RESTORING PEACE IN A WARTORN COUNTRY:
PEACEKEEPERS AND AFGHANISTAN
Ali Gohar
RESTORING PEACE IN AFGHANISTAN
Over and above local, regional, and national systems of criminal justice, the
world community, today, helps to ensure peace through the deployment of United
Nations peacekeepers. Unfortunately, such peacekeepers are usually tasked to
a situation after the indigenous population has been through years of conflict.
While the uniforms may change, the psyche of the population remains the same.
A man with a rifle is a man with a rifle! The peace efforts of peacekeepers
remain, at first anyway, mostly unnoticed to the common people. A situation
exacerbated when peacekeepers are seen wounding, killing, and destroying infrastructure.
While the peacekeeping forces may explain such actions by noting
self-defence, or the war on terrorism, the indigenous population sees only the
continuation of the wounding, the killing, and the destruction of their homes
and communities by those in uniform. This is not forgotten when peacekeepers
engage in reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts. You destroy, you build, you
destroy. You hurt, you heal, you hurt. It is a vicious cycle with no end, and little
hope in sight. If Western governments truly wish to bring peace to Afghanistan,
they must change the way they go about peacekeeping. While it would be
ludicrous to suggest that armed United Nations peacekeepers withdraw entirely,
leaving those tasked with reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts defenceless
in a dangerous and war-ravaged environment, it is not ludicrous to suggest that
frontline contact, with common people, be more in line with aid organizations
who try to understand indigenous culture and traditions while fostering dialogue,
than with those brandishing arms.
How can peace ever expect to garner a toehold when peacekeepers hold
their fingers ‘ever ready’ on triggers, while the local populace fearfully looks
upon those very same peacekeepers as nothing more than a substitute to the
previous occupying forces? Without the establishment of trust, any and all
reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts, on the part of the West, will be for not.
Until the cycle of violence is visibly broken, the common people of Afghanistan
will continue to feel themselves in a warlike situation. Hate will propagate, and
attacks will continue. Because much of the local population has been victimized
by violence for so long, the first step in this process must be taken by the West.
United Nations peacekeepers need to withdraw to defensive positions where
they can be called upon, only when necessary, to protect the front line aid
workers who will live amongst, and converse with the locals. Only this will
enable trust to become established.
THE AFGHANISTAN SITUATION
From Halkoo, through Chengaz Khan and Alexander the Great, to the British
and Russian Forces, Afghanistan is a country that has never accepted foreignoccupation. The Afghan are renowned for their fierce spirit of independence.
WHO ARE THE AFGHANS?
Afghanistan is home to a rich and diverse cultural history dating back five
millennia. Over twenty distinct ethnicities have been identified in Afghanistan.
The dominant ethnic community is the Pukhtton (Pashtun) people, constituting
approximately 50 per cent of the population, while Dari (Persian) is the predominant
language spoken. The majority of Pukhtoon earn a living through animal
husbandry and agriculture, as well as some trade.
The second largest community is the Tajik, who account for approximately
25 per cent of the population. They are identified with farming, and are located
mostly in the eastern fertile valleys both to the north and to the south of the
Hindu-Kush mountain range.
The other ethnic groups to be found living in Afghanistan are the Uzbek and
Turkmen. These northern plains people are primarily farmers and herders.
They comprise approximately 11 per cent of the population. The Hazaras, a
Mongoloid Persian speaking people, live in the central mountains. The Nuristanis
inhabit the high mountain region in the east, and the Balochi live in the desert
area to the south. Each of these three populations comprise approximately 1 per
cent of the population.
Traditional Afghan culture relies heavily on kinship and family loyalty. Afghans,
despite their many ethnicities, languages, and traditions, are united by
their commitment to Islam. In traditional Afghan culture, a family’s reputation is
closely linked to maintaining Islamic culture and values. One tradition has been
the purdah, the segregation of women from men. The purdah includes protecting
the family’s honour by limiting a woman’s interaction in the public sphere.
One example of this is the wearing of the burqa, a cloth that covers all physical
features, by women when in public.
Due its geopolitical importance, Afghanistan has historically been target for
foreign domination by powers intent to exert their influence within the region.
The most recent of these foreign attempts involved the deployment of the Soviet
Union’s 40th Army, on December 25, 1979, in support of Afghanistan’s Marxist
People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (the PDPA) against the rebel
Mujahideen insurgents, who found support with the United States, Pakistan,
and other Muslim nations. After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan on
February 15, 1989 the conflict continued between various Mujahideen factions
and camps. It was out of this struggle that the Taliban came to power, occupying
almost all of Afghanistan, with the exception of the north. The Taliban were
overthrown by western forces in order to facilitate the establishment of the
democratic government of President Karazai.
Armed Forces from thirty six NATO, nine partner, and two non-NATO countries
are still waging war in Afghanistan in their hunt for al-Qaeda and Taliban
insurgents. The suicide attacks of the insurgents kill, and maim, not only their
intended targets, but many bystanders. The indiscriminate fire, and bombardments,
of the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, has also claimed
its share of unintended targets. There is no way around it, innocent peoplecontinue to be the fodder that is known simply as collateral damage.
THE SNAPSHOT THAT IS AFGHANISTAN
Population: 25,838,797 (July 2000, est.)
Area: 652,000 sq km
GDP: $21 billion (1999 est.)
Ethnic groups: Pashtun 38%, Tajik 25%, Uzbek 6%, Hazara 19%
Minor ethnic groups 12% ( Aimaks, Turkman, Baloch, other)
Religions: Sunni Muslim 84%, Shi’a Muslim 15%, other 1%
Languages: Pashtun 35%, Afghan Persian (Daari) 50%, Turkic
languages (primarily Uzbek and Turkmen) 11%, 30 minor
languages (primarily Balochi and Pashai) 4%. There is
much bilingualism also.
UNDER THE SURFACE:
The old Pustho proverb that: a village rabbit can easily be caught by the
village dog because the dog knows everything about the village is helpful in
explaining why the combined armed forces, some 30,000 troops in total) from
thirty six NATO countries has failed to bing about peace to a region tamed by the
Taliban.
The Taliban originate from the region and are intimately acquainted
with the prevailing customs, traditions, language and psyche of the population
of Afghanistan. As such, from the start the Taliban were intimately aware of the
value to be gained from tapping into the concept of jihad, this time focussed
toward NATO, not Soviet troops. While the uniforms have changed, the seeds of
hatred had already been planted from previous fighting. The religious dichotomy
of ‘othering’ has been used, on both sides, to fuel the hatred. Muslims, the
world over, are hearing the call to defend Islam while feeling the affects of
Western hatred, and fear, via the increase in racism. Both sides are engaged in
a vicious circle of hate, out of which violence is to be expected.
The lack of a centralized government within Afghanistan has led to governmental
corruption along with the entrenchment of local War Lords. The common
Afghan people, like everyone wish to live in peace and prosperity, but are
angry as they see no end to the war and exploitation around them. This is how
the traditional systems of jirga5 has become so easily co-opted. Corrupt officials,
insurgents, and War Lords alike claim themselves jirga members. Desperate,
and angry, common people answer the call of jirga in the hope of bringing
change. Rampant unemployment, crushing inflation, a lack of educational opportunities,
and almost non-existent health care abound even now, five years
after the fall of the Taliban. Electricity for domestic use is available to the people
of Kabul, the capital, only on alternate days, and only for a few hours per day.
Even during the day, lights are visible within the compounds of the Peacekeepers.
The short-sighted and ill thought marriage of the War on Terrorism to the
War on Drugs has a great potential to cripple the reconstruction efforts of the
West within Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s major cash crop is the poppy! Focussing
upon poppy eradication, without first putting in place other avenues for local
farmers to make a living will only add to the already rampant unemployment.
This is simply asking for problems, especially since there is a legitimate market
for opiate production in the form of pain killing medicine.
The fact that the ISAF patrol in a somewhat aggressive and culturally thoughtless
manner only compounds local resistance to Peacekeepers. Both the media
and the ISAF have notified the local population, through print and electronic
media, that no one should overtake an ISAF while it is on patrol. Suicide attacks
on ISAF patrols have been known to ellicit indiscriminate defensive fire that
sees, in the end, the deaths of many innocent civilians. During house searches,
Afghan families are routinely dishonoured when their women are touched,
grabbed, and unveiled. When women are dishonoured, the only option open to
the family is revenge.
Afghan people have never experienced the casualties, nor the level of violence,
that has come with the ISAF. This has led many to discuss the difference
between the Russian invasion and the present. One direct question, arising out
of such discussions, is whether the ISAF is on the ground to protect the people
and help rebuild a nation, or there to keep a friendly government in power, even
at the expense of the common people.
This is not to say that the vast majority of the Afghan people lay the blame
entirely upon the laps of corrupt officials and the ISAF. The peaceful people of
Afghanistan know that it is hard, sometimes even impossible, to discriminate
between insurgents, whether those insurgents be Taliban, al-Qaeda, or simply a
commoner bent on revenge for a past injustice, from the ordinary mass of
civilians going about their daily lives. By restricting avenues of contact, by
giving up on opportunities to engage in dialogue, by labelling the population as
terrorist friendly, the West is fostering negativity, and possibly violence, from the
indigenous population.
Afghanistan additionally finds itself a divided country. There are blatant
distinctions between the north and the south, and between urban and rural life.
The Afghan internal political situation is divided on an ethnic basis. The north
has more representation and influence than does the south. The north is more
developed, while the south is home to most of the fighting.
The NGO (non-governmental organization) community in Afghanistan faces
security threats that both the Afghan government and the ISAF are not in a
position to deal with on the whole. As a result, their activities are focussed
primarily upon urban areas. As a result, rural Afghanistan remains pretty much
untouched by any rebuilding, medical, and educational advances the West is
trying to implement. The small amount of NGO activity that does venture forth
into rural Afghanistan generally encounters resistance to goal implementation
from both sides. Those who work for NGO’s, and UN sister agencies, either do
not know how to develop communications with local elders, or they are afraid of
them. For their part, the local leadership within rural Afghanistan rails against
local and foreign NGO’s, whom they fear have arrived to spread vulgarity and
question the basic principles of traditional religious life so as to promote an
outside political and religious agenda. Such tugs-of-war only retards the developmental
process in most of the rural communities within the east, south and west of Afghanistan.
A further drawback of foreign NGO’s is that they want to implement processes
that will bring about immediate change according to the expectations of
outsiders. Basic ideological differences are very much ignored in such a scenario.
There is little, if any, time given for compromise with, or education of, the
local leadership. This lack of empowering the indigenous leadership basically
spells the end to any sustainability for a project as there will be little community
support. The projects life-cycle will be limited to outside funding. Once that
funding is removed, the project will die.
While both foreign governments and NGO’s raise the legitimate issue of human
rights violations, specifically in regard to the rights of women, they often do
so in a counterproductive, and possibly simplistic, way. Outsiders do not typically
take the time to familiarize themselves with traditional cultural and ethnic
ways that would serve to open dialogue and thus promote change. Especially
within rural Afghanistan, the elders of the community are still strong enough to
control the traditional system. It is these individuals who are in a position to
either foster, or resist, change. These people need proper linkages for education
and awareness.
The world must understand and appreciate that the elders of rural Afghanistan
are neither blind to situations at hand, nor simplistic in how they deal with
those situations. Foreign governments, and INGO’s, must acknowledge that the
Afghan elders to whom they are preaching, for example, gender balance slogans
are acutely aware that the West does not have all the answers. While the
West’s demands for women’s rights, for example the criticisms around the veil,
is heard, Afghan elders filter such messages through the knowledge of the West’s
overly sexualized culture and it’s indulgent use of alcohol. The elders of Afghanistan
are fully aware that those who demand full participation for all women
are from a culture that objectifies and sexualizes their women. If the West
wishes their culturally based messages to be given credence, then Westerners,
especially those on the ground in Afghanistan such as the Peacekeepers, must
demonstrate a respect for the prevailing values of the Afghan people, even if
those values are seen as wrong.
The majority of foreigners presently working in Afghanistan work for organizations
that wish to achieve certain targets designed to bring about positive
changes. Unfortunately, these positive changes are not always ‘perceived’ as
being positive by the Afghan people themselves. The above paragraph is a good
example of this. Further, Afghans, like anyone, can easily become resentful of
foreign ‘experts’ who show up, with budgets, and start dictating their targets to
the locals while spending a large amount of money upon their own food, security,
and logistical considerations. Under such circumstances, (disrespect for
local customs and values coupled with a preoccupation with personal indulgence),
how can anyone expect anything but resistance?
Aside from direct consideration of Peacekeepers, the international community,
especially the West, must keep in mind that neighbouring countries have
different interests in Afghanistan. The only country that is under tremendous
criticism is Pakistan, where 1.6 million Afghan refugees reside. It is common for
the world to view the tribal belt, an area that covers more than 12,000 miles
along the Afghan/Pakistan boarder, as ‘the’ refuge for anti-Western insurgents.
Pakistan, a country that itself experiences terrorist attacks, has deployed 80,000
troops to cover its boarder with Afghanistan; especially in the Wazirstan area.
The government of Pakistan has advocated for the employment of barbed wire
and mines be used to seal the boarder in order to check insurgent movement.
Afghanistan has resisted not out of loyalty to any insurgent movement, nor due
to any anti-Western thinking, but simply because such an undertaking would
weaken any claim on the Pukhtoon areas presently under Afghan influence within
Pakistan. Further, there is the politically motivated issue that Pakistan is not
happy with the influence that India is now exerting within Afghanistan.
THE WAY IN BETWEEN
Afghans have never accepted armed foreigners, invaders, peacekeepers,
Soviet or American, upon their soil, for whatever reason. Today, this is such a
danger because arms and ammunition are found in such abundance. NGO’s
offer a possible solution. Workers for these organizations not only work, but live
for a time, in rural areas. They typically take on the local dress, and they follow
the local traditions. Further, they seek local input in strategy development and
implementation. Such practices not only serve to make these workers less visible,
but additionally tend to facilitate their interactions with locals. While these
workers may be outsiders, they are not seen as preoccupied with their own
personal indulgences.
Foreign Peacekeepers can learn a lesson from how NGO’s work in the field.
Why is it that military officials are not able to develop policies that would see
small groups visit rural areas in order to develop lines of communications with
the local populace? This can easily be accomplished with the cooperation of
NGO staff. While Peacekeepers are known to give candy to children, the military
as a whole seems at a loss to take the next step and try to ingratiate themselves
into the indigenous culture. The Afghan Code of Life dictates that those who
arrive as guests be treated with respect. If Westerners became involved with
local life, learned the language, customs and dress, attended marriages and
funerals, then they would make inroads toward their acceptance, at the grass
roots level, that would never be achieved by showing up in force. Such practices
would also avoid some of the miscommunication conveyed to the ISAF force by
local informers regarding insurgents.
The international media has a role to play too. While full coverage is given to
the death and destruction caused by foreign insurgence, little, if any, coverage is
given to local custom. The international media can play an educational role.
The international media, rather than reporting on nothing more than death and
destruction, can introduce the Afghan people, their customs and traditions, their
way of life, to the World. While there is no magic cure for fear and hatred,
education has been shown, over and over again, to be an effective tool to combat
such negatives. If an armed peacekeeping force is being met with fear,
resentment, and resistance, then maybe it is time that the West rethinks its
strategy. The ISAF needs to develop supportive linkages with the developmental
agencies in a move away from the present coercive nature of their involvement
with the local people.
Development work in the city of Kabul, the capital, is nearly nonexistent as
far as work designed to benefit the average citizen goes . While there are
buildings under construction, the common infrastructure is in ruins. Sanitation
problems overflow onto streets unable to support transportation. Yet, when
representatives from NGO’s, and other agencies, speak at seminars and conferences,
one can listen to their self-appraising initiatives being implemented with
great success within different parts of Afghanistan. The problem is, even within
the NGO’s, the senior administration is so distanced from what is going on, ‘on
the ground’, that they are living in a different reality at times. This does not
mean that the administration of these NGO’s is necessarily corrupt or incompetent.
To a certain degree the circumstances of the Afghan situation dictate this
outcome. Outside Kabul, the roads heading toward the south and the east are
so unsafe that government officials and NGO staff hesitate to leave the city. If
those stopped by insurgents appear to be associated with either the government
or foreign NGO’s, they are kidnapped. This fact contributes greatly to why
rural Afghanistan is so distant to those in the cities making decisions.
NGO and ISAF leadership have a tendency to request consultation with local
Jirga’s, yet because both sides are so far apart, in all aspects, these consultations
are not productive. Elders listen, but are generally at a loss to understand
the very technical language used by outsiders. The NGO and ISAF leadership
have almost no knowledge about the internal dynamics of rural Afghan life and
the Jirga system. What happens is that the elders listen and forget, the NGO
and ISAF leadership talks but makes little, if any, effort at being understood.
Arbkai is a system where the local leadership within rural Afghanistan takes
responsibility for their communities. The Jirga needs to be utilized when either
the NGO’s and/or ISAF leadership engage in planning/consultation sessions with
the Afghan people. The Jirga would very much help to ensure that the restorative
elements of inclusion, (that both sides are in fact listening to the other), and
accountability, (that both sides agree to a plan of action and see it through), are
taken into account which would help to garner grass root support for projects.
The key to making this work is for the West to come to such discussions with an
understanding of the local language, customs, and traditions of the people.
Showing up with a small army and dictating how things will be done from then
on will only encounter resistance.
Again, America’s War on Drugs is germane. If the West continues to dictate
that certain crops, i.e., poppies, are not to be grown, and no alternatives for
poor farmers are viably offered, then the West is delusional that poppy growing
will cease. Yet, if the ISAF leadership was to sit down with the Afghan people, in
Jirga’s, and offer viable alternatives, alternatives which may even increase the
standards of living for poor farmers, then grass root support may come about.
Under such a scenario, poppy cultivation could either be substantially curtailed,
(why grow illegal crops when legal and more lucrative ways of making a living
are available), or its cultivation could continue, this time destined toward the
legal, painkiller, market that the West is so hungry for.
With the support of rural Afghanistan, the West would take a major step
toward achieving peace withing the country. With a curtailment of the violence
then issues pertaining to human rights could move to the forefront.
CONCLUSION
Not that long ago the Afghan nation received a tremendous amount of moral,
logistical, and even military support from the West in order to further resistance
to the Soviet occupation. During this time, poppy production was at its peak.
Vast amounts of Western weaponry and training, along with a large part of the
proceeds from poppy exportation, found its way into the hands of local War
Lords and criminals. Now that Western Peacekeepers have replaced the Soviet
army as an occupying force, the West is fighting its own weaponry and training.
The West has now adopted an approach, in Afghanistan, whereby material
support is given in order to reach certain targets and goals which have been
defined by the West as appropriate. These targets, and goals, are being
implemented primarily through the armed ISAF. The question is, ‘how would
you feel if an armed force showed up and demanded that your cultural norms
and customs needed to be changed’?
The Afghan people are fed up with war. They have been victims long enough.
Afghanistan’s youth want education, jobs, and better futures. What youth want
anything different? The resistance fighters in Afghanistan want their due share.
They want to be able to provide for their families. What rural farmer anywhere
in this world would not resist an armed force demanding that they stop making
a living? If the West truly wished to end poppy production, then the poor
farmers of rural Afghanistan must be given alternative ways to make a living; it
is that simple. Further, resistance movements in Afghanistan seek a voice in the
decision processes that affect what is going on in their part of Afghanistan.
Does the West not refer to such a process as Democracy?
If the West wishes to fight the War on Terror, then the Western countries
need to step back from their military occupation of foreign countries fed up with
living deprived and poverty stricken lives. Understanding, aid and development,
along with education need to replace military force. If any headway is to be
achieved in the War on Terror, both sides will need to work together.
Ali Gohar is executive director for Just Peace International,
a peace building and conflict transformation NGO based in
Peshawar Pakistan. In addition to a degree in International
Relations from Quaid-e-Azam University in Pakistan,
Ali holds a Masters degree in International Relations and
Conflict Transformation from Eastern Mennonite University.
Ali has co-written “The Little Book of Restorative Justice”
in the Pak-Afghan context and “Towards understanding
Pukhtoon Jirga: An indigenous way of peacebuilding
and more ....”.
Ali has worked as a Program Officer with Oxfam GB and
has served as an Additonal Commissioner in the Social
Welfare Cell for Afghan refugees as a project of the UNHCR
(United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees).
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