of opium from poppies has risen since the Taliban were toppled two years ago. Opium is the raw material for morphine and heroin and in 2004, Afghanistan accounted for 87 percent of the world's supply of heroin.

Northwest Governor Says Foreign Militants Regrouping Near Afghan Border
RFE/RL 1/06/2005 By Ron Synovitz
The governor of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) has expressed fears that what he calls "foreign terrorists" are regrouping in the tribal regions of Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan. Governor Iftikhar Hussain Gillani made the remarks late yesterday after a series of cross-border clashes earlier this week between Afghan and Pakistani troops. Those troops are meant to be cooperating with U.S.-led coalition forces on their respective sides of the border in a hunt for Al-Qaeda fighters who fled to the region after the collapse of the Taliban regime in late 2001.

Prague - NWFP Governor Gillani said remaining Al-Qaeda fighters in tribal regions like South Waziristan are now under tremendous pressure from Pakistan's army.

Pashtun tribesmen living in the tribal regions are thought to be sympathetic to Al-Qaeda-linked fighters like Abdullah Mehsud, a local tribesman who has emerged as a key militant in the region in recent months. The tribal region of South Waziristan has been the scene of intense battles between militants and Pakistani security forces during the past 10 months.

Gillani said Pakistan's crackdown is forcing most foreign militants to seek out new safe havens and logistical bases.

"There were concerted operations which have taken place over the last two or three months, and the months of September and October -- and especially so in the Mehsud area," Gillani said. "Most [foreign terrorist] dens, their harboring areas, and their logistic areas have been destroyed. So I think, because of that, they are under tremendous pressure. Some of them, they have gone back to Afghanistan. Some have gone [further south] to [the Pakistani province of] Baluchistan. And some are now trying to regroup and reorganize and find new bases for themselves in the same [tribal] area, South Waziristan."

Gillani said he is convinced that Mehsud will be captured or killed by Pakistani forces if he refuses to surrender before a 15 January deadline that has been set by authorities in Islamabad.Pakistan has asked the U.S. military to investigate what Islamabad has described as an "unprovoked" cross-border mortar attack on 2 January from Afghanistan's Khost Province.

"[Abdullah Mehsud] has got a group of terrorists," Gillani said. "He's getting support from abroad. He is training people. Now where is that money coming from? So, for the operations -- the communications infrastructure which he has, the transportation system that he is operating -- he is being supported by sources from outside."

Gillani did not specify the sources of Mehsud's support. He also brushed aside accusations by some Afghan officials that militants based on Pakistan's side of the border routinely cross into Afghanistan to carry out attacks.

Gillani said Pakistani security forces are doing their best to prevent cross-border infiltrations from their side. He said the Afghan forces need to do much more on their side of the porous, 2,400-kilometer border.

Earlier, Pakistan asked the U.S. military to investigate what Islamabad has described as an "unprovoked" cross-border mortar attack on 2 January from Afghanistan's Khost Province. One Pakistani soldier was killed by that attack on the nearby tribal region of North Waziristan.

Hayatulla Khan, a Pakistani journalist based in the tribal regions, said of the clashes: "The Afghan and Pakistani forces clashed [on 2 and 3 January] in the border area close to Afghanistan's Khost Province. From Pakistan's side, military scouts were involved in the clash. From the Afghan side, the Afghan forces fired mortars. This kind of incident also has happened in past, with Afghan and Pakistani forces mistakenly fighting. I went to the border area [on 4 January]. The media has been reporting that forces have been mobilized on both sides of the border. I did not see any evidence of that. The Afghan border posts are in the same positions and the Pakistani forces also remained in their previous positions."

Khost Governor Merajuddin Pathan told RFE/RL that the Afghan forces had fired the mortar shells after spotting Pakistani scouts who were approaching their positions.

"Pakistani forces moved near to our Moghulgi border post," Pathan said. "Our division and coalition forces prepared themselves quickly to confront their movement. But fortunately, after our preparations, they stopped their advance and withdrew." U.S. Army Major Mark McCann, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, downplayed the cross-border clashes as a misunderstanding.

"First of all, coalition forces had no direct role in any of the incidents that occurred along the border," McCann said. "Initially, after the incidents, the government of Pakistan had expressed some concern to officials in the coalition forces. And as a response to that, we dispatched some forces to the scene. And so our role in this has been much more indirect than direct. We're working with both sides to try to help them determine what happened, to facilitate some understanding and, hopefully, to put some measures in place to ensure that misunderstandings like this don't happen again in the future."

NWFP Governor Gillani said foreign terrorists are trying to recruit unemployed, local youth in the tribal regions to replace several hundred Al-Qaeda fighters who have been killed during the past 10 months in the Pakistani army's crackdown. He said young people are being paid $250 to complete basic training.

Gillani said Pakistan is trying to confront the problem through a political dialogue with tribal leaders. He said the strategy appears to be working because tribal and religious leaders are being persuaded not to allow youngsters to be recruited.

He also said efforts are now under way to disarm resident of the tribal regions. He described the initial response as "good" but noted that most tribes obtained the weapons by buying them in neighboring Afghanistan.

Census of Afghan refugees from February:
UNHCR official – PNS 01/06/2005
ISLAMABAD - The government along with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees will carry out a joint census of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan in February, say a top UNHCR official.

The census will be conducted in cities, towns and villages across the country to ascertain the exact number of Afghans living in Pakistan, Jack Ridden, the UNHCR chief in Pakistan, told BBC Radio.

He said the census would be conducted in two phases the first of which would start in February, adding census teams would go home to home to make the drive a success.

He said the registration process would be completed with a cost of seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars by the end of current year. Ridden said one million Afghans were still living in refugees camps set up in various parts of Pakistan.

The UNHCR estimates reveal 2.3 million Afghan refugees had been repatriated after the Taliban lost control over Kabul in 2001. According to a Pakistan-Afghanistan-UNHCR accord, all the Afghans living in Pakistan will be sent back to Afghanistan by 2006.

CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM EMERGES FROM PAST 12 MONTHS
By Amin Tarzi – RFE-RL By most accounts and in light of the previous quarter
of a century, the past 12 months have been good for Afghanistan. In January 2004, the Constitutional Loya Jirga (Grand Assembly) gave the Afghan state its basic law by approving a newconstitution (see "RFE/RL Afghanistan Report," 8 January 2004). The constitution prescribes a strong presidential system, spawning fears that a head of state who so chose might abuse the presidential powers. It also includes an article stipulating that no law may contradict the beliefs or provisions of Islam, thus inviting interference by conservative religious elements into nearly every aspect of Afghan state functions (see "RFE/RL Afghanistan Report," 6 and 13 November 2003). But on the whole, the new Afghan Constitution is a forward-looking and inclusive document that should be examined with the country's current realities in mind.
Also in January 2004, NATO finally fulfilled its pledge to expand the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) beyond Kabul when it took command of the German-led Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in the northern Konduz Province (see "RFE/RL Afghanistan Report," 23 January 2004). At its Istanbul summit in June, NATO decided to further expand the ISAF by agreeing toassume command of more PRTs in northern and western Afghanistan (see "RFE/RL Afghanistan Report," 18 June and 1 July 2004). While NATO has tiptoed cautiously in assuming greater responsibility in Afghanistan and material support from many of the military alliance's members has fallen short of the political rhetoric, NATO seems to have agreed to stay the course in Afghanistan for the long haul. ISAF might eventually take charge of much of the security assistance rendered by the international community to Afghanistan, but that plan appears to have more than a few foes in Brussels at the moment.

One of most important achievements of the Afghan Transitional Administration, albeit with considerable support from its foreign backers, was putting a dent in the armor of invincibility of major warlords. The decision by then Afghan Transitional Administration Chairman Hamid Karzai in July to skip over his first deputy, Defense Minister Marshall Mohammad Qasim Fahim, in   selecting his running mates in the presidential election provided a tremendous boost and opened the way to confrontation with other warlords (see "RFE/RLAfghanistan Report," 31 July and 5 August 2004). Fahim, who commanded his own militia and was regarded by many as the strongest individual in Afghanistan, was originally on the ticket out of security concerns. Karzai's maneuvering took Fahim and his supporters by surprise and effectively ended the supremacy that the United Front (aka Northern Alliance) had enjoyed on the Afghan political scene since the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001.

The removal of General Mohammad Ismail Khan in September as governor of the Herat Province, where he ruled as the self-styled "amir" of western Afghanistan, afforded Chairman Karzai's central administration further confidence to exert its authority in areas where major warlords had reigned supreme (see "RFE/RL Afghanistan Report," 24 September 2004).

Perhaps the most recogni zable and celebrated achievement of Afghanistan and its foreign backers during the past 12 months was the successful and relatively peaceful presidential election in October. While more than a dozen people were killed on election day, 9 October, the specter of large-scale disturbances did not materialize; more than 8 million Afghans -- often braving inclement weather -- stood in long lines to cast their votes in the country's first-ever direct election of a national leader. The election, while imperfect, gave Afghans a legitimate leader and, perhaps moreImportantly, diminished the threat posed by the neo-Taliban militia and their allies.

Having secured more than 55 percent of the popular vote, Karzai was declared the winner of the presidential election in November. His closest rival had been Mohammad Yunos Qanuni, who garnered 16 percent of the ballot. The division of ballots revealed an unfortunate -- albeit not wholly unexpected -- ethnic divide among Afghans. Ethnic Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum, for instance, won 10 percent of the vote -- a figure that is only slightly lower than the estimated number of ethnic Uzbeks in Afghanistan.

President Karzai announced his cabinet within weeks of his inauguration in early December, paring further the power of the warlords (see "RFE/RL Afghanistan Report," 30 December 2004). The cabinet looks good on paper but might face intense scrutiny by the National Assembly once that parliamentary body is formed in the spring. Some non-Pashtuns already are crying foul and claiming that the cabinet's so-called power ministries are almost exclusivelyin the hands of Pashtuns.

While Afghanistan's record of achievement in 2004 might have earned it passing grades, and even a few top scores, the country fared miserably in its counternarcotics efforts. A report released by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in November revealed that opium-poppy cultivation in Afghanistan increased 64 percent year-on-year in 2004, a figure that some regard as conservative.President Karzai has declared a "jihad," or holy war, on narcotics, and some of Afghanistan's foreign allies are trying to assist the Afghans or even beef up their own counternarcotic programs.

Afghanistan's prognosis for 2005 is not good in terms of opium cultivation or heroin production. and unless a rigorous counternarcotics plan is put in place that keeps in mind the livelihood of Afghan farmers while at the same time including strong enforcement measures against major drugkingpins, Afghanistan could see a reversal of some of the gains of the past 12 months.

WARLORD, DEMONSTRATORS IN NORTHERN AFGHANISTAN DISAPPOINTED WITH NEW CABINET RFE/RL
General Abdul Rashid Dostum, leader of the Junbish-e Melli party, on 3 January expressed his disappointment with the new cabinet chosen by President Hamid Karzai, Jowzjan Aina Television reported (see "RFE/RL Afghanistan Report," 23 and 30 December 2004). Dostum said people in northern Afghanistan who "took active part in the fight against terrorism...had high expectations of Hamid Karzai.
"However," he said, "those expectations changed to disappointment after the announcement of the new cabinet." Dostum said "fairness and equality" are not "reflected in the new cabinet," nor is the role of people from northern Afghanistan.

On 1 January, an unknown number of "public representatives" from northern Faryab, Jowzjan, Balkh, Sar-ePol, Samangan, Baghlan, Konduz, and Takhar provinces gathered in Mazar-e Sharif, the capital of Balkh Province, to express their objections to the composition of the new Afghan cabinet, Jowzjan Aina Television reported. The rally called for a review of the new cabinet and recommended the inclusion of "the entire nation living" in Afghanistan, as well as those "who fought the enemies in hard times"-- an apparent reference toanti-Soviet and anti-Taliban resistance leaders. Dostum, an ethic Uzbek, came in third in Afghanistan's presidential election with 10 percent of the vote -- a number that more or less corresponded to the percentage of ethnic Uzbeks living in Afghanistan, most of whom reside in the north of the country (see feature above). the text of the resolution of the rally held in Mazar-e Sharif as broadcast by Jowzjan Aina Television is as follows: "We, the representatives of the northern province including scholars, elders, women, youths, businessmen, enlightened men, and traders from different nationalities of these provinces, held a big rally on 1 January 2005 in Mazar-e Sharif [the provincial capital of balkh Province]. We will discuss and investigate the outcome of the first presidential election of Afghanistan, the formation of the new cabinet and the current situation, in detail. After further consultation, we passed this resolution, which contains theviewpoints and legitimate expectations of millions of inhabitants of the northern provinces of Afghanistan. As everyone knows the northern people fought against the foreign invasion and played a key and vital role in the successful jihad of the Afghan people. After that they bravely stood against international terrorism and the Taliban regime.

They had an active role in eliminating the Taliban in cooperation with the world community and counter-terrorism coalition forces led by the United States of America. They prepared the ground to set up a temporary government and ensure security and stability in the country. They did their utmost to hold the emergency and constitutional Loya Jerga [grand councils], strengthen nationalunity, maintain peace, stability and security, carry out the DDR [the UN-led Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration] process, approve the rule of law and hold presidential elections. They spared no effort to cooperate with the new government led by Hamid Karzai.

“The maintenance of peace and stability and active participation of a large number of northern people in the presidential elections showed that our people are seriously thinking about the present and the future. Hamid Karzai was elected on the basis of his promises that he would fairly maintain a nationalcontribution in the new government. The hopes of the majority of people of Afghanistan, especially the northern people, changed to disappointment after the announcement of the new cabinet.

“A comprehensive look at history shows that most of the problems and socio-political crisis are the result of racial discrimination and lack of national contribution to the government system. It is time to put an end to the once experienced and failed program by reviewing the tough and tyrannical years in the country.

“Unknown figures have been appointed for unimportant and symbolic ministries in an unfair manner. Representatives of everyone, from every part of Afghanistan, including the north, should be included in the government. As it seems the new cabinet of Afghanistan is a kind of linguistic and regional monopoly. Thepresidency and key ministries like the ministry of defense, interior, foreign affairs, finance, commerce, communication, rural rehabilitation and national security and some others have been given to one nationality [the text does not mention that these ministers are Pashtuns]. The extent of participation of others is trivial.

"The representatives of a large number of people such as the Uzbeks, northern Tajiks, Arabs, Aymaqs, and Turkmans cannot be observed in the cabinet or those who have been appointed in the new cabinet cannot represent these people in an effective way. Therefore, we announce our legitimate and peaceful objection against the unfair composition of Hamid Karzai's new cabinet. We ask him as thepresident of Afghanistan, who belongs to all Afghans, to revise his administration by taking into consideration the above-mentioned issues and historic experiences of Afghan society. "First of all, he should employ real representatives of people in the government system in order to maintain and strengthen national unity, stability and democracy and rebuild the united country. Secondly, he should rid his cabinet of the narrow-minded and nationalist figures who create racial and linguistic discrimination.

The president can be hopeful and his program can be carried out successfully and he will be supported by the people if he does so." (Amin Tarzi)

Tribal clans suggest administering a punishment for illegal acts, to help government achieve its aims
Pajhwok Afghan News 01/06/2005 By Abdul Majid Arif

KHOST - Representatives of tribal clans in the southern Khost province, say they would set fire to houses and charge a fine,if people were found growing poppy, cutting down forests or involved in terrorist activities, and will take it upon themselves to hand over the guilty party to officials.

In a meeting held in Khost on Monday, tribal leaders from the Mangal, Tanai, Zazai, Zini Khil, Gorbaz, Sabarai, Zadran and other clans signed a resolution, promising better tribal cooperation with the government in the prevention of such crimes.

Part of the resolution presented by the leaders said: "If anybody plants a bomb or causes a disturbance in the residential area of any tribe, leaders of the same tribe will be responsible to find the perpetrator and hand him over to government officials."

And whoever resorts to opposing the government, by taking any disruptive action, will be fined 100,000 Afghanis and will have their house burnt. The head of the tribal affairs department in Khost, Sultan Mohammad Babrakzai, who hosted the meeting, points out the serious nature of the decision: "According to the declaration, tribal elders are accountable for hunting down the offenders."

Correspondents say, the authority and influence of tribal leaders has a long standing history in Khost province, and their decisions are respected more than any other decree.

This was demonstrated, in the recent, October presidential elections, in areas under their control, where the polls were said to have run smoothly without any incident.

Babrakzai appeared confident that the tribal leaders could help prevent offences, which they branded illegal. "We are sure the tribes can help definitely." Copies of the resolution were distributed to all districts of Khost and its text was published by local radio, he said.

Afghan unemployment figures not on the rise says labor minister but the people disagree
Pajhwok Afghan News 01/06/2005 By Makia Munir
KABUL - Dozens of young and old laborers clad in suitable work clothes, carrying the tools of their trade gathered in a suburb of Kabul City in search of work, so that they could earn a better living and provide for their families.

On the outskirts of Kabul, Taimani Sqaure is a common place for skilled laborers and jobless people to congregate in search of any kind of manual work. Painters and stone masons also assembled in large crowds at Karte Parwan, Pul-e-Surkh Karte Sey, Chelsetoon, Pule Khishti and many more. Cars and pick-up trucks stop on the side, to see if they want to hire anyone.

According to Afghan government figures, the unemployment in the country is low. But most people living in the country and experts believe that the unemployment figures are high, as shown by the influx of Afghan people coming in from the regional provinces in search of work.

Experts say the number of manual laborers looking for work has increased with the establishment of the Interim Administration, because of the great number of people repatriated from Pakistan and Iran on the invitation of the central government. Both educated and illiterate people are affected by unemployment in Afghanistan.

Abdullah, a man with an education, was one standing among the crowd at Taimani Square. Speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News, he said: "I am a high school graduate, and in order to earn money, I have to do masonry work or anything else I can lay my hands on."

Wrapped up warmly against the cold winter and wearing a tough pair of black boots, he added: "I am very annoyed with the fact that I myself, and my countrymen are suffering from this condition because I can see that they like me earn money, with great difficulty."

The government, he said, should prioritize the building of factories to reduce the number of jobless people. Before the civil war, Afghan people were busy working in factories, which turned into rubble and ruin later. So, the people headed to neighboring countries in search of employment.

After the establishment of the Interim Administration, some private factories manufacturing blankets, cutting stone and others were built and this created employment for some. But a few factories can't alleviate the pain of the many number of laborers who are unemployed.

The deputy minister for labor and social affairs, Mohammad Ghows Bashiri, refuses to accept the increase in unemployment and told Pajhwok that, based on the surveys carried out, unemployment in the country is not on the increase, and most professional and educated people are employed in different fields.

He added that unemployment exists among people with no professional or vocational training. According to him, there are technical training centers created in Kabul to train those wanting to learn a vocation or a profession.

Bashiri said that technical training centers are also to be formed in the frontier regions of the country, in the near future, to train those returning to the country, so that they could earn a living.

But all these promises proved futile to a fifty-year-old man, Nowroz, who in a grumbling voice said: "I was working at a raisin processing factory. Although the salary didn't suffice my family needs, but I was better off then than this wandering around."

Pointing to his beard he said, "I stand here everyday with this white beard in this cold weather to get a job but most of the time I don't get it because young people are preferably hired for the labor."

According to Nowroz, the government has first to work for the indigent and poor, and then the others. Zalmai, a young boy who came from Pakistan two years ago says there is no chance of working in the government offices without a higher education.

"The government officials should think to themselves that it is a lot for the people to have studied at a high school in such hard, tough conditions, when earning money is very difficult for people."

He believes that an education was accessible to those having had a calm and developed life but not for those who were either fleeing from one province to another due to fighting or migrating to Iran and Pakistan in search of employment. A number of experts regard the creation of factories as the solution to the problem.

However, Qaseem Akhgar, an expert in political affairs says that to eradicate joblessness, first investors should be provided with facilities to build factories. Secondly, an administrative reform and a clean-up of the departments should be brought about, because reforms of the administrative system can bring about employment opportunities.

Akhgar suggested that short-term loans be given to refugees, who represented a large number of the unemployed people, and given more facilities. On the other hand, some experts don't regard the government as the only source to employ people.

Saifuddin Saihoon, Kabul University Economics teacher says it is not just the government which is responsible to employ all those people graduating from universities and other academic institutions. Organizations in the private sector should recruit them too.

Despite what he says, Saihoon blames the government for not regulating a good policy. He says it can't activate those government structures because of lack of a budget. Most donor countries aren't determined to invest and develop big projects, but rather they develop small projects such as embroidery.

These people waiting for hours on the streets of Kabul to find work, are still optimistic for the day when they would be working in factories through which they would easily make their livelihood.

Injuries and deaths caused by unexploded ordnance in Afghanistan
News-Medical.Net 01/07/2005
Unexploded military material in Afghanistan cause more injuries and deaths than landmines especially among children, according to research published on bmj.com today.

Over 6,000 injuries were attributed to landmines and unexploded ordnance - which includes weapons, ammunition, combat vehicles, and equipment - from January 1997 to September 2002. Of these, 57% of injuries in 2002 were caused by unexploded ordnance compared to 36% by landmines - an exact reverse of statistics from 1997.

Children aged 5-14 years are the most at risk group, according to the researchers. Almost half (42%) of injuries caused by unexploded ordnance in children were due to the tampering or playing with explosives. Among landmine injuries in children, the proportion due to tampering or playing was three times lower (14%).

The researchers analysed data from the surveillance database on injuries due to unexploded ordnance and landmines, maintained by the United Nations Mine Action Center for Afghanistan.

They point out that in 2000-2, Afghanistan had the highest number of reported casualties due to landmines and unexploded munitions in the world.

The researchers suggest that factors such as high visibility may contribute significantly to the numbers of deaths and injuries in children by unexploded ordnance.

Munitions should therefore be designed to be less attractive and visible to children and the debate on landmines should be widened to include threats posed by other military material.

A people in pain
The Star 01/06/2005 By Madhu pillai (Review) - The Storyteller's Daughter Author: Saira Shah Publisher: Penguin Group
SPINNING tales of the mystical gardens, orchards with fountains and singing birds overlooking snow-topped mountains and the minarets of Kabul peopled by proud and fearless warriors, Idris Shah keeps alive the memory of Paghman, their ancestral home in Afghanistan, in the fertile mind of his daughter, Saira Shah.

As a descendant of a displaced Afghan family, which traces its lineage back to Fatima, the daughter of the holy Prophet Muhammad, growing up in Britain, Saira Shah finds these tales of magic and mystery a welcome escape. Fuelled by these dreams of a lost wonderland and not wholly accepted by her British counterparts, she is enticed to travel to Afghanistan to discover for herself the lost kingdom so lovingly portrayed by her father.

However, The Storyteller's Daughter is not merely a story of Saira Shah's search for her own identity; it is also the story of a nation struggling to find its own identity. Saira begins the pursuit of her dream at the age of 21, venturing into Afghanistan as a fledgling correspondent during the times of the Soviet occupation in the mid-1980s. What she sees and experiences, far from being a deterrent, compels her to return to film the documentary Beneath the Veil, which reveals the devastation of women's lives by the Taliban.

The plucky Saira, who dons a burqa and risks her life to film the acclaimed documentary, also goes on to film a follow-up, Unholy War. The Storyteller's Daughter is a vivid description of her discovery of a whole new world, her own extended family, the traditional aspects of Afghan family and community rituals, a world of male supremacy and the indomitable, unquenchable spirit of Afghan women. It gives the reader a unique insight into the plight of Afghans both within the beleaguered nation as well as those displaced and living in the fringes and beyond.

In the process, it also follows the disintegration of Saira's youthful idealism and romanticised dreams of her father's remembered past and the growth of knowledge of the grim realities of a country reeling from years of devastating civil war.

The Storyteller's Daughter is also a narration of the strength and nobility of the human spirit and hope. While not in any way a comprehensive history of Afghanistan, the Taliban, Islam or the role of the West in the nation, The Storyteller's Daughter gives the reader a deeper understanding of Afghanistan and its people, which to most, is little known and much misunderstood.

More importantly, it gives a human face to the conflicts in this troubled land. It is a vivid representation of the complexities and rich cultural heritage of the country, the conflict that has ravaged that country for decades, as well as the seeds that gave rise to the upsurge of Islamic fundamentalism. Saira's narrative, which is intricately interwoven with the fables of her childhood, also gives readers a glimpse into the past glories of the nation against the backdrop of its current devastation.

Saira Shah weaves her tale with sensitivity and relative objectivity. Although she goes through many harrowing episodes throughout her journeys – facing land mines, frostbite, Islamic extremists and being shelled and shot at – she relates it all without descending into excessive sentimentality, pity or any proclamations of courage. She displays, through her narration, the pride and the fearless courage her father attributes to the Afghan people.

The most poignant segments of The Storyteller's Daughter revolve around her experiences with memorable people she meets during her forays into this forbidding world, which give the reader intimate snapshots of the lives of the Afghans. From the generosity of Uncle Mirza, the understated rivalry between his formidable wife Auntie Soraya and Aunt Amina to the vain strutting Pushtun Commander Zahir Shah who delays their journey into Afghanistan due to a lack of appropriate footwear, we are given glimpses of cultural practices, personalities and conflicts; the destitute Kabul family which feigns eating to put their guest at ease and the episode with the empty sugar bowl portray the pride and generosity of the people; the defiant female teacher and her secret school for female students display the courage and hope of the people for future generations; the practicality and courage of the three young girls who had seen their mother viciously murdered by the Taliban; to the wounded Afghan mujahid who viciously rejects Saira's offer of assistance and threatens her; we get a rare glimpse into the psyche of the land and the difference in realities: "I told him how the old man had refused our help – how he had turned down a house, insisted he needed the girls to do the housework, and had even demanded that we buy him a wife. I expected him to be as indignant as I. But he just said, in his slow way; 'If their father remarried, I guess those children would have a mom. It seems to me that what that old man probably needs is a wife.'"

The Storyteller's Daughter goes beyond a historical narrative. Saira's thought-provoking, moving and beautifully written observation, shaped by the sheer magnitude of the human misery she encounters, lends a deeper understanding of self and human nature. It evokes a world full of complexities beyond individual preconceived ideas.

In Saira Shah's words: "? there are no absolutes in our fragmentary world; the divisions we create and believe in are artificial. Time itself is no straight line of ordered progress, but an endlessly repeating cycle – throughout our lives and throughout history – from which we are at liberty to learn if we wish. The rest is a swirling mass, a primal force, a dust cloud of thundering feet and shouting voices, the thrill of the chase, the cutting down and the building up."