[Peace-discuss] Warlord-ocracy in Afghanistan

[ppatton at uiuc.edu]

Forgetting Afghanistan - Again.
by Sonali Kolhatkar
 

In the past two years the US media have drastically reduced
their coverage of Afghanistan. According to the American
Journalism Review only three news organizations--Newsweek,
Associated Press and the Washington Post--have full-time
reporters stationed in Kabul. What little is published focuses
mostly on feel-good stories, superficial change and unopposed
reportage of the Bush administration's claims. There is little
to no critical coverage of the effects of the on-going US
military and political presence. For example, on March 18th,
the New York Times' Joel Brinkley and Carlotta Gall reported
Condoleezza Rice's visit to Afghanistan and her claim that
"there could be no better story . than Afghanistan's
democratic development". Brinkley and Gall apparently agreed
with Rice - they made no mention of how the central government
is legitimizing US-backed warlords who are stifling democracy.

This is not new. In the early 1990s, the worst atrocities by
Mujahadeen fighters (including some members of the current
government) resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths
and hundreds of thousands of refugees in a four year period in
Kabul alone. During that time, media coverage dropped
drastically. In the late 1990s, when the Taliban were
implementing their oppressive laws, the media largely ignored
it. In 2000, when tens of thousands of Afghan refugees were
trapped in horrific conditions in refugee camps in the
Pakistani side of the border, the same pattern of silence
continued. Only when the Buddha statues of Bamiyan were blown
up, or the attacks of 9-11 took place was Afghanistan worth
focusing on.

Why don't the media today examine Afghanistan and Bush's
claims of "freedom and democracy"? True, most Afghans have
embraced wholeheartedly the promise of choosing their own
leaders through an electoral system, despite having certain
aspects of democracy imposed on them by a foreign country. But
the power of undemocratic warlords has stifled the aspirations
of Afghan people. When I visited Afghanistan a month ago, I
spoke with independent pro-democracy political activists like
Malalai Joya, who is forced to conduct her work underground.
Fearing attacks by warlords, they use false names and travel
in disguise or with bodyguards. I met journalists who are
risking their lives to report the crimes of the warlords in
the face of government threats.

A majority of Afghans voted for Hamid Karzai, even though he
is clearly a US puppet. They did so because he promised never
to compromise with warlords. But after his election, Karzai
appointed the former governor of Herat, Ismail Khan, a
fundamentalist misogynist warlord, as Minister of Energy.
Karzai recently appointed a known war criminal, Abdul Rashid
Dostum, as the National Army Chief of Staff. These moves were
praised by US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad as "wise", even
though the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission's
recent survey revealed a deep desire among Afghans across the
country for justice for past war crimes committed by the likes
of Khan and Dostum. The Afghans I met were eager to see the
warlords disarmed, and prosecuted, not rewarded with
government positions.

Aside from its "democratic development", the Bush
administration refuses to mention serious life-and-death
issues plaguing Afghanistan. Obediently following suit, the US
media do not cover the struggle for survival. In the 2004
National Human Development Report for Afghanistan, conducted
by the United Nations, the country ranked 173 out of 178
countries in terms of human development. Only five countries,
all in sub-Saharan Africa, were worse off: Burundi, Mali,
Burkina Faso, Niger and Sierra Leone. Refugees, whose
(sometimes forced) return was loudly praised by the Bush
administration as evidence of Afghan freedom, are now homeless
in their own country and have turned parts of Kabul into
squatters' camps. They have no homes and little to no
training, employment opportunities, or health care. Maternal
mortality, especially in the provinces where the majority of
Afghans live, is among the highest in the world, just as it
was before 9-11 when the media were ignoring Afghanistan.
Education - most vocally cited by the Bush administration as a
measure of the success of US policy in Afghanistan - is deemed
the "worst in the world" by the UN. Outside Kabul there are
dismally few educational opportunities for Afghan girls and
women. In the cities, I was told that most schools have a
curriculum limited to Islamic studies.

Most women are still wearing the burqa (veil), or hijab, in
Afghanistan. This is admittedly far too simplistic a measure
of women's oppression, but it was exploited by the Bush
administration and the media after 9-11 to visualize the
brutality of the Taliban against women. Likewise, the
discarding of the burqa after the fall of the Taliban was
widely used by the media to showcase women's "liberation".
Today in the cities and provinces outside Kabul, most women
dress exactly as they did under the Taliban's rule. Nasreen,
an 18 year old returned refugee living in Heart, told me she
does not want to wear her hijab, but is afraid of attracting
too much attention in an atmosphere that is still hostile to
women.

There is an obvious pattern here: before 9-11 the media did
not deem Afghanistan and its myriad problems (most of which
were initiated by US policies in the 80s and 90s) worth
covering. After 9-11, when it was convenient for the Bush
administration to highlight mass oppression and poverty as
justifications for war, the media complied. Now, despite
continued mass oppression and poverty, Bush and Rice have
informed us that Afghanistan has been "saved" by our military
intervention and installation of "democracy" and so it no
longer needs our attention. The media continue to comply with
government wishes.

The very people that Americans compassionately and generously
supported after 9-11 are suffering once more because of a lack
of attention and interest. Donations toward life-saving
projects like hospitals, clinics, schools and training
centers, have plummeted. Armed militias led by US-backed
warlords have replaced the Taliban, financing their armies
through heroin sales. In the short term, this compliance has
had tangible consequences for the people of Afghanistan. In
the long term, the lack of media coverage of the rise of these
armed groups could once again have horrible and shocking
consequences, like the attacks of 9-11.

**Take Action**

You can contact the major media using an easy tool on our
website, www.afghanwomensmission.org, and urge them to
increase and improve their coverage of Afghanistan (sample
letter provided)

Sonali Kolhatkar is Co-Director of the Afghan Women's Mission,
a US based non-profit that funds health, educational, and
training projects for Afghan women. She is also the host and
co-producer of Uprising, a daily morning radio program at
KPFK, Pacifica in Los Angeles. Sonali can be reached at
Sonali at afghanwomensmission.org