[Previous entry: "Kandahar Chronicles #1 - 13/08/2003"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Kandahar Chronicles #3 - 16/08/2003"]

08/16/2003: "Kandahar Chronicles #2 - 15/08/2003"

As this is only the second installment of these chronicles, I didn't
want to get into security issues until I'd had a chance to go into a
few details of what it is we are trying to do here. However, events
over the last two weeks and particularly in the last few days have put
security matters first and foremost throughout the country.
Humanitarian aid organizations by the very nature of their work
frequently operate in areas of conflict and because of this both
expats and national staff must accept that there are certain risks
associated with this kind of work. Violence can come with the
suddeness of a motorcycle ambush or with the patience of a landmine.
Security assessments are carried out by representatives of the various
NGOs in weekly meetings to try to gauge where incidents might be
leading but this is at best an inexact science.


In the last forty eight hours, sixty three people have been killed in
Afghanistan as a result of politically motivated attacks.I've just
finished reading the security updates we receive from our head office
and from UNAMA, UN Assistance Mission Afghanistan. Fifteen people
killed in a bus when a bomb exploded. It was believed that a man was
carrying it to the southern city of Lashkagar to disrupt the
Independence day celebrations scheduled for August 19th when it went
off prematurely.Twenty five people killed when an armed group loyal to
an ousted provincial official in Uruzgan clashed with an armed group
loyal to his successor. Fifteen Taliban claimed killed by the Afghan
army in a clash in the south. Six policemen killed by the Taliban in
an ambush in Helmand District. The list goes on. The motivation for
killing varied.

These kinds of trends become a matter of great concern to NGO workers
in a volatile country like Afghanistan. We are a political target.
Mullah Omer, the former head of the Taliban government, released a
statement last week from his refuge claiming that western aid agencies
are a great threat to Islam and that any Afghans found working for the
Americans or aid agencies will be killed. In the last week three NGO
national staff have been killed in ambushes and three injured. There
has been a resurgence of Taliban guerilla activity throughout the
country but particularly in the southern provinces which were their
traditional areas of support. Approximately 12000 US troops continue
to scour the country looking for them and their Al Queda allies but
Afghanistan is a natural fortress and for some recent coalition
successes they remain active.

There has been a noticeble increase in the level of tension in town
with the coming of the Independence day celebrations. Under the
Taliban, celebrations of any kind, along with music, dancing,
television, shaving, failing to pray or a hundred other things were
deemed illegal/immoral by the Taliban office PVPV - Prohibition of
Vice and Promotion of Virtue, (or something like that). Failure to
adhere to any of these principles could land someone at the very least
in jail overnight and their head shaved. Kandahar city officials are
busy having lights strung throughout the city in preparation of the
celebrating, music, dancing etc., and rumours have begun to surface
about groups of Taliban fighters infiltrating into the city with the
intent of stirring up trouble. Needless to say, parade day for expats
will be spent behind the high walls of our compound drinking chai and
monitering the radio.

Every mission has its dangers. In Liberia, the Congo and Iraq some NGO
missions have been temporarily shut down or are operating with reduced
staff due to fighting. In my mission, myself and another expat came to
assist the excellent national staff here restart some programs after
the previous expat team had to be evacuated three months earlier. Most
NGOs strive to maintain a position of strict neutrality and many of
the organizations still here operated in Afghanistan during the reign
on the Taliban and therefore had dealings with them. At times it seems
even certain events such as next years scheduled national elections
loom like dark clouds on the political horizen. At present we are on
UN Level 3 state of awareness with the prospect of Level 4 likely.
Level 5 I believe is evacuation. Until security experts make an
assessment of the situation it's business as usual, although with a
very low profile.