Why I wanted to come face to face with a member of the Taliban I am at a loss to explain. The Taliban represent just about everything I find repulsive. Morbid fascination? Maybe. But I could not take my eyes off him. Our fourth day began at the Peace and Reconciliation Commission, run by Professor Akram Mihhazar. The professor part escaped me. He was going to introduce us to a recovering Taliban. And not just any Taliban! A serious one; the former Communications Director for the Taliban.
After about thirty minutes of information about the successes of the Peace and Reconciliation Commission, Saider Rahmin was trotted out. No surprises in his looks or demeanor. His attire gave him away. He looked deadly serious and spoke in a quiet monotone, looking at the floor most of the time. I found myself wishing he would stop scratching his beard. I kept thinking about the things lurking inside, information I just didn't want cluttering my mind.
Saider now recruits Taliban members into the process set up by the Commission. Less than ten percent of the current Taliban is ideologically driven. Many are recruited from a national army that has yet to figure out how to shoot straight. Apparently, the $300 dollars a month offered to soldiers by the Taliban, beats the room, board and $200 compensation offered by the military. Understandably, the desertion rate from the Army is about 40 percent. Maybe paying them more than they get from the Taliban would be a good place to start if we are serious about winning the hearts and minds of the people. Good retention strategy, too.
The rest are recruited from masses of males who are seeking revenge for a US drone that bombed their village or killed a friend or relative. Many are men who are frustrated that they do not have any means to earn a living or simply want some sense of security. At our peril, we forget out-of-control hormones as a complicating factor. Women are off-limits to them. Unless, of course, they are beating them for showing a patch of flesh.
According to the professor, 8,000 men (close to 1,000 of whom have been released from prison) have taken part in the Commission's program. They have officers in all the provinces helping to lure the Taliban into the process. If the rehabilitation is successful--by what measure, we could not determine--the saved souls get papers showing that they are no longer members of the Taliban. They have to agree to certain conditions, such as turning in all their weapons, and are given a piece of land and some kind of job.
It can be a tricky situation what with a plethora of warlords still roaming the countryside. As it turns out, we're not the only ones who don't particularly like the Taliban. Neither do the Northern Alliance warlords who the Taliban defeated in the civil war that broke out after the Russians withdrew in the late 1980's. They harass and jail each other whenever they can. Our previous night's dinner companion, Northern Alliance warlord, Haji, is living quite nicely on the money the US gave him to fight the Taliban. Needless to say, these two intra-Afghan forces are working at cross purposes with each other. As usual, Afghan civilians are the losers.
To complicate things, the Pakistani Taliban does not appreciate deserters so they often go after the rehabilitated Afghan Taliban, even kill them. It gets very complicated. Both men agreed that securing the Pakistan boarder should be a top priority and that listening to Pakistan's intelligence is counter productive.
The bottom line for these two men is that the US military presence is essential for the security of Afghanistan until the National Army and Police can be trained adequately. That, they believe, is not going to happen with a government as corrupt and loaded with warlords and Taliban members as the current government is. Neither the Taliban nor the Northern Alliance wants the government to succeed. More troops are not going to make things any better. Could the situation be more complicated? So much testosterone!
What a relief to go to Afghans for Tomorrow, a grades one through seven school for girls who were deprived of an education under the Taliban. There were teenagers in first grade. Many of the girls were, in fact, young women in their twenties. What a joy to see how earnest they were to better themselves! They were eager to know what we were doing there and to tell us what they wanted for their future. Education, education, education.
Their supplies were meager. As many as three girls were stuffed into a desk meant for one. One visible means of funding was a small craft shop containing an assortment of bead work, bags and woven hats. Needless to say, we all bought the fruits of their labor and happily overpaid for everything.
Back at Guest House #10, we met Noreen MacDonald, a Canadian woman who works for the Mercator Fund, a network of European foundations. She has lived in Afghanistan for five years and actually owns a house in one of the southern provinces, in the heart of Taliban country. She presents as one tough woman, one not likely to be harassed by the Taliban. She lives near an internally displaced refugee camp where there has been no food relief since March of 2006. The angry, frustrated, unemployed men there are ripe for the plucking by the Taliban. She calls them AYM's: angry young men.
If poppies were food, Afghans would be fat and happy. Well, not quite but notwithstanding the worldwide shortage of morphine, there is no effort to intervene in the sale of the poppies to the Taliban. Countries with a shortage of morphine should be out-bidding the Taliban for the poppies. Ironically, there is not one drop of morphine available in Afghanistan. Where are the pharmaceutical companies when we need them? Oh--I know! Lobbying Congress to secure their profits.
Noreen talked about "non-violent security instruments" that should be directed towards the 80% of AYM's between the ages of 18 and 25 who are unemployed, angry, single and, of course, the prime targets for the Taliban. If part of our strategy were to give the non-violent security instruments of marriage, land and child allowances, job training and opportunities (including training for the national security forces), to the AYM's, the long-term benefits would be a bargain. Noreen's view of the Afghan security forces was consistent with what we have heard from others. They are aspirational at best.
It was always a challenge to get from point A to point B in Kabul. As foul as the public spaces tend to be, the interior spaces often are green and tidy. That was the case for the home of Shinkai Karokhail, a feisty Member of Parliament who welcomed us into her home. In 1991, she founded the Women's Educational Center. She strongly believes that peace education and conflict resolution should be taught in every school. Yet she has no illusions about the prospects of wielding enough influence to make that or anything else progressive happen in a Karzai government.
Karzai would never approach a woman to hear her point of view. Women parliamentarians are treated terribly both inside and outside of government. The men were forced to draw up a Constitution that required at least 25% of parliamentarians to be women. They see it as a ceiling grudgingly to achieve. She clearly is angry that women have no choices, cannot own property and have to live at the mercy of men.
Seventy-five percent of Afghanistan's population is rural and uneducated. Sixty percent of women are married before they are sixteen. Only twenty-five percent of the country has electricity. She reeled off one distressing statistic after another, basically laying them at the feet of men who do not understand Islam. According to her, Islam does not allow selling daughters; men and women are equal under Islam; and women can own property. It is the illiterate male fundamentalists who have perverted Islam.
Shinkai is neither for nor against more US troops. That said, she was quick to point out that the cost of one US soldier could pay for 70 Afghan soldiers, a statistic we have heard before. She is very clear that the boarder with Pakistan must be made secure. If that were where more US troops were to be sent, she would welcome them. If the boarder is open, the Taliban can flee to Pakistan for safety.
We thanked her for her hospitality and went back outside to the chaos and the kites. Kites are in the most incongruous places. Everywhere. Freely floating, delicate, beautiful kites rising as if, on the other end, the holder were seeing a way out of Afghanistan.
Dinner that night was blessedly low key and simple. Nooria and Asad invited us to their home again where we lounged on couches and ate Afghan pizza. Don't ask.
