Opinion

Warlords Killed My Friend

The murder of Zakia Zaki, and her nation.

By Christopher Grabowski, 19 Jun 2007, TheTyee.ca

Zakia with ghettoblaster

Zaki at work at Radio Solh, 2003. Photo by C. Grabowski.

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In the summer of 2003, I sat in the dining room of the fortified UN compound in Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan drinking Russian vodka smuggled in from Tajikistan. At room temperature of 32º C, it tasted like industrial strength sake. The owner of the bottle, a Muslim UN worker from the former Yugoslavia, was telling me about the UN's efforts in preparing voters lists for the approaching election.

He regarded his work mostly as a PR campaign. In his words, anybody who believed that the upcoming Afghan election was going to even remotely resemble a democratic, western style, election was either "extremely naïve or plain stupid."

At that time, I regarded the cynicism of a burned out and disillusioned UN worker as premature. "After all," I thought, "you need to start somewhere." History however has proven my drinking buddy correct. Currently, both houses of the Afghan National Assembly are dominated by warlords of various affiliations. In January 2007, they legislated themselves immune to the charges of war crimes and human rights violations. Malalai Joya, the outspoken female member of the Assembly who opposed the bill, was simply "voted" out of this august body.

After Mazar-e-Sharif, I went to the small provincial town of Jabal Seraj where I met Zakia Zaki, the headmaster of the school for girls, who was also head of the local radio station, Radio Solh. I spent about a week at the station and during that time Zakia and her small crew sheltered me, educated me in the complex local history and political dynamics, and protected me from bad encounters in an environment where their own lives were far from secure.

Earlier this month, when I learned about Zakia's assassination, it struck me deeply, like a death in the family. She was murdered in her home in Jabal-e-Seraj, in her bed, with her one and a half year-old son beside her. Two men broke in through a window and shot her seven times.

Shutting off the radio

Our mainstream media, in their almost universal phobia of complexity, immediately went for the black and white picture of events. First, some agencies reported that Zakia's radio was founded by Americans, which is simply false. Then, our national newspaper ran a comment on Zakia's death under the headline: "The Taliban are silencing the voices of Afghanistan women." That one is true in general but not in connection to Zakia's death.

Jabal Seraj lies in the Shomali Plains, a Northern Alliance domain where the Taliban does not yet have a foothold. From a south-facing window on the top floor of Radio Solh one can see, in the distance, glittering dots moving slowly through the air. These are AC-130 flying dreadnoughts and Hercules transport planes approaching the American air base at Baghran.

This base, built originally by the Soviets on top of an ancient city founded by Alexander the Great, has been taken over by the Americans. It has been massively enlarged, modernized and outfitted with a detention center where the men and women of the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion perfected the interrogation methods later used at Abu Ghraib. In contrast, other Soviet investments in Afghanistan's infrastructure, like Kabul's public transportation system or Kandahar's main hospital, have not yet been brought up to full functionality.

As a matter of fact, the whole western investment in Afghanistan's civilian infrastructure probably still falls short of what the Soviets had done there in the '70s and '80s (most of which has been destroyed by the Mujahideen, the Taliban and by the American bombardment). Hardly any economy exists in Afghanistan today other than the business of war and the growing of poppies.

'Competing warlords'

An overwhelming portion of the western assistance to Afghanistan currently goes into financing what is being described as "providing security." But still, the ranking UN representative in Afghanistan, Tom Koenigs, emphasized in his June 2007 brief to the Security Council that: "Ensuring the rule of law should become a top priority for the government of Afghanistan and its international friends -- people are fed up."

Koenigs believes that "Afghanistan's political stability has been threatened by competing warlords."

Internews, an international organization supporting independent media, stated in its April 2007 report: "Despite the existence of Media Law in Afghanistan, the killing and torture of journalists is becoming a common thing."

Radio Solh and Zakia personally, were threatened repeatedly not by the Taliban but by the local warlords. Last year, one of the station crew was arrested based on the absurd accusation that he was planning an attack on a member of the National Assembly. He was imprisoned for 11 months and recently released without being charged. The governor of the province, however, imposed a gag order on both him and Radio Solh "so that this case could be over."

Independent media in Afghanistan have few allies. The threats and bullets come from the warlords as well as the Taliban. Karzai's government ministers routinely direct police to brutalize media outlets that deviate from the official party line.

Canada's efforts

Until 2005, Canada supported a loose media network of several radio stations (including radio Sohl) with free professional training. These stations were run, staffed and programmed by women. Shauna Sylvester, a former director of IMPACS, a Vancouver based NGO that was providing this training in Afghanistan, stated that she "will never fully understand [why] the Canadian International Development Agency decided to stop funding IMPACS's women's media program."

An Internet review of Canadian governmental and NGO pages reveals that our non-military assistance for Afghanistan has shifted toward direct support of the Karzai government's day-to-day doings and to a number of welfare programs of very limited scope that, although noble in design, would have no visible impact on Afghan society at large.

The American-led coalition's involvement in Afghanistan is forming a now familiar pattern of setting up demonstration elections and bombing defiant villages. This is exactly what the Soviets were doing. As my friend in Mazar-e-Sharif pointed out, we (the coalition including Canada) are repeating in Afghanistan a failed Soviet experiment -- running a "demonstration democracy" in the absence of civil society.

Last gasp?

Afghans fought off two British invasions in the 19th century and they successfully discouraged Russian attempts on their sovereignty about the same time. For almost a century, between the 1880s and 1970s, Afghans had opportunity to take care of their own troubles, of which they had plenty. During that time however, they made genuine progress in gender equity, they modernized their country to some extent, developed complex political culture and institutions, established respectable educational institutions and civil society movements, produced good literature and tolerated minorities. All of this disappeared in the blink of an eye when the great powers, and I don't just mean the Soviets, became interested in their land again.

The chance for democracy for this and for the next several generations of Afghans and Iraqis is disappearing along with their journalists, secular scholars, doctors, middle class, mixed marriages, minorities, artists, nurses, museums, libraries, lawyers, independent bookstores and teachers, as well as the civil society, the trust and the shared values.

Never mind the elections. By replacing the fundamentalist Taliban with the more compliant, medieval-minded warlords, we don't bring democracy to Afghanistan; we reside over its final departure.

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Christopher Grabowski is a widely published, award-winning photojournalist who contributes photographs and words frequently to The Tyee.

15 Comments:

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  • murdock

    4 years ago

    A truism of our time?

    Quote:
    By replacing the fundamentalist Taliban with the more compliant, medieval-minded warlords, we don't bring democracy to Afghanistan; we reside over its final departure.

    The 'builders' of this demise will be reviled in their time and their decendants may yet have to pay for these actions.

    We, of Canada, are not building anything in Afghanistan, other than a new generation whom shall either hate us to start with (for firing tanks at their homes) or revile us even more than those we shot at when we have to withdraw, leaving those we have told we will 'protect' to the tender mercy of the first group whom we have made homeless.

    By staying we will only ensure that the second group will be larger than the first.

    We must leave now, remaining will only add to the troubles.

    We do not need to leave entirely; only withdraw to a perimeter we can support, not the immense bubble that the 'thin red line' is trying desperately to show as 'rock solid' (in a place where the rocks themselves are crushed monthly by regular earthquakes making western-style construction worthless since it will only crumble in a year or two). Perhaps this was why Cretien made that visit to the northern 'stans' right after leaving office? Laying the ground-work for the real efforts; since the 'peace of the gun' cannot ever be maintained...

  • G West

    4 years ago

    Murdock

    I see things are going seriously sideways in southern and south eastern Afghanistan.

    Do you suppose this is the beginning of the summer push to extend control outside of Kabul?

    And if so, will they be successful in holding territory? The reports seem to describe something more serious than small-unit engagements.

  • Tieleman

    4 years ago

    Thank you Christopher

    Thank you Christopher for filling in the blanks on this terribly tragic story. It appears that once again we have blundered into a quagmire that we don't even begin to understand.

    It's no wonder that our brave troops are losing their lives and yet no progress is being made.

    There is no easy answer for Afghanistan but I believe an orderly withdrawal of our troops is required as a first step.

  • dorothy

    4 years ago

    - And?

    "There is no easy answer for Afghanistan but I believe an orderly withdrawal of our troops is required as a first step."

    Could you elaborate on that? I am assuming, that you follow the adage about beginning with the end in mind. It is a little too open for simple souls like me to just decide to get the Hel out, and not go futher in the plan development. Please go further...

  • G West

    4 years ago

    bring the women and children

    Bring the women and children who want to come to Canada with our retiring troops. We cannot remake Afghanistan and we certainly owe them that much.

    How many Afghani families could we have relocated for the $189 million we spent to take worthless worn out tanks to Afghanistan?

    Moreover, that's just a start. Whatever the end is going to be, it will be for the Afghanis themselves to determine. Ask them what they want us to contribute and do the best we can to provide it – short of arms and men.

    We should immediately contract to start buying whatever products - textiles, carpets, agricultural products - they can produce. We should remove whatever trade barriers exist between our countries and offer specialist education to anyone there who wants to commit to returning to Afghanistan when their training is done.

    We should get out of any projects sponsored by American AID agencies.

    We should have left immediately that the US Congress failed to vote the funds they promised in 2002-03. It has been a disaster in the making ever since.

  • G West

    4 years ago

    Three more dead Canucks - June 20

    This is ridiculous. Get them out.

    Now.

    Harper's and Hillyer's egos aren't that important.

  • dorothy

    4 years ago

    It doesn't add up, eh?

    I had to ask, didn’t I?

    We cannot, I believe, take all the pople out of all the helholes on Earth and bring them here and give them warm tea and sympathy. Not that we do that now. I have just read the rates we are making available to real refugees, and they’re nothing to write home about, even if they could/would.

    It seems to me, that what we are trying to do is making it possible for the Afghan people to have a liveable life where they were born and grew up. At least, that's the perception of those who do the work and see the stuff at ground level. But I have to ask, why do we hear all the time, that if we don’t come up to scratch and arrange this and that for them, they will just run to the Taliban and soldier for the highest bidder? It seems to me, that you cannot help people who won’t help themselves. Do they truly not know, who the enemy is, and why? Or are they now so demoralized, that they have become totally geared on extortion as a way of living, and if that fails, thuggery for, well, the highest bidder?

    I believe we do buy quite a few items; in dollar stores and other places with a bit a variety, you do come across this and that made in Afghanistan. I invariably buy it over Chinese stuff, inasmuch as the Chinese have more options to make a living and are not currently at war with anyone other than themselves.

    The big one here, which really sticks in my craw is that we destroy/ban/refuse to buy the crop these people seems to have the most luck with, namely opium. There is a legitimate use for the product, as anyone who has ever had a vicious headache effectively banished by a Tylenol-plus will know. I know that across our southern border, these are not for sale without a prescription, but that little piece of sanity we Canadians can still lay claim to.

    Why is a virtual monopoly being handed to just three or four countries, notably India, for producing raw opium for medicial purposes? China, for one, is walking all over the bans imposed on other countries, and it really seems counter-productive to go at the Afghani fields in the vindictive manner our brethren-in-arms are doing. This, I believe, needs intelligent examination, as it certainly would be a help for the country’s economy.

  • G West

    4 years ago

    Good points Dorothy

    Almost immediately after the US kicked the Taliban out of power - using, I hasten to note, the good offices of a number of really nice warlords largely from the north - the US Trade Office had an opportunity to grand most-favoured nation trading status to the Afghans.

    They declined.

    They also declined, in the next budget cycle, to honour the commitment of infrastructure rebuilding funds they had promised.

    Check the ratio of funds expended on military adventures and hardware by the coalition to the spending on real aid.

    Check out which suppliers and contractors are proifiting from operations within Afghanistan's borders.

    I know we can't bring the whole population to Canada. But I don't believe that we can, morally, leave the particular women - to whom we have promised real attitudinal and progressive change we are not going to be able to deliver - who have adopted western clothes, manners and attitudes to the fate they will undoubtedly experience when we do pull out. Women like the subject of this piece.

    I have a link to an interesting article by Peter Bergen from the New Republic mhttps://ssl.tnr.com/p/docsub.mhtml?i=20070618&s=bergen061807

    You might enjoy reading it - although you may have to register (free) if you haven't already. It's not all negative either.

    Let me know if you can't get it to open and I'll see if I can get you a copy.

  • Colin

    4 years ago

    Worthless tanks?

    Funny G-west, the crews and the Canadian soldiers happen to love having those “worthless tanks” Worn out I will agree with, although through no fault of the soldiers. However that is being fixed with the money that the Liberals had earmarked for 66 armoured cars.

    I guess the drop in the infant mortality rates is not worth mentioning? Are the warlords a problem? Yes they are, what would you have us do, line them up and shoot them? If we leave who will restrain them? If the Taliban take over will woman’s rights improve? Will their access to health care or education improve?

    You have a choice between the bad but fixable or a Hardcore Islamic religious state that tolerate absolutely no compromise and despises the western concepts of Individualism, Feminism, democracy, unions or any concept that they feel threatens their stranglehold on power.

  • G West

    4 years ago

    Oh c'mon Colin

    The Defence Minister made a big speech some 6 to 8 weeks ago, about how Ricky and the boys couldn't use the Leopards now cause they were too damn hot and was therefore leasing some A/C models from the Dutch. You missed that little detail?

    The $189 million was a waste of money no matter how you slice it Colin. It's gone, just as much as if you'd burned it - the real question is why pee wee hasn't cashiered Gordon O'Connor already.

    We can't force people to accept values we don't agree with and we're wasting money and lives learning a lesson that was obvious from the start of this dance when the Yanks pulled back on their budgetary commitments to anything but shoot'em up. Further, if you know anything about what's happening in country you must know it's still an all-American show and virtually all our ancilliary and support services are coming from private Yank contractors too. Some independent nation. Some armed forces - about the only thing we can really handle on our own are the shinny games for Don Cherry's amusement.

    Get out, get out now and bring the Afghans with targets on their backs to Canada. This is a disaster. Plain and simple.

    And the idea that the warlords are flexible? Only so long as you keep pouring in the yankee dollars my friend. Cut off the cash and they'll cut your throat every bit as fast (proabably faster) than the Taliban.

    Oh, and our great ally Pakistan. Could you tell me some more about how they're contributing positively to this effort?

  • G West

    4 years ago

    Oh, and this

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6229422.stm

    This kind of thing must really endear us to the Afghans. We and our allies may be saving a few babies but we're more than making up for it with the boom-boom Colin.

    You think the Afghans know an American from a Canadian?

    We're all the same to them and somebody else gets converted to the Taliban cause every time our American buddies shoot first and ask questions later.

    This is hopeless; get out, get our now and maybe we can go back and help later...but not now. All we've managed to do is help give grassroots hatred of the West another place to grow and prosper.

    Bring the women and children who'll be in danger after we leave to Canada. Give them a chance to make a new life here - that would mean something.

    This is just murderous waste. I know it troubles you because of your military background. You were indoctrinated by the idea that it is the military's 'duty' to defend and protect us soft naive civilians - the military even has several not very complimentary terms for us, don't they?

    Well, Colin, forget it, it never was true, they should have been teaching you to think and question your superiors - not just salute and sacrifice your lives for nothing.

    Time to bring 'em home there's work to be done and progress to be made elsewhere.

  • G West

    4 years ago

    Really this isn't the place

    This isn't the right place to post this, but it needs to be on record:

    http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003512.php

  • Colin

    4 years ago

    Soldiers aren't stupid, deal with it.

    G west
    First of all spare me the tired crap about soldiers being docile sheep. Soldiers in Canadian Army and the US are very aware of the issues and have made a choice based on their knowledge. If you listen and talk to serving soldiers today, you will find a very strong minded bunch with many varying opinions of what to do. However almost everyone believes being there is the right thing to do. When a large number of soldiers tell me that it is time to leave, then I will put pressure on my MP to do that.

    As for the tanks, they used what they had, they could have had the Leo 2 as they have been offered several times to us, including a complete turnkey base with tanks, parts,etc when the Germans closed Shilo down. The tanks have proven themselves quite well, hence the reason they are leasing and buying more.

    If you bothered to read any of the variety of reports from various media outlets you will notice even villagers remarking to reporter about the difference between the different soldiers both positive and negative.

    So now your plan is to offer free immigration to anyone from Afghanistan that fears for their lives, does that include their families to? That’s very generous of you. Do I regret and feel sad anytime civilians are killed by either side, absolutely, although I don’t see anyone protesting against the Taliban tactics of suicide bombings, murdering teachers, doctors, etc. Would have had the allies stop overthrowing Nazi Germany because German civilians were being killed? Why is it that we accept that humans will make mistakes yet expect our militaries to be perfect? Also how do you know the Taliban aren’t willing to sacrifice civilian in order to score propaganda victories in the media? If they are capable of having a 12 year old slit a man’s throat for a video, I am sure they can live with some civilians killed.

    This is going to be a long fight, basically a generational war, we need to get a generation of Afghans educated in order for the country to find it’s own feet. The Taliban are very aware of this, which is why they kill teachers, girl students and burn schools. The fight will include a period of intense fighting followed (hopefully) by a long simmering low level insurgency, before peace can be achieved. Just look at Malaysia, Northern Ireland, Kosvo, Basque, Greece to see how long this process takes.

  • Colin

    4 years ago

    part 2

    As for Pakistan, they play the cards dealt. As bad as it is, things could be far worse. Slow but steady progress is being made between India and Pakistan, despite the Kashmir issue. As for the NWF. The Pakistani army failed miserably to control the area and we will all have to reap the costs of that mistake. I suspect Pakistan is rife with intrigue and various factions playing dirty games under the table, and until the government can bring the ISI to heal, it will continue to be a cesspool for a good portion of Pakistan. However events taking place right now may be beginnings of a change in government. Eastern Pakistan is doing quite well and the people in charge will not want to shake the apple cart to much.

    As for cashiering O’Conner, granted he makes a lousy politician, but he has done more for the forces in a year than the Liberals have done in a decade. I will forgive him a lot for that. He has negotiated a deal where we were able to jump ahead of the USAF to get new transport aircraft, the first that should arrive in about a month. Remind me again how long it took the Liberals to buy SAR helicopter? He and his staff also are getting 100 Modern gun tanks and 20 specialized engineering vehicles for the same amount that the Liberals were going to spend on 66 untried armoured cars. Maybe Harper’s loyalty to his staff will cost him, but is that such a bad thing?

  • G West

    4 years ago

    Sorry Colin

    I don't agree.

    Moreover, I'll disagree with you without the histrionics as well, by the way.

    First of all, I never implied that soldiers were 'docile sheep'; in fact I said they had been indoctrinated to the point that most, of not all, if them are prepared to 'kill' human beings on the order of an officer. That's not my idea of 'docile'.

    Furthermore, I've hung around military men and women over the years and I know exactly what they teach their recruits about the general public. We, the civilians that is, are the people the military see as 'sheep' - although they tend to use other terms when their blood is up. You know exactly what those terms are, my friend, and they aren’t pretty.

    As for doing the right thing, I suggest you spend a little more time reading Anthony Taguba's report on Abu Ghraib and get a better understanding of how responsibly the military behaves. A good place to start is Sy Hersh's piece in the current New Yorker.
    The evidence of this is overwhelming. As to relying upon soldiers for judging whether we should withdraw, surely not.

    Your comment about the tanks is simply wrong. If they needed tanks, they should have gotten A/C units from the Dutch and airlifted them from Europe - not America.

    The action was not only wasteful, it was stupid.

    As for the WWII analogy, it's nonsense. Plain and simple. My remarks about who should be permitted to come to Canada were very clear and need not further elaboration.

    Please, read them again.

    As for the rest of your post, I think it's way off point.

    This is another failed American exercise in global politics; nothing positive is being achieved. We are as incapable of solving Afghanistan as the British and the Soviets were. Kabul and the rest of the country are two solitudes and Pakistan is the REAL problem.

    Get out, get out now. Don't burn any more money or kill any more Canadians on another failed American project.

    We are an independent country - let's start acting like one. I notice you don’t deny the fact that without the Americans we’d not be there now. We need their contractors and air support, not to mention their Green Beans coffee, a lot more than we do Tim Horton’s.

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