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01/05/2004: "Kandahar Chronicles #50 - 01/01/2004"

Happy New Year. We just told about a third of our staff that they will probably be out of a job in a months time. Not a very nice way to begin but if we are to have any chance of starting up the health care in Zhare Dasht again it will have to be with a reduced presence and on an irregular schedule. We are vulnerable to attack on the road out to the camp and our past practice of running minivans full of staff on a predictable time schedule is potentially, asking for trouble. On top of this, the level of care we were providing far exceeds that available in the surrounding communities. It’s a balancing act when dealing with a displaced population located in the midst of an existing one. If the existing community also suffers from things such as inadequate health care, then it is easy for a feeling of resentment to build. While the presence of the IDPs creates employment possibilities for the locals, as they are outsiders, their presence can also lead to tension. Afghans often have stronger ties to their ethnic group than to the concept Pan-Afghan nationalism.

Approximately 40% of the population is made up of Pashtuns who live primarily in a large crescent shaped belt down the eastern border with Pakistan, through the southern region and up the western border with Iran reaching almost to Heart in the northwest. There are also many scattered populations elsewhere around the country as well as 14 to 15 million in Pakistan. The second largest are the Tajiks, followed by the Hazaras, Uzbeks, Turkmen and so on. President Hamid Karzai is Pashtun as are the majority of the Taliban support base. To further complicate matters is the tribal make up within some of these ethnic groups. Within the Pashtun group, eleven major tribes often bicker among themselves as much as they do with the other groups. Ethnic boundaries are neither clearly defined nor racial homogeneity maintained. Resentments stemming from wars centuries ago still exist to this day. The Soviet-Afghan war shattered any delicate relationships among these groups and this is aggravated by what many people feel is greed amongst the leaders trying to secure personal power and wealth.

I could go on for pages about the role of Sunni and Shia sects to the minor cultural differences that are often scorned by the different ethnic groups. For MSF and our role here, it demonstrates the importance in not only maintaining our neutrality in the wider context but also respecting the need to understand the less obvious differences that make up the people of this country and try our best to avoid alienating anyone.