Secret life of Kabul hides behind the razor wire

EFE Ingles, Spain
06/25/2006
By Patricia Souza

Kabul - Brothels, an exclusive golf course and a clandestine Christian church are among the options for spending one's spare time in Kabul, a city in which extreme security measures exist alongside a hidden side of life that gets much less attention.

It's impossible to move through Kabul without seeing weapons, a sharpshooter on top of a wire fence guarding official buildings, military vehicles driving at top speed through the city and dozens of armed private security guards everywhere, although what their affiliation is, who can say?

In the capital of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, where foreign soldiers arrived in 2001 - and where they have remained - nobody takes security lightly and the almost 3,000 foreign residents are advised not to go out on the streets after dark.

But, those who dare to venture out do have various options for entertainment in this city, an ancient trading and cultural crossroads situated at more than 1,800 meters (5,850 feet) above sea level and surrounded by stark but beautiful mountains.

There are at least five brothels, a common element in wartorn lands, which change location periodically and feature Chinese prostitutes who, from time to time, are deported en masse by the authorities.

At the China Palace and the Escalades, two of the houses of ill repute, there are signs posted in bad English: "We run this business for all foreign nations. Thanks."

Hidden away on another of this capital's dusty streets there is Christian church founded by missionaries almost 40 years ago which, after seeing its activities disrupted by the 1979 Soviet invasion, now holds religious services every Friday and says it's performing social work in this Muslim nation.

More than 50 foreigners and converted Afghans attend the services, one member of the congregation - who did not identify himself - told EFE.

Kabul is an island of relative calm in the midst of a country immersed - some might say mired - in a rising trend of violence. There have been roughly 1,000 people killed in Afghanistan so far this year, and the May 29 riots in which 20 people lost their lives in the capital showed that there's no place in the country that's really safe.

During the serious protests, which erupted after a U.S. military truck hit and killed several civilians, enraged rioters attacked embassies, foreigners' houses and the luxurious Serena Hotel opened in November, the only five-star establishment in the country.

The hotel, which cost more than $35 million, is near the Presidential Palace - the most well-guarded building in the country - and is owned by Agha Khan, whose foundation has numerous reconstruction projects in the works around Afghanistan.

In the context of the constant violence here, people are forced to devise unusual ways to lead a more or less normal existence.

For some, the best way of escaping the stress and tension of daily life after the workday is to have the best time they can, though all the while keeping their eyes open and travelling through city only by car after nightfall.

On the initiative of some Latinos here, and in growing numbers, more than 40 foreigners meet each Wednesday night to dance to the salsa, the merengue and other tropical rhythms and shed some of the fear with which they live.

It was a while ago that the Latinos lost their overwhelming majority at the gathering, which this week drew 20 couples from 15 countries and at which an Iranian woman was elected, by a unanimous vote of the revelers, the session's best salsa dancer.

Others opt to dine out at some of the restaurants with European standards here, where - in contrast to in neighboring Pakistan, for example - there's no problem ordering or consuming alcohol.

There is more than one decent eatery in the Afghan capital, but the best one is Atmosphere, a French restaurant that just installed "wi-fi" technology throughout the establishment and has a beautiful terrace, pool and large garden.

There is even a golf club on the outskirts of Kabul for the very well-heeled, and its prices are indeed high, as is also the case in many of the Afghan establishments that cater to foreigners.

At many of them, there are signs posted that read: "We're sorry, but we do not serve alcoholic beverages to Afghan citizens."

The Sunday Times June 25, 2006


Plan to win over Afghans
Christina Lamb, Sangin, Afghanistan
 
 
 
A DOG tears at the flesh of a dead donkey sprawled on a baked-earth field as the merciless afternoon sun beats down. On every corner men with beards and turbans stand watching as British paratroopers on foot patrol spread out across the town.
Unlike most of Afghanistan, Sangin offers no welcoming smiles. This is the heartland of the country’s narcotics industry and the Taliban and nobody wants to be seen as a friend of the British. As we walked through the closed bazaar, I felt distinctly uneasy.

 
 
Captain Jim Philippson, the first soldier to die in the southern province of Helmand, was killed nearby this month in the fiercest battle that British troops have experienced since they arrived in April. Last week more than 30 people were massacred in Sangin, including women and children. The latest Taliban tactic is to don police uniform and set up roadblocks.

“We’re taking the campaign into the heartland of the Taliban and we’re seizing the initiative back from them,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Stuart Tootal, Commander of 3rd Battalion the Parachute Regiment in Sangin yesterday. “We have to be in places like Sangin if this is going to work.”

The fact that the British have already established a presence in hostile territory which has been largely under Taliban control is being paraded as a success. But Sangin also highlights the enormous difficulties of the mission. In this parched land starved of development, it is not surprising that the Taliban have found support. Locals admit that they are paid to grow poppies and fight for the Taliban. They argue that they have no alternative.

There are no roads, just stony desert tracks through a series of mud-walled compounds and the bazaar, which is shut except for a man selling motorcycles. But it feels as if eyes are everywhere — most of them ringed with the black kohl eyeliner that the Taliban favour.

“This is hard terrain and the Taliban have the advantage of local knowledge,” said Corporal Tom McDermott. “We don’t know if people are friend or foe until they fire.”

We pass an irrigation ditch where men are bathing. They scowl as British snipers take up position along the bank. A small group is gathered on a corner in front of a two-storey building over a pharmacy and tension grows.

“This is the bad part. We’ve had information about guys with rocket launchers,” said McDermott.

“We definitely have a sense that we’re being watched,” said Lieutenant Tom Fehley, platoon commander, pointing out that the same motorcycle has passed our patrol three times.

Suddenly a white Toyota Corolla packed with people comes to a halt below. “He’s got a weapon in the front!” McDermott shouts. Immediately the paratroopers spread out and take positions on the stony ground.

The operation in Sangin illustrates the nature of the insurgency confronting the British. So hostile is the territory that nobody travels by road. Troops and supplies are dropped by helicopters which hover low so that everyone can jump on or off. They always fly in pairs.

There is so much dust that sometimes it forms a “hot-fog” in which visibility is less than 10 metres. One paratrooper nearly lost his sight after dust behind his contact lens caused an ulcer.

“It’s very complex,” Tootal admits. “It’s tribal, it’s narco-related, it has religious sensitivities and Taliban all mixed in and there are no clear-cut divisions between who is enemy and who is not.”

His men provide the main combat force in Helmand and it was 3 Parachute Regiment A company under Major Will Pike, who were called in to secure Sangin on Wednesday after the massacre. They arrived as the sun was rising and although they did not have to fight their way in as expected, they know there are Taliban nearby.

“We know they will try and take us on and we’re ready,” said Pike. After two lengthy firefights in the past three weeks in which the paras have come out on top, he says his men feel confident. “We’ve shown what we can do to them,” he added.

However, all the men say they have been surprised at both the commitment and organisation of the Taliban, using the same tactics that they themselves would use.

“This is the biggest challenge I’ve faced in 14 years in the army,” said Pike, whose company was previously stationed in Iraq. “The Taliban have certainly been more keen to have a fight than we expected. What we really need to do is get the local people on our side.”

To try to win over the people of Sangin, British officials yesterday held a shura, a meeting of local tribal elders. Once the area had been secured, Colonel Charlie Knaggs, the British commander, and Mohammed Daud, the governor of Helmand, flew in to sit cross-legged under a mulberry tree with about 50 bearded men, and ask them what they wanted.

Voices were soon raised. The main complaints were over lack of development and security. “Look at this place, we have nothing. We need bridges, schools, clinics,” said Mohammed Safir.

“I can’t understand all this political talking,” countered Haji Azizullah, one of the most senior tribal leaders. “I just understand how to grow poppy and we’re worried the British want to destroy that and then we can’t feed our families.” Others nodded in agreement.

“People here have a pretty stark choice — either they want the government or the Taliban," said Knaggs. “They’re in a pretty nasty situation. They’re held hostage by the poppy and the druglords on one side and also held hostage by the Taliban. They can see very little viable alternative.

“Our challenge is to convince the people and win them over, and a lot of that is providing a secure environment so that the (Afghan) government and NGOs (non-governmental organisations) can then come in with development work.”

The Department for International Development has pledged £30m to Helmand but most aid agencies consider the province too dangerous a place in which to operate.

At the end of the shura, the governor gave the elders three days to decide whether they would support the Taliban or the government. But he said the fact that only 50 had come from a large district showed how nervous people were. “They are scared,” he said. “They feel the British will go and the bad guys will still be there.”

Daud is worried that the high number of casualties from the ongoing Operation Mountain Thrust, a US-led operation to flush out the Taliban from southern Afghanistan, might make the job of the British harder by turning people against foreign troops. It was reported yesterday that 80 militants had been killed.

The governor also questions whether with 3,300 men — of whom only 800 are combat troops — the British have enough forces to stay in places until they are secure. “It’s no good having meetings like this in a compound when the reality is you can’t even go 1km down the road either way,” he said.

“You have to tailor your campaign to what you have,” the Commander of 3 Para replied. “The way we patrol and develop here is obviously going to take a bit of time but just the fact that we’re here in Sangin shows a start.”

UN drugs chief sounds warning about Afghan opium production, cocaine consumption in Europe
WASHINGTON, June 26 2006 (UNODC) - Cocaine consumption in western Europe is reaching alarming levels while opium production in Afghanistan could rise again this year despite a welcome decline in 2005, the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Antonio Maria Costa, said on Monday.

UNODC's 2006 World Drug Report showed global opium production fell five percent in 2005 while cocaine production was broadly stable. Seizures of both drugs, especially cocaine, reached record highs. Consumption of cannabis, the most widely used illicit drug, continued to increase while the market for amphetamine-type stimulants stabilised. Africa is growing in importance for trans-shipments of cocaine and heroin to Europe.

Presenting the World Drug Report at the National Press Club in Washington, the UNODC Executive Director said trends in the global drugs market were moving in the right direction but governments needed to step up their efforts to reduce both supply and demand.

"Drug control is working and the world drug problem is being contained," he said.

"This is true whether we look over the long term or even just over the past few years. Humanity has entered the 21 st century with much lower levels of drug cultivation and drug addiction than 100 years earlier. Even more importantly, in the past few years, worldwide efforts to reduce the threat posed by illicit drugs have halted a quarter-century-long rise in drug abuse that, if left unchecked, could have become a global pandemic."

Laos, which until the mid-1990s was the third largest illicit opium producer in the world, slashed opium cultivation by 72 percent in 2005 and is on the verge of becoming opium-free. "Laos has made spectacular progress which has not received the attention it deserves," Mr Costa said.

However, the UNODC head highlighted three key weaknesses in the global drug control situation: heroin supply in Afghanistan, cocaine demand in Europe and cannabis supply/demand everywhere.

In Afghanistan, the world's largest opium producer, the area under opium poppy cultivation fell 21 per cent to 104,000 hectares in 2005, the first such decline since 2001. "Afghanistan's drug situation remains vulnerable to reversal because of mass poverty, lack of security and the fact that the authorities have inadequate control over its territory," Mr Costa warned. "This could happen as early as 2006 despite large-scale eradication of opium crops this spring."

Some encouraging trends were noted on the coca/cocaine market. Coca cultivation and cocaine production were broadly stable while seizures of cocaine rose to new highs. Global cocaine use declined slightly.

"Demand for cocaine is rising in western Europe to alarming levels," Mr Costa said. "I urge European Union governments not to ignore this peril. Too many professional, educated Europeans use cocaine, often denying their addiction, and drug abuse by celebrities is often presented uncritically by the media, leaving young people confused and vulnerable."

After years of increases in the 1990s, the market for amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) is stabilizing, reflecting improved law enforcement and better precursor control. Some 25 million people used amphetamines at least once in 2004, while some 10 million used ecstasy. Total ATS production was estimated at 480 tons in 2004, which is lower than the peak in 2000.

The U.S. authorities again dismantled the largest number of illegal methamphetamine laboratories - over 17,000 in 2004, more than 90 percent of the global total. While abuse of methamphetamine remained stable or declined among secondary students over the last few years, treatment demand for methamphetamine abuse in the United States has grown dramatically.

Many countries have the drug problem they deserve

The 2006 World Drug Report devotes special attention to cannabis, the world's most abused illicit drug. Cannabis was used by an estimated 162 million people at least once in 2004, equivalent to some four per cent of the global population age 15-64, and consumption continued to increase.

The UNODC Executive Director warned that cannabis was now considerably more potent than a few decades ago and said it was a mistake to dismiss it as a "soft" and relatively harmless drug. Evidence that cannabis use can cause serious mental illness is mounting.

"Today, the harmful characteristics of cannabis are no longer that different from those of other plant-based drugs such as cocaine and heroin," Mr Costa said.

"National policies on cannabis vary and sometimes change from one year to the next," he added.

"With cannabis-related health damage increasing, it is fundamentally wrong for countries to make cannabis control dependent on which party is in government. Policy reversals leave young people confused as to just how dangerous cannabis is. The cannabis pandemic, like other challenges to public health, requires consensus, a consistent commitment across the political spectrum and by society at large."

 "After so many years of drug control experience, we now know that a coherent, long-term strategy can reduce drug supply, demand and trafficking," Mr Costa concluded. "If this does not happen, it will be because some nations fail to take the drug issue sufficiently seriously and pursue inadequate policies. Many countries have the drug problem they deserve."

NOTE TO EDITORS: Drug cultivation and production numbers in the World Drug Report are for 2005, while figures for drug abuse and seizures are for 2004.

I'd just like to highlight an excellent question asked at the Monday night pub quiz at the Springfield restaurant :)



Round 2: Afghanistan gossip

1. Name either one of the authors of the Kabul mini guide – the first post Taliban travel guide – published by Bradt Travel Guides in 2003.
• Dominic Medley or Jude Barrand

Ahmed Rashid

Afghanistan crisis paves way for return of the Taliban
(Filed: 27/06/2006) Daily Telegraph.

Five years after the West promised to rebuild Afghanistan, the country is facing its worst crisis since the Taliban was overthrown.

 
 
Hamid Karzai has criticised the West's refusal to help his government with more money and troops earlier on.
 

President Hamid Karzai and his western backers are seriously disillusioned with each other, while the Islamic militia is resurgent and people are being killed at a rate not seen since the 2001 American-led invasion.

At a recent reception for the Queen's 80th birthday at the new British Council in Kabul the scene may have been picturesque, with hundreds of diplomats, officers and Afghan dignitaries mingling on the lush green lawn, but the talk among them was full of gloom and desperation. Outside, lines of British troops kept guard against a possible Taliban attack.

Among the envoys and Afghan politicians there was abundant, and scathing, criticism of Mr Karzai's inability to govern effectively or punish those in his administration who are corrupt, dealing in drugs or close to the Taliban.

A few days later Mr Karzai in turn criticised the West's refusal to help his government with more money and troops much earlier on.

Ordinary Afghans have no doubt that the Taliban virus is spreading. Members of the militia, which ruled almost the whole country for five years from 1996, have been reported just 25 miles from the capital, distributing letters by night that threaten death to those who help the government.

Taliban attacks have taken place in the north near the border with Central Asia and in the west near Iran - hundreds of miles from the main battleground in the guerrillas' southern heartland. A suicide car bomber in the western city of Herat killed an American security official in May and car bombs in Farah have claimed several lives.

Every day somewhere in Afghanistan a girls' school is burnt down or a female teacher killed by the fundamentalist militants, says the United Nations.

More than 600 Afghans have been killed in the past six weeks in the south, where about 6,000 American, Canadian and British troops under Nato are fighting the Taliban. Afghans remember that this is about the same rate of deaths as in 1992-93 during the civil war that ushered in a Taliban takeover.

Mr Karzai is now seen by many Afghans and western diplomats as betraying the reform and nation building agenda set out by the Bonn agreement in 2001 and reverting to rule by fiat on tribal and ethnic lines.

This month he has ordered two corrupt former governors in the south to rearm their illegal militias in order to fight the Taliban, rather than deploying the new conventional, foreign-trained army.

It took several months of persuasion by Jack Straw and the Foreign Office to get rid of one of them - Sher Mohammed Akhunzada, the governor of Helmand province - before British troops were deployed there. Now Akhunzada is back with a 500-man militia force, while his brother remains deputy governor.

Nato is furious and so are the Japanese, who have spent £55 million paying for the disarmament of 62,000 militiamen.

Mr Karzai has also appointed 13 police officers widely known for brutality and corruption to key posts and brought back as an adviser Gen Mohammed Fahim, a powerful former warlord who was sacked as defence minister two years ago after western pressure.

''The government has to base their actions on good governance and not reliance on the old commanders," said Tom Koenigs, the UN secretary general's special representative to Afghanistan.

''The army and police have to be loyal not to commanders but to the constitution, which is why we are against forming uncontrollable militias and parallel forces."

Mr Karzai has also accused the West of ignoring the sanctuary provided to the Taliban by Pakistan, while officials say the militias are needed to beef up the beleaguered police force in the south.

''There are 40 policemen to protect 80,000 people in Uruzgan - what do you want us to do?" asked a senior Afghan intelligence official.
 

 

end.

International Herald Tribune

The view from Swimming Pool Hill

Ahmed Rashid

TUESDAY, JUNE 27, 2006

 

KABUL At the top of Swimming Pool Hill in Kabul, there is, strangely enough, a huge Olympic size pool, built from raw concrete with concrete diving boards. It was built by the occupying Soviet forces in the 1980s, who were probably posted on the hill to watch out for Afghan mujahedin. It has never been used as a pool, because there was no way that even the Soviets could get water to travel uphill at such a steep angle.

The Taliban did use it in the mid- 1990s, however, taking blindfolded criminal offenders and homosexuals to the highest diving board, giving them a push and allowing them to crash onto the floor of the pool. If the offenders survived they were deemed innocent and allowed to live. Not many did, according to local Afghans. The blood stains on the concrete were visible when the first foreign troops arrived after the defeat of the Taliban in 2001.

Now British soldiers under the command of a baby-faced brigadier, Nicholas Pope, use the hill as a lookout point because of the stunning 180-degree views of Kabul. Pope - public school, Cambridge University, another brother in the army - commands the 1st Signal Brigade. He has 800 men scattered all over Afghanistan. Some are running the computers and wireless networks being used in the NATO- led offensive against the Taliban in the deserts of Helmand Province, where 3,300 British troops are based.

Other signalers are based with the 9,000-man International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, where they take part in foot patrols and help troops from 36 nations maintain a common signaling network. The rest of his signalers are still based in balmy England.

Right now, temperatures in Helmand are searing, and Pope's men have to operate in a heat haze, with dust swirling around them. But here on Swimming Pool Hill it's more like a summer's day in the English countryside. The only problem is that I am stumbling across the hill laden with full body armor, trying to conjure up what it would be like fighting in this outfit.

Once we get off the hill and reach the road at the bottom, armored Land Rovers are waiting to take us onward - thank goodness a foot patrol does not mean you have to do it all on foot.

ISAF foot patrols in Kabul are hugely popular with the local population. They have brought down the crime rate, protected women and school children, set local police an example about community service and provided the kids someone to chase after on their way back from school.

Foot patrols are a tradition based upon British Army experience in Northern Ireland, and were started in Kabul by the first commander of ISAF, General John MacColl, in December 2001, just weeks after the Taliban were defeated. I remember accompanying one of the first foot patrols at that time and seeing the faces of the surprised Kabulis. Equally surprised were American troops, who never get out of their vehicles if they can help it and certainly don't patrol on foot.

Pope seems to know everyone important in the locality. He points out the slums where houses made of mud, tin and cardboard boxes stand like orphans amid the gleaming multistoried homes built by the drug barons and warlords - an affront to the eyes, comprised of every conceivable gaudy architectural style.

"These houses are why the riots took place," I say to Pope and his soldiers. "If you were a slum dweller living amid such ostentation, you would riot, too." I am referring to the May 29 riots in Kabul in which more than a dozen people were killed, which left the government of President Hamid Karzai badly shaken.

Pope leads the way to the British Cemetery in Kabul. Renovated with funds from Britain's Ministry of Defense and guarded by an Afghan gardener who has been at the job 37 years, the cemetery holds the graves of British dead from three Afghan wars in the 19th century. The epitaphs on the gravestones are poetic. I imagine the great British poets of World War I lounging on the grassy verges of the graveyard, composing verse about the English dead.

There are other plaques of more recent tragedies - the deaths of Spanish ISAF troops in a plane crash in 2004, and the deaths of Germans, Swedes and soldiers from other nations in bomb blasts, mine explosions and vehicle accidents. Five years after the Taliban were driven out, they're back and ISAF's tasks are just as hard.