writings by Joshua Brollier

A Conversation with Firas Majeed of Native Without a Nation

Joshua Brollier — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 16:42:16 -0600

Short Information Teaser

Connecting Iraqi refugees in Syria with classrooms in the United States

Excerpt

November 18, 2010

Joshua: Do you see this kind of idea being maybe even able to prevent future wars? Because, I think, one of the problems is that we don’t know each other. And if we are able to know each other, we realize that there is no reason to fight.

Firas: Yeah, you’re right. That’s what exactly happen. And people, the children, they are not children. They are going to lead the world after us. And we need to prepare all our children, your children and our children, prepare them to lead the world better than now.

Body

November 18, 2010

Joshua: Welcome to our listeners out there. This is Joshua Brollier with Voices for Creative Nonviolence. I’m here in Syria with Firas Majeed, the founder of the Native Without A Nation project. Firas is a 34-year-old Iraqi refugee living in the Jaramana neighborhood of Damascus. Thanks for agreeing to do this interview with me, Firas.

Firas: You are welcome.

Joshua: First off, tell us a little bit of your story. Where are you from in Iraq and how did you end up in Syria?

Firas: I’m from Baghdad. I was living quiet life. Which is, like always, I was going to work from eight o’clock to eleven o’clock. Sometimes it takes a long time, but I’m happy with my job, and I cannot stop my job, because it’s just like continual life. And when I stop and one day I feel something is different. I missed something. So I was just like my job and the regular thing I am doing everyday. And one time my sister was working as a journalist, in translation and as a fixer and stuff like that. And she asked me to go with her to Jordan because that was the first time for her to go to Jordan. On that time, I have never been outside of Iraq. I have never been outside of my country, and she asked me to be with her just for like five days. And, just do her job. You know, in Iraq if the girls want to travel, you have to get someone from her family…

Joshua: To take a male with her…

Firas: Yeah, that’s it. We call it “mahram.” Yeah, and it’s not just that. She is afraid to be alone. Yeah, and I did. I went with her, and I have never think before that “I am going to leave my country. I am going to travel outside of my country.” I was just focused on my job, on caring for my family and my parents and just that. And when I went to Jordan for the first time, I saw the security there. That was in 2005, in the end of 2005. I saw that life is different… the security and the walking in the street over nights. We did not been in the streets in Iraq since 2003. Until now, people did not be in the streets after one o’clock, after one a.m.

Joshua: People are afraid to be outside…

Firas: Yes. And I saw all of that. I am walking the streets after two o’clock with safe place. No explosions, no shootings, no fear. And I went back to Iraq after five days, after eight days. And I keep thinking that there is something different. I keep interest in the life in Jordan. And I think I start to make balance between life in Iraq and Jordan. I tried to look at the difference between Iraq and Jordan. For everything; for the food, for the life, for the streets, for the families, people and children… all of that. I was looking for the difference between here and here. And then after two months, I was just like thinking “should I leave my country or not?” I do the looking for the difference, and in that time, it was very dangerous. I was have shop in a area, which is a very dangerous area.

Joshua: You were working in a shop?

Firas: It’s my shop. It’s mini-market and I am working on it. It’s mine. And on that time, I was going to my shop at like eight a.m. and I saw bodies behind my shop; bodies of people who was killed. And the are became danger day by day. Then someone, the militias, killed the shop near my shop… 50 meters… and they killed the owner while he working on it and the militias just kill her. And then I start to think more by reality and forced to think about myself. And it was like terrible and I felt terrible that, to decide to leave my country because I’m thinking of my parents. I’m caring for them. How can I leave them? And they’re thinking about myself. And the danger became more of the people who is my age. Because in my neighborhood and in my area is a different area than my shop. Also they start to make sectarians there. Like the people who is Shias try to collect together. They did not ask people to come with them, but they did not ask directly for people to come with them. But if you don’t be with them…

Joshua: They will intimidate you…

Firas: Yeah, they will just ask you, “Why you did not like us?” or “Why you did not come with us to have fun, to walking, to play dominoes…” or something like that. So by that way the threaten people who are not with us, then you are…

Joshua: Then you are against us.

Firas: Yeah, and then my friends who are Sunnis in the area they killed already by militias, by people we don’t know. My mother advised me to just leave the home. You know the way, in our culture, the family is very close from each other. The mothers, they want the sons being with them even if it’s danger. But on that time, it were really danger and she advised me to leave.

Joshua: So this was in 2005 and you decided to leave. Did you go to Jordan or did you go straight to Syria?

Firas: Yeah, I did go to Jordan because I have been there and I like the life there. It’s the first time for me to travel and I did not see any other country, just Jordan. And I did like it because I did not stay for a long time. I stayed for eight days. And then I went to Jordan to stay. I sell my shop and give it to someone and sell it to someone. And then collect some money to live in Jordan while the situation… At that time, I was thinking the situation will be better. Like in six months… I don’t know… maybe it will be okay. Then I went to Jordan to stay there. I did stay for six months in the beginning. And then my visa become expired. Then I need to go back to Iraq. I was think it’s okay to visit my family and stay with them and visit them for like five or ten days and then come back to Jordan. And I did. I went to my family and stayed about ten days with them and then I went back to Jordan. But, on that time, I did not register as a refugee. It were… they were open. The UNHCR were open for the Iraqis to register as a refugees, and my friends did register, but I did not do that because I did not feel that I am a refugee here. I mean… I mean I was think that my country will be better after six months. I don’t need to be a refugee.

Joshua: So how long did you end up staying in Jordan and, from there, how did you make it to Damascus or Syria?

Firas: Yeah. After I spent six months, then they said after every three months the visa will be expired. It’s a new decision. And after three months, I went back to Iraq and to visit my family. And I went back to Jordan. And on the fourth one, the Jordan… the Jordanian border stopped allowing Iraqis to enter because a lot of people was enter Jordan.

Joshua: Hundreds of thousands of refugees…

Firas: It’s just a small country and they care for their jobs… and I don’t know… And anyway, on the fourth one, they did not let me enter. I tried many times. When they reject me, I just spend one hour and then come back to ask to enter again. And they stamped my passport by a red stamp. And they just wrote “Karama” on the red stamp, which is nothing. Just “Karama” with the name of the border, but they did not put “Karama border,” the name of the border or any official stamp. It’s not official.

Joshua: It wasn’t an entry stamp, basically. So from there, after they rejected you at the border, is that when you left and came to Syria?

Firas: Yeah, then I made a decision on that time to not go back to Iraq because it become very danger. And on the way the car was broken, and on the way we stopped to fix it. And while we stopped to fix it, the terrorists came to us and asked each one; “Your are from where, you are from where, you are from where?” I was just think about how they are going to kill us. Because everyone they talk to them, they will kill them. But the good thing was that one of the people who was with us in the car was from the Fallujah area. Which is on the neighborhood that the car stopped in, broken. And he was just looking on their eyes like he know them, or they know him. And they leave us, but it was very danger and I felt really they are going to kill us.

Joshua: Yeah, that’s very fortunate.

Firas: Yeah, and after some time, after a half hour, a car come to take our car to a safe area. And we did fix it, and we continued to go to Jordan. And that story happened to us when the Jordanians did not allow Iraqis and they sent us back. And I take a cab from Jordanian border to Syrian border, which is close, one hour or one hour and a half, not very far away. And then I entered Syria. When I just met with the first one who was at they Syrian borders, they were just smile to us and welcomed us. And we don’t need to pay visa. We don’t need to pay anything. They just welcome us, and they give us to enter Syria.

Joshua: So after you entered Syria, how long did it take you to receive the official refugee status… after you entered Syria?

Firas: I entered Syria in 2006 and it’s around the ninth month, tenth month, 2006. And… what’s you question?

Joshua: My question is once you entered the country, how long did it take you to receive the official refugee status from the United Nations.

Firas: On the 2006, the ninth month, I made the decision to be a refugee, to not going back to my country. On that time, I really feel that I’m going to be a refugee.

Joshua: This is different than the first time going to Jordan.

Firas: Yes, yes. This is different than when I went to Jordan. And, I just asked in the beginning how to get the protection letter… in the UNHCR… and how to get the refugee certificate. And then, in 2007, in the beginning of 2007, in February, I registered as a refugee in the UNHCR. I was really happy to do that; that I have protection letter. They wrote that you have our protection. And I felt, “I’m safe. I am okay here.” In the beginning, that’s inn the beginning. The on the time that I… every three months… in the beginning it was every six months that I had to go to the Iraqi border and take around and then come back to Syria to renew the visa. And they did write that it’s tourist visa. Then I start to think why the UNHCR says that you’re a refugee and the Syrians say that you’re a tourist visa. I was think a lot about that. Why? Why was that? There was a problem between the UNHCR and the Syrian government. I did went to the UNHCR after six months or something like that to ask the UNHCR, “What’s my situation here?” … to be clear. They said, “What’s your question?” And I said, “What’s my situation here? Am I a refugee or a tourist?” They said, “You are a refugee.” And I said “but, my visa says, when I take a round the border, that I’m a tourist.”

Joshua: And this is the situation that a lot of people are in right? Because there are approximately 150,000 Iraqi refugees that are registered with the UN. So this is a 150,000 registered with the UN that are living here in Syria. And some have estimated the total number of refugees, including those not registered, may be as high as 500,000 to 800,000. So, this many Iraqis living in Syria… and from what I’ve heard from you and what I’ve heard from others, that even when you get the actual refugee status, that you’re not able to actually work. You’re not able to travel freely. Is this true? And what is some of the difficulties you’ve faced and that the other refugees have faced? And how have you managed to survive here in Syria being kind of in between the status of a refugee and a tourist here in Syria.

Firas: And that’s also… I did not ask the UNHCR just about my situation on that time. I asked them to have a tent. I went to them and I think it’s the first Iraqi that asked them about a tent. Because, people know that the UNHCR did not give Iraqis tents. But I wanted to ask that question just to be clear. I wanted to ask that question so I can talk about it. I did went into the reception at the UNHCR, and I told the women who was under the counter to have a tent. “I have no home. I have no money. My money is finished. And I have red big stamp in passport that says ‘don’t allow to work.’ And I can not be illegal.” I like legal ways. I don’t like to be illegal.

Joshua: It’s a scary situation to be in-working illegally.

Firas: It is because I am afraid to them that maybe one time they will put me on the border. Then I have no country. I have no way, no place to go. Jordanians don’t allow me and Iraq very danger. And I will be killed if I go back to Iraq. And I stayed under that situation. I asked them about a tent. And she said’ “we did not give a tents.” And there is a picture behind her with refugees and they have a tent. And they put the flag of the UNHCR on that tent. And I told her, “I want a tent like the one that is in that picture which is behind you.” And then she looked into it and she said, “if we give you a tent, then Damascus will be full of tents.”

Joshua: Well then so what were you able to do to survive then. You weren’t able to work. The UNHCR wasn’t giving you shelter. What did you do to look after yourself?

Firas: Yeah, when I finished, when I have been really out of the money, when I have just one dollar, I went to the pizza place to ask him to work by hidden place; to work inside the place and not outside the place. So then people did not see me. The I’ll be okay. And he allowed me. He’s Iraqi, originally Iraqi. Or his mother is Syrian and his father is Iraqi…

Joshua: He has family in Iraq.

Firas: He has a lot of connections in Iraq. And he allowed me. He’s a good person. But, he was giving me four dollars a day, like 200 Syrian pounds, which is nothing. But I want to survive. I need to survive. And I did work at pizza place. It was good.

Joshua: This picture that you’re painting, what you’re talking about… the difficulties that you faced and I’m sure that others are facing… I mean, I’ve visited other families with you that are facing difficulties because they are not allowed to work. I mean… this is something different that what we here from the media in the US. This is something different than what we hear in the Western media.

For instance, at home in the United States, the government line is often repeated that the Iraq war was a victory and that this victory was won through the United States troop surge that put an end to all the sectarian violence of 2006/2007- and it’s said as if all the violence was on the part of Iraqis. But in reality, we see that hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were forced to leave their homes and still can’t go back. Even the UN is maintaining that the situation in Iraq is too dangerous for Iraqis to return and does not advise voluntary resettlement or repatriation back to Iraq.

What do you think? Do you see the Iraq war as over? Firas: What I want to say is that if the freedom make that violence, than we do not need that freedom. We do not want it. You can not give the freedom by… now, the freedom give us the violence; give us a lot of people killed under the name of the freedom. We don’t need that freedom. It make our country terrible. It destroyed the country. So we don’t need that freedom, that shit freedom. Sorry.

Joshua: No, that’s okay. Well, switching gears, I’ve heard from others and I’ve seen personally from the families we’ve visited how you’ve become involved in helping the Iraqi refugee community here in Syria. Now, what prompted you to begin this work? And what have been some of the biggest successes and failures since you started working with Iraqis here?

Firas: In the beginning, I tried to find a cheap place to live in, which is Jaramana area in Damascus. Most of the Iraqi community stay in it because it’s cheap place. And they can find our food, our community, the Iraqis. So I find a room in that place and everyday I was just sitting outside and writing something, open my computer outside the house, and just sitting. And I saw the children just come to me and looking for my computer. They did not see it before. Most of them don’t have any idea about the computer. And they are Iraqis. Most of them did not register at the schools. They just playing outside the house and the apartments. Which is very little apartments and the children cannot play in it. And they just going outside the apartments. And then, I was think, “what if I teach the children and I help them while I am sitting and I am free to do nothing.”

Joshua: So lets talk about your project then.

Firas: Yeah, that’s how my project became. This is the first thing; to think about being with the children and teaching the children.

Joshua: And you named your project Native Without a Nation. It seems to be a very fitting title. What is your idea behind the name, or what is the meaning behind the name?

Firas: The meaning of the name Native without a Nation is: We are natives and we are out of our country. And we can not go back. And here we are not stable. And we don’t have a country. We don’t have a country. We lost our country.

Joshua: As far as the project then; give us an overview of the project. How does it work, and what do the participants do?

Firas: On that project, we do many different things with the children. I do, the first thing is teaching them about the computer, giving them basic lessons about the computers. Many children don’t have any idea about it. And the first thing is teaching them some English language. There are volunteers working with me and helping, wanting to help the Iraqi children. And we did teaching them English. Which they are happy to learn it. And the other thing is finding their gifts. Some of the children are artists. They can paint. Some of them can do sculpture. We can, we can find their gifts. Some of them have music. We can help them. If we don’t have volunteers to work with us, we can put them with other people who is doing projects for the Iraqi children. Then, my friend in the US, she’s a teacher for Ross school. She asked me, “What about if we do the web conference between Iraqis and Americans?” In the beginning, I was afraid to do that. I don’t know what’s that thing going to bring because it’s… we are in the Middle East. And the relations between Americans and the Middle East are not good. And in the beginning I was afraid to do that. But I did because we did not do wrong things. I believe we do the right- how the children was just talking to each other. It’s okay.

Joshua: So the children are able to connect with each other. Refugees from Iraq are able to connect with students in the United States and able to talk about their different situations.

Firas: They’re able to talk about their different situations, their different cultures. They’re able to talk about their different lives, different schools, their different teachers. Which in the first time our students was amazed that no teacher is hitting the students. And the students was surprised to know that the teachers forced the students to study and sometimes hit them. And children, many times, always they don’t like their teachers. Their afraid of them.

Joshua: It was this way not too long ago in the United States as well. So, what are some of the positive results you have seen from this kind of intercultural and interfaith dialogue between Iraqi youth and youth in other places? What are some of the positive results that you’ve seen?

Firas: What do you mean?

Joshua: What are some of the good things that have come from the exchange between youth here and in other places?

Firas: The good thing is… I was looking for myself when I was young, when I was sixteen seventeen years old, and I was saw the foreign people on the streets in Baghdad. And we can not talk to them. Not just because of the language. We cannot talk to them. And I have never talked to foreign people before 2003. I have never. And when the internet came, I started to talk by chatting, by room chats, and chatting with foreign people. And I was spent all the nights to talk to them. And it was good, to know their culture, to their different people. And the good thing is the many of the Iraqi children can talk about themselves. The can introduce themselves to others. And they can talk about their self, about their lives. In the beginning, I asked the students to write a biography to put it in the blog. And they was just confused to write. “What should I write?” And they don’t know how to explain their self, how to introduce their self. In the beginning, the children was confused and shy themselves to talk. And I was tell that the first time, second time, they became friends. And we need to make the world smaller than it is. We don’t need to separate the people. We need to make all the people together.

Joshua: It sounds like this idea, it opens up a door that wasn’t there before-a door for people to be able to connect, to actually even see each other. You know, I know when I was a kid in elementary school, may anywhere from 8,9,10 years old, I had never seen an Iraqi. I couldn’t even tell you much or anything about Iraq. But now we have kids that are this age connecting with Iraqis. Do you see this kind of idea being maybe even able to prevent future wars? Because, I think, one of the problems is that we don’t know each other. And if we are able to know each other, we realize that there is no reason to fight.

Firas: Yeah, you’re right. That’s what exactly happen. And people, the children, they are not children. They are going to lead the world after us. And we need to prepare all our children, your children and our children, prepare them to lead the world better than now. Because now it’s terrible.

Joshua: So, the project has been going on for a couple of years now. How many schools are involved here in Syria, and in the United States or anywhere else? Most of our followers are likely from the United States. So if they are listening to this and they want to get involved with Native Without a Nation, if they want to bring Native Without a Nation to their classroom, how can they get connected? And what would be expected of them?

Firas: Yeah, the way is, there is a blog. And we did write on the blog the biographies. The blog is open for everyone you can see, you can read and they contact us to prepare for the conference between the children. And the way is by my friends now. My friends, I just told them about the project. The do read the blog and address. And then we contact each other and plan, prepare for the conference.

Joshua: So if there are people out there that want to get involved, they can just go to the blog, send you an email from the blog, and setup a web conference. What is the address for the blog?

Firas: Yeah, the address foe the blog is www.nativewithoutanation.blogspot.com.

Joshua: www.nativewithoutanation.blogspot.com. Very good. Shifting gears, you were recently accepted for resettlement to the United States. And I want to congratulate you!

Firas: Thank you very much, yeah.

Joshua: And I know you will be missed greatly here in Syria. Will Native Without Nation be able to continue without you?

Firas: Yeah, there are volunteers that are going to continue instead of me here. And I’ll try to work from United States to also finding students from the US to continue to do the web conference. I think the project will be more active because I’ll try t do the best to find more students in the US. And I’ll try to talk about the Iraqi children in Syria in exile.

Joshua: Well, it’s an exciting project, and I’m sure there would be many people in the US who would want to be a part of it. Especially, after they meet you. So I could see it definitely picking up.

Firas: Yeah, yeah… I hope that.

Joshua: I mean, this is a big deal to be accepted for resettlement. According to the UN, only 17% of the registered Iraqi refugees in Syria have been actually resettled since 2007. That’s somewhere around 20,000 Iraqis, which is quite a small number..

But, as you’re thinking about moving, do you have any thoughts about the upcoming move? Where will you be living and what are some of your expectations, your hopes and even maybe some of your fears about moving to the US?

Firas: Yeah, I have mixed feelings now. I have many different feelings; happy, worried, sad. It’s mixed, it’s mixed. And also excited to go there. But, in general, I am happy because I have been waiting for the resettlement for four years and two months. And just now I get it.

Joshua: and where will you be living when you go the United States.

Firas: I am going to be in New York City. It’s a big difference, the Middle East and New York City.

Joshua: It’ll be quite a change.

Firas: it’s a big change.

Joshua: Well, Firas, best of luck with the move and new life in New York. I know we have friends of Voices and friends in Voices that are excited to receive you there in New York.

Firas: Yeah, thank you.

Joshua: And thanks again for doing the interview. Again, this is Firas Majeed of the Native Without a Nation project that aims to connect the lives and stories of Iraqi refugees with people living in the United States and other places as well. Just as a reminder, the website for Native Without a Nation is www.nativewithoutanation.blogspot.com. Again, this is Joshua Brollier of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. Our website is www.vcnv.org.

VCNV Author

Joshua Brollier

Life in the Yarmouk Camp- An Interview with Mazen Rabia

Joshua Brollier — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 09:25:07 -0500

Short Information Teaser

A look into the life of Palestinian Refugees in Syria

Excerpt

October 26, 2010
Yarmouk Camp, located on the southern outskirts of Damascus, is home to approximately 250,000 Palestinian refugees. Mazen Rabia lives in Yarmouk and works as an Arabic teacher. Joshua Brollier interviewed Mazen to ask for his insight into daily life in the camp over fifty years after the first Palestinians were forcibly displaced to Yarmouk from Palestine by the newly forming Israeli state.

Read the text from the interview
Mazen Rabia

Body

Yarmouk Street, Damascus, Syria

Joshua: This is an interview with Mazen Rabia. I’m sitting here with Mazen in his home in Yarmouk. So to start off, Mazen, tell me a little bit about yourself. And what it is you do here in Yarmouk?

Mazen: Yani, actually I’m a Palestinian. I’m living here in Yarmouk since long, long time. My family came after they left Palestine to Lebanon. They came here and they lived in Syria. And I’m living here since a long, long, long time. I’m teaching Arabic in Yarmouk to foreign students in general. I studied in Syria. I did everything in Syria. Yani, my work is a teacher.

Joshua: Okay. As your teaching, do you approach your lessons with any kind of certain philosophy?

Mazen: Yani, actually I’m teaching Arabic. Sometimes, I’m working with some researcher. When I work with a researcher…something…. you know, it’s related to my opinion, my political idea and some philosophy. Yes. But with the students who just start to learn Arabic, I don’t think that I can. Yani, philosophy of teaching… you know… it’s a way to make people like the language and the culture and accept them. Yani, this is the main issue, I think, to be able to teach Arabic in a good way.

Joshua: Sure. Okay. So how long have you been teaching Arabic and what was it you were doing before that?

Mazen: Actually, I started to teach Arabic since 12 years. Before that, I studied theatre and I worked in a theatre and in TV programs. I decided to work as a teacher when I worked with foreign students in a play. I found that it would be good to me to teach Arabic and use Arabic teaching as a… you know… I can get good money, live and survive. Yani… this is because I’m living here in Syria. It wasn’t easy to me to find work. So teaching Arabic is like a private work. I can do it at home and it doesn’t cost a lot. It’s nice.

Joshua: You can make your own schedule.

Mazen: Yes.

Joshua: I mean, I’ve experienced from being here and taking lessons with you that people are always dropping in. You house, in a way, is almost like a community center. People are always coming in… coming by… you’re always preparing food. I was going to ask you to tell us a little bit about the Thursday night gatherings that you have- the film screenings that you have. And what is your aim in getting people together?

Mazen: Yani. It’s like, you know… It was like, in our society, we like to meet and talk and exchange opinions. Since a long time, we have this kind of meeting at home with people from my community, but when I started to work as a teacher I began to communicate with the foreigners from different sources. So… you know… we used to meet and talk, eat together, prepare things together, live like small communities with my students… with my people around. It began to be like… you know… from time to time, we improve our meeting to make it more useful. We watch a film. We talk about a book. We make a small workshop about photography. With certain people who can teach something, we also helped kids from time to time to learn English or French. It depends. It’s not very… yani… frequent. But we do it. When some of the people around need it and ask about it, so we can do something like this. But in my neighborhood, I feel very comfortable. The people accept me and my life. They don’t feel strange to have foreign or to do party at home. This is why I feel comfortable and I do it like every week, almost every week.

Joshua: Yeah, sure. I mean, as a foreigner being here, I’ve experienced Yarmouk to be very welcoming. The people are open.

Mazen: This is depend on the family and the person itself, and the circumstances around him. I think this is not easy, in general. In general, the people in Syria are welcoming foreign, they like to talk with foreign… yani… invite them to their houses. But also this is like there is difference from person to person. Hala, this is part of my work in general, and this is how I communicate with people. I have a lot of friends who do journalist work, artist, photographer. This is like, to make our life more rich. Okay, so its okay. Hala, the problem is with the people around- how they accept our life, how they accept what we are doing. I don’t think that is possible everywhere. Yani, the people are very open, but they can’t accept like a party every week. It’s not easy to them. But in general, they are of very open mind, despite that that they are from the background of Muslims. In general, we talk about them like they are conservatives. But I don’t think so. No one from my friends came to my place had or faced any problems; girls or guys. So I think it’s really nice… like …to meet with others, live with them, talk with them. So it’s okay.

Joshua: I think people would be interested to hear more about life in the Yarmouk Camp in general. Can you give us a bit of history about the camp? How did it come to be?

Mazen: Yeah. Now, the camp it looks like a city… yani. You know, it has improved a lot. In the beginning, the camp started and they funded the camp since 57. It was very simple houses without ceilings. The people put some metal. You know the streets wasn’t very good. Their weren’t any services, but now the life of the people has started to improve and they could really improve their life. We see that there is a very big change in the camp. We used to live in very simple houses. Its simple, our houses, but it’s better than what we used to have before, yani. We rebuilt our houses and everyone has a part from the house. In the camp, you know, there are many different services here. We have services from the Syrian government. We have another services from UNWRA, the UN. And we have services from the Palestinian movement or the PLO. So, I think it’s good. It’s started to be good. The people don’t suffer or need a lot. But, in general, they still connect to their issue, their right and their cause. And they know they have rights and they want to talk about it. This is why a big number of the people are involved in political life. So, yani, we see the influence of what’s going on in Palestine or around us in the life in Yarmouk.

Joshua: Sure. Do you know approximately how many refugees came in the first place in 1957?

Mazen: To Syria or in general?

Joshua: To Yarmouk.

Mazen: Actually, I don’t know exactly. The organization that is in charge of life in Yarmouk is called Gabar. Actually, they don’t give access to any researcher about these numbers. I don’t know why, but now I think the number of Palestinian inhabitants of Yarmouk is almost 2,500. I mean 250,000. Because this is the biggest camp in Syria. In Syria there is almost 500,00 Palestinians. They are living in many different camps and in many different cities- in Haleb, in Latakiye, in Homs, in Hama, in Daraa. And there is people that live in cities, yani. Like here, there is people that live in the center of the city and different places. Hala, the camp still has 250,000 that live here. When they started the camp I wasn’t sure the number of the Palestinian. Yani, but the life changed. A lot of people finished their studies, started to work. Some people immigrate. Some people still live here; they didn’t go anywhere. You know, the life of people changes from time to time and according to every family and their relationship to their relative. When they could gather themselves in a certain country, they do it. Hala, the majority of my family, for example, live in Lebanon. But I can’t go to see them or live with them there. This is a small part of my family that lives in Syria. This is my father, my mother and my brothers.

Joshua: Well, it seems natural that people would want to group together with their family. So with this, you know, approximately 500,000 Palestinians living in Syria right now, what about integration into the Syrian society and political system? How has that process worked or not worked? And has it changed a whole lot since…

Mazen: Yani, actually the Palestinians who live in Syria, the Palestinians who came in 48, the Syrian law improved or changed from time to time. They start to deal with Palestinians exactly how the way they deal with Syrian citizens. So we can go… we have the right to go the university. We live exactly like Syrians, but we haven’t political rights. We can’t participate in Syrian parties, so we have a different cause. This is why the Palestinians are involved in Palestinian movement and not in Syrian political… For example, we don’t talk about democracy in Syria. This is not our issue for the Palestinian. This is not our problem. It is the problem of the Syrian. But I don’t agree with that because I know that we are living here and that we have the same circumstances. Yani, we have to be part of what’s going on. The things that happen to the Syrian happen to us to. I can’t separate Palestinian life in Syria from the Syrian life. We live in the same place and we face the same problems- economically and politically and in everything. Hala, but in general, Palestinians are politically separated from Syrians, but economically they are not. Also, socially, yani, we still have a big group of Palestinians that live in one area. In Syria, we live exactly like Syrians- economically and in social terms we are the same. We can work in Syrian companies, in the government, in everything. But we don’t participate in Syrian political life.

Joshua: There are many 3 and 4th generation Palestinians born in Yarmouk who have never seen their homeland due to the state of Israel’s refusal to recognize the refugees’ right of return under international law. For example, I recently met a young man around my age, somewhere between 25 and 30. He was recently able to travel to the West Bank for the first time in his life. He said he was excited to take the trip and see his country and homeland, but that he felt a strange feeling of being a bit out of place and that he longed to be back in the camp.

In your opinion, what kinds of psychological effects do you think it has on the thousands of Palestinians living here in Syria, so close to Palestine, to know that, at least presently, they have a very small chance of ever seeing the land so loved by their mothers, fathers and grandparents?

Mazen: Actually we have very, very strong memories. And our families transfer their memories about Palestine. And we feel that we are very attached to this place, politically and even in the whole feeling that we feel. Hala, sometimes I try to talk with the kids in Yarmouk and I ask them, “You are Syrian?” And they answer in a very nervous way. “No we are not we are Palestinian.” They are very attached to their identity. Not because they still deal with them like they are refugees, but because they have a lot memories. They have a lot of valuable things in their education from their family. And they know how much it means for them a lot. This land means a lot to the Palestinian. Hala, some people, some journalists ask me “do you think that the Palestinians change from generation to another generation? …their opinion or relationship with this land has become weaker?”. I don’t think so. Yani, the people are a little bit, they are not very happy with the whole political event or what is going on with the Palestinian Authority and Israelis. They want peace, but they are not very satisfied. They don’t feel that they will be able to get their rights in this way. But they still insist that they have a right. For them, psychologically, we talk about Palestine. Actually, everybody has his image in his mind. And he works to liberate it. He will go one day in a different way. A lot of people want to get another citizenship to be able to go to visit the place. They are fighting for it in many different ways, but they couldn’t see it. But they have really strong, strong ideas about it. Hala, I don’t think the times will make the Palestinian feel in their land or in their cause in a week way. They will continue in having or teaching their kids this relationship with this land. And I think the nature of this being they created in Palestine… yani… they kicked the Palestinian out. This being there; the people know that this being is very racism. And it doesn’t deserve to stay in this region. That is why it helps them to make their fight more serious and it gives them more continuity. Until now they are not dealing only with Palestinians in a racism way. Israel, they are dealing with Syrian and Jordanian, the whole Arab, with Muslims also. They try all the time to create war. It’s not the Palestinians or the Arabs who create the war. Israel can’t live without war, in my opinion. If they go back to live in peace, their society would destroy from inside. I’m sure from that. They haven’t a very strong society, but they depend on the conflict which they create with Arab and Palestinian.

Joshua: You’ve kind of taken it this direction and opened it up by what you were saying. My next question thinking of, including Yarmouk, but beyond Yarmouk, Where do you see things heading for the Palestinian movement? Have there been any positive or negative developments in recent years in such a prolonged struggle? Where do you see things heading?

Mazen: Positive or negative, in which sense? I don’t understand.

Joshua: As far as the movement to free Palestine, have there been any positive or negative developments in recent times? And where do you see things heading from here?

Mazen: Actually what happened in Palestinian history, that… you know… there is a movement. They start to work and raise a lot of slogans for liberation. And, yani, since they start to work, against the occupation, there is a lot things changed. We faced a lot of wars which put us in a dangerous big question about our existence and our identity. Hala, now we have a conflict about how we are going to realize or achieve our goals- about right of return, to build a Palestinian state, how we can live in one state or two states. We don’t know if the Israelis are really serious towards peace or not. In my opinion the Palestinian movement is a little bit, yani, confused. They have a lot of problems because some people, one group, they choose to go towards the peace and they don’t care really about the opinion of the people around them. They want to solve the problem, but its clear now that they are not able to realizes or achieve anything. This is why some in the movement don’t want to make the conflict bigger for Palestinian life. They try to wait to see if this group, the Palestinian Authority for example, could realize or achieve something. Until now we didn’t see anything, so we see that …. These people want peace, but they don’t see the Israelis dealing in a positive way for the peace. They are very difficult to decide the way how they will continue building their strategy or policy towards how we can realize or achieve our goals. Hala, we have a movement like Harakat Hamas that says there is only one way because we don’t trust this racism of Israel. These people who really don’t want to make peace. And we have the other group, Abu Mazen and his team, who, now, they don’t care about Palestinian rights in my opinion. They care to get the satisfaction from the United States for their own benefit. But Palestinians, in my opinion, they don’t trust them. These people hasn’t any credibility in Palestinian life. They lost a lot of credibility. So now they people, not because they don’t want peace, but because, really, they try now since a long time, since Oslo, but nothing happened. They couldn’t get any things from, yani, this negotiating, this peace process. So I think they want to find another way.

Joshua: Outside of the dealings of like the PA and the Israeli government, do you think there is any hope in the idea of the boycott, divestment, sanctions call? Has this picked up?

Mazen Rabia

Mazen: Actually, we have. Actually the people in general practice it. Boycott Israel? Yani, this is something the people do naturally. No one accepts to buy something if they knew this is an Israeli product, or even American. A lot of people avoid to buy American because the people know the Americans give the weapons to kill the kids in Gaza to the Israelis. So they don’t feel comfortable to buy or be forced to buy American products. Hala, we do it, but there is a lot of smuggling. There is the black market. They fake the production and what they wrote on the production.

Joshua: The stamps on the production.

Mazen: In general, we have a problem like this, but now they don’t talk about boycott because it’s real. What Israel tries to do during this process is to cancel the boycott to be able to sell their production in the Arab world. But they don’t want to give the Palestinian or Arabs anything in front of that. So I think this is one from what we have to do and focus on it. But there is many different ways also, not only boycott. I am from the people who say that if we put more pressure on America and Israel, not only political, we have a different way. Yani, they fight, they kill people. So I think they people have a right to defend themselves too. Yani, the American thinks only the Israeli has a right to defend themselves. Excuse me, yani, the Americans don’t understand anything. They don’t know what is the meaning of rights because Israel has rights. They stole the land of the people, and at the same time they are the only one who has a right to defend themselves. The thieves help the thieves, so it’s okay.

Joshua: Which is a right under international law-the right to defend your homeland, to resist a foreign occupation…

Mazen: Oh no.

Joshua: … a human right.

Mazen: International law, yani? This is a human right. This is like something natural. When someone comes to steal your home, to kill your kids… the only natural reaction you have to do is to defend your home and defend yourself.

Joshua: Well, thanks for doing the interview with me. That’s all the questions I have.

Mazen: Ahlan wa sahlan, ala rasii…

Joshua: And thanks for having me as your student. It’s been good to get to know Yarmouk…

Mazen: I am very happy to be with you and to deal with a lot of American students. Actually, I have very, very interesting discussion with my students in general and where I learned a lot about Americans. Actually, we haven’t this feeling that we are against Americans like what the government in the United States tries to talk or market in the streets, in the media and the propaganda. Actually the people here, everyone loves the Americans and the American way to live. The problem is only that if the Americans only want to take our resources and give the Israelis the weapons to kill Palestinian and Arabs…

Joshua: This is a problem.

Mazen: We have a problem with the government and her policy, not with the people of the United States.

Joshua: Sure. Alright, well thanks again Mazen.

The opinions expressed in this interview not attributable to Voices for Creative Nonviolence.

VCNV Author

Joshua Brollier

Minorities and the Militarization of Pakistan

Joshua Brollier — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 06:59:24 -0500

Short Information Teaser
by Joshua Brollier
Excerpt

Sufi Mast Dance in Pakistan

Written July 22, 2010. Re-posted from the Oct/Nov edition of the NY Catholic Worker Newspaper.

A rosary hangs from the mirror of Yusef Amir’s (1)taxi cab. In Islamabad, the capital city of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, openly displaying Christian iconography is not unheard of, but it is still a bold identification with a minority that has been the target of significant discrimination and persecution within the past several years. Attacks on Christians are not frequent in Islamabad itself, but according to a recent report put out by the Human Right Commission of Pakistan, at least 117 Christian houses were burned to the ground by Islamic fundamentalists in the residential areas of Gorja, Korianwala and other parts of Pakistan. Christians in Pakistan also suffered hardships last year, such as being threatened to convert to Islam, prosecution under blasphemy laws and social ostracization.

Body

Sufi Mast Dance in Pakistan

Written July 22, 2010. Re-posted from the Oct/Nov edition of the NY Catholic Worker Newspaper.

A rosary hangs from the mirror of Yusef Amir’s (1)taxi cab. In Islamabad, the capital city of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, openly displaying Christian iconography is not unheard of, but it is still a bold identification with a minority that has been the target of significant discrimination and persecution within the past several years. Attacks on Christians are not frequent in Islamabad itself, but according to a recent report put out by the Human Right Commission of Pakistan, at least 117 Christian houses were burned to the ground by Islamic fundamentalists in the residential areas of Gorja, Korianwala and other parts of Pakistan. Christians in Pakistan also suffered hardships last year, such as being threatened to convert to Islam, prosecution under blasphemy laws and social ostracization.

Despite these troubling considerations, Yusef’s eyes beamed with pride as he told us about his faith, his family and his ability to drive us to any destination in Pakistan. Because Kathy Kelly, my colleague on this Voices for Creative Nonviolence delegation, and I are from the United States, I think Yusef assumed that we were Christians and this would be a cultural connection that would not only be a point of shared faith, but might also help him receive a generous wage for his taxi services. Yusef drove us to several appointments that day, one being a meeting with young men from North and South Waziristan about the consequences of drone warfare. After our meetings were finished, Yusef was adamant that we came with him to meet his family to “see how poor people are living in Islamabad.” We could see that Yusef was a trustworthy man and that there was potential there for a more lasting friendship, so we agreed.

Yusef’s home is tucked in the middle of Islamabad in a katchi abadi, a slum or squatter colony. There are more than 20 katchi abadis in Islamabad inhabited by over 70,000 people dwelling in very difficult conditions. Having few rooms, amenities and modern comforts, Yusef’s tin-roofed home was kept spotless and well ordered, and the photos on the wall conveyed the stories of a close knit and loving family. It was a special day for Yusef because his daughter, her husband and their grandchild were visiting, so he was very eager for us to meet them as well as his wife. We were greeted with cold drinks and offered tea, snacks and dinner.

Kathy and I visited for an hour or so, and received a humbling amount of hospitality. We exchanged stories and heard about the joys and struggles of this poor Christian family living in Pakistan. With the odds stacked against her, Yusef’s daughter managed to receive a good education and was now working at a foreign consulate, the place where she met her husband. Their child looked healthy and a number of other children, who were not looking so healthy, came in and out of the house gazing with curiosity at these odd strangers. The children played with two large dogs that roamed in the concrete yard and a young cousin arrived in a frenzy of excitement, roaring in on his motorbike. After meeting the cousin, we thanked Yusef and his family for their kindness and promised to visit again if at all possible.

On the way back to our host family’s house, Yusef told us about the logistics behind being a cab driver. My recollection is that he said, on a good day, a taxi driver could expect to pull in around 1,000 rupees per day. This amounts to around 12 dollars a day, but after fuel, maintenance for the vehicle, taxes and registration fees are paid, little is left to rent a house or purchase food for a whole family. We parted ways when we made it to our destination, but that would not be the last time we would meet with our new friend.

Christians are not the only minority group facing discrimination in Pakistan. On May 28th, shortly after we returned from Lahore, militant groups attacked two Ahmadi mosques in Lahore, leaving at least 82 dead. Fundamentalists have targeted the Ahmadi sect because its interpretation of Islam differs from that of many Muslims. Fozia Tanveer and Arshed Bhatti, our hosts for much of our stay in Pakistan, were shocked to hear about these attacks. The next day, they organized a candlelight vigil at their café, ‘Civil Junction’, a place known for non-violent protests, in remembrance of the lives lost and to advocate that Pakistan move towards becoming a secular state where each person is free to choose their religious (or nonreligious) identification and practice accordingly.

In another recent tragedy in Lahore, Data Darbar, an important and popular Sufi Muslim shrine, was the target of a suicide bomb blast that killed 43 people and injured 175. Back home in the United States, Kathy and I were severely distressed when reading of the attacks in the New York Times. When we were in Lahore, we met with a group of students who were extremely enthusiastic about the Thursday night melas, or religious festivals, happening at the Sufi Shrine. The students showed us a video taken of a mela where Muslim spirituals were sung and accompanied by dancing and the captivating drums of Pappu Sain. Being an avid drummer and attracted to music’s spiritual elements, I was very drawn to the Sufi traditions. I made it a goal, though I failed in the goal, to visit the Sufi shrine before leaving Pakistan. After checking in with our friends and colleagues in Lahore, we were relieved to hear that none of the students we met were hurt in the blasts, but still saddened to think of what a horrific loss of life occurred there that day.

Fozia and Arshed explained to us how these attacks against minorities are not isolated events and how they fit into a much larger piece of the puzzle in Pakistan’s history. As with many societies, Pakistan’s discrimination and fundamentalism has gradually been increasingly institutionalized through law. For instance, under mounting pressure and riots from conservative elements in the country, the Pakistani parliament passed a constitutional amendment in 1974, during the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto administration, which explicitly deprived Ahmadis of their identity as Muslims and forcibly defined the religious group as a minority.

This legal distinction led to other ordinances passed throughout General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq’s rule which provided for the prohibition of Ahmadis to practice Islam and allowed them to be punished for “indirectly or directly posing as a Muslim.” In 1978, parliament pushed through a series of laws that created a separate electorate system for non-Muslims in Pakistan, which include approximately four million Christians, four million Hindus, Jews, Sikhs, Zoroastrians and Bahais, and four million Ahmadis.(2)

This two-tiered system of law continued from Zia’ul-Huq’s time and did not change until president and military dictator General Pervez Musharraf declared the policy of joint electorate in 2002. This was a step forward and a highly praised move in the United States and western countries, but in many ways the joint electorate existed on paper alone.(3)Specific clauses were added to the legislation that continued to separate Ahmadis onto different voting lists (4)and large numbers of Christians boycotted the 2002 and 2008 general elections because they felt the joint electorate had still not sufficiently provided for and adequate representation of their political voice.(5)And even with the return of the civilian government in 2008, the situation on the ground has not changed much for minority groups.(6)Fundamentalists are still able to blame minorities, using them as scapegoats for Pakistan’s problems, and they are often able to get away with encouraging and carrying out terrorist attacks like the burning of the Christian homes or the bombing of the Ahmadi mosques and Sufi shrines(7)without much expectation of accountability or prosecution from the government.

It seems important to me that peace and justice advocates take note of these discriminations and lend their solidarity and support to minorities struggling for equal rights in Pakistan. Though obviously different in many ways, the two-tiered system of “religious apartheid”(8) in Pakistan affects disenfranchised Pakistanis in ways that are comparable to consequences of the apartheid systems in South Africa and now in Israel/Palestine. It’s also important to note how the United States armed and strongly supported Pakistan’s military dictators and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) as laws discriminating against Pakistan’s minorities became more and more entrenched. Meanwhile, religious fundamentalism matured in Pakistani society, making Pakistan’s minorities more vulnerable.

The Reagan administration was eager to give General Zia-ul-Huq forty F16 fighter planes, plus over 1 billion dollars to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. Under Reagan, the U.S. turned a blind eye, or possibly collaborated, with plans to develop Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. The Bush administrations pumped 8 billions of dollars of military aid into the Pervez Musharraf regime. Though pretending to cooperate with United States’ War on Terror after 9/11, Musharraf, the Pakistani military and the ISI consistently took U.S. money and weapons and used them for their own agenda. Musharraf himself had years of military experience in fighting with India and re-opened the Kashmir conflict by leading armed Sunni extremists in a campaign of anti-Shiite violence in Kashmir in 1995.(9)

Intelligence estimates by the U.S.(10), the United Kingdom and European Intelligence agencies have long drawn connections between these Sunni militants fighting in Kashmir and Taliban and Al Qaeda groups fighting the United States in Afghanistan.(11) Many people we spoke with in Pakistan believed that, like Musharraf, the Pakistani government is still playing games with the United States by taking its money and weapons and secretly supporting Islamists to de-stabilize Afghanistan. The allegations are based on the argument that conservative elements in Pakistan are doing all they can to assure that the United States will not win the war in Afghanistan so that, when the war is over and the U.S. leaves, Pakistan will see a government in Afghanistan that shares the common bond of Islam, favoring Pakistan over India.

The Pakistani government is not monolithic in its intentions or makeup, and some officials are advocating for new policies towards India, Afghanistan and the United States. But behind all the opinions, confusion and politics, more weapons and more militarization of Pakistani society has not been beneficial for minorities or democracy in Pakistan. The military has become more and more dominant, while extremism has increased and minorities and civilians have suffered the consequences. The Obama administration has continued to flood billion of dollars in military aid to Pakistan, meanwhile increasing its reliance on the highly controversial C.I.A drone program.

Since 2007, the United States has pressured the Pakistani military to carry out several major military operations(12)to clear out the Taliban and al Qaeda from Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP), The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) the Swat Valley. These operations, undertaken with very little accountability and making around 4 million Pakistanis homeless, led to the death of over 1,300 civilians and left another 2,500 people indefinitely incarcerated without trial. Around 1 million people are still living as refugees.(13)(Most of the major offensives have occurred during the Obama administration.) Furthermore, people in FATA have faced their own special sort of discrimination by being excluded from the legal, judicial and parliamentary system of Pakistan. Bans on collective punishment that theoretically extend to the rest of the population, don’t apply in FATA. These appalling atrocities by the Pakistani military and the increased civilian casualties from United States’ drone attacks have served as a very potent recruitment tool for militants who have carried out the terrorists attacks against minorities in Pakistan’s populated areas.

It’s time that people in the United States recognize our own brand of militant fundamentalism, a rigid philosophy that sees force as the solution to every problem, is only making things worse. Our almost religious reliance on technological advances, such as drone warfare, and the arming of unaccountable proxy forces will never bring a sustainable peace. These strategies have already ruined the lives of millions who meant us no harm and they have not helped the plight of struggling minority families like Yusef Amir’s. We have not democratized Pakistani society nor increased respect and tolerance for different traditions such as the Sufis, Ahmadis and Christians. We certainly have not made the United States any safer. Instead, we have consistently bolstered, radicalized and even armed the very conservative elements we proclaim to be working against. For a new direction and a mutually beneficial outcome, I would suggest that we demand an end to U.S. military aid and operations in Pakistan and start dialogue with Pakistani-led grassroots movements that are working for equal rights and open society, the very groups which have been the backbone of improvements in Pakistan.

Here are a few organizations and individuals working for interfaith dialogue and concrete change in Pakistan with whom it would be worthwhile for social justice advocates to connect:

Civil Junction, Islamabad, Pakistan: Arshed Bhatti and Fozia Tanveer -– civil.junction.pakistan@gmail.com

Just Peace International, Peshawar, Pakistan: Ali Gohar — alibabano10@yahoo.com

PakMove, Pakistani movement in the U.S. : Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid — malik@soundvision.com

Christian Study Centre, Rawalpindi, Pakistan: Francis Mehboob Sada— cscpak@isb.comsats.net.pk

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan: Mr. Mohammad Asif— islamabad@hrcp-web.org

Joshua Brollier () is a co-coordinator with Voices for Creative Nonviolence. He was part of a May/June VCNV delegation to Pakistan which researched the effects of U.S. military intervention in the region.

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(1)The name Yusef Amir has been altered from the original for security reasons.

(2)http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hrj/iss16/khan.shtml#Heading55

(3)“Against the Current” by Kamila Hyat— http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/apr2010-weekly/nos-18-04-2010/spr.htm

(4)“Joint electorate? Not quite” By I. A. Rehman—http://www.thepersecution.org/news/dawn020917.html

(5)The Christian Minority in Pakistan: Issues and Options, By Shaun Gregory—spaces.brad.ac.uk:8080/download/attachments/748/Brief+37.pdf

(6)Minorities at Risk, Assessment for Ahmadis in Pakistan: http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/mar/assessment.asp?groupId=77001

(7)In March 2009, militants attacked the Rahman Baba Sufi shrine in Peshawar: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7925867.stm

(8)http://www.achrweb.org/Review/2007/179-07.htm

(9)http://www.democracynow.org/2007/11/19/deceptionbritishreporterandrewlevy_on

(10)http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jul/20/world/fg-alqaeda20/4

(11)http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/nie/?resultpage=1&

(12)www.eyesonpakistan.org/TimelineMilitaryOperationsFATANWFP_0709.pdf

(13)For a detailed look at the operations in NWFP, FATA and SWAT, read Amnesty International’s report at: http://www.eyesonpakistan.org/PakistanNorthwestviolationsAIReport_03062010.pdf

VCNV Author
Joshua Brollier

Unrest in Pakistan

Joshua Brollier — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 15:34:22 -0500

Short Information Teaser
Moving Beyond the U.S. National Interest
Excerpt
Workers fired from the Bureau of Statistics

Moving Beyond the U.S. National Interest

by Josh Brollier and Kathy Kelly

June 18, 2010

“The military is the muscle that protects the ruling elite from the wrath of the people,” says Pakistani political analyst Dr. Mubashir Hassan. “Right now, people are out on the street; blocking roads, attacking railway stations, etc. If you read the papers, it seems as though a general uprising has started all over Pakistan.”

Body
Moving Beyond the U.S. National Interest

by Josh Brollier and Kathy Kelly

June 18, 2010

“The military is the muscle that protects the ruling elite from the wrath of the people,” says Pakistani political analyst Dr. Mubashir Hassan. “Right now, people are out on the street; blocking roads, attacking railway stations, etc. If you read the papers, it seems as though a general uprising has started all over Pakistan.”

Dr. Hassan says that sporadic outbursts of anger in Pakistan won’t coalesce into a people’s revolution anytime soon. The demonstrators are too disorganized. But, the sheer volume of daily protests shows that many sectors of Pakistani society have pressing needs and priorities that do not include enlistment as foot soldiers in a proxy force for the United States’ War on Terror.

Dr. Hassan, a co-founder of the People’s Party of Pakistan, is a respected scholar and statesman. Last year, when we met with him, he had just returned from a visit, in the U.S., with Professors Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, his contemporaries in seeking to build just and fair social structures. Last month, in Lahore, he spoke with us about U.S. interference in the region and changing dynamics in Pakistan.

A snapshot of unrest in Pakistan offers a framework for outsiders to understand why it is unfair to insist that Pakistan “do more” to fulfill the United States’ vision for fighting extremism. It may also suggest why strong anti-American sentiments prevail, in Pakistan, among the peasantry, the middle class, religious and secular groups, and the highly educated and privileged classes.

Throughout the past several months, demonstrators burned tires nearly every day in the streets of Karachi, Rawalpindi, Lahore and other population centers as they voiced their opposition to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and it’s insistence on the implementation of a Value Added Tax (VAT) along with a proposed 11.3 billion dollar bailout package. In a special meeting convened by the Farmers Association of Pakistan, (FAP), participants said that the VAT would “totally kill the farmers and cause irreparable damage to the agriculture sector by making inputs more expensive. This would, in turn, increase the prices of agriculture produce, adding to the miseries of both the farmer and consumer, who are already facing extreme economic depression.”

Ashraf Javed, writing for The Nation, reported that economic experts estimated that the IMF and the Pakistani government’s original plan for the VAT would increase the prices of over 122 major categories of items, including food, by at least 15 percent.

These proposed policies led to protests by the All Pakistan Organization of Small Traders and Cottage Industries, the Pakistan Muslim League, Jamaat-e-Islami, textile workers, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, and even spawned a nationwide mobile phone boycott. Because of the immense pressure put on the government to reject the VAT, Pakistan decided to postpone implementation of the tax from July to October. The government, under the leadership of the People’s Party of Pakistan, has also come up with plans to incorporate many of the IMF’s demands for the VAT into the General Sales Tax (GST), which already sits at about 16 percent. In response, the IMF has threatened to freeze future disbursements coming to Pakistan if the VAT is not implemented by July 1st along with a “power tariff,” or 6 percent increase in electricity rates.

As the IMF and World Bank are insisting on a 6 percent hike in electricity rates, there has been nationwide upheaval over increased “load shedding,” the term for scheduled power outages in Pakistan, which sometimes last for 10-12 hours per day. Protests against the power cuts, often quite militant, have consistently erupted in major cities like Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. Demonstrators in other provinces and cities including Hyderabad, Multan, Quetta, Bahawalnagar, Sukkur, Badin, Mirpur Khas, Larkana, Thatta and Ghotki, Dera Ismail Khan, Hangu, Kurk, Swat and Muzaffarabad have also registered their outrage. Textile mills, manufacturers, the agricultural sector and traders are among the hardest hit by load shedding which limits the hours of operation, disrupting production and interfering with worker schedules. Protesters have created roadblocks, burned tires, gone on strike and organized massive sit-ins.

In Punjab, Pakistan’s most densely populated province, the Tenants Association of Punjab, (AMP), demands “Ownership or Death.” Involving 1 million landless tenants, based in villages stretching over 15 districts, AMP is one of Pakistan’s largest political movements. For ten years, the AMP has struggled to secure ownership rights for poor families that have tilled their land for over four generations.

The military is one of the largest landholders in Pakistan, and military agencies such as the

Remount Veterinary and Farms Corps (RVFC), Military Seed Corporation, Livestock Agricultural Department and Dairy Farm, and the Seed Research Farm have been claiming ownership and collecting revenue from tenants. The Punjab Board of Revenue has ruled that these military companies have no legal claim to the land or its revenue, but tenants have faced campaigns of intimidation, coercion, cruelty and murder by armed police and paramilitary forces.

Led by peasant women organizers, AMP scored a major victory in March, 2010, after staging a long march and sit-in. Thirty-thousand tenants, women and children shut down the Multan-Lahore expressway for over ten hours and succeeded in securing ownership rights from the Government of Punjab. The government agreed that transfer of land ownership was to start with immediate effect and that a committee for monitoring of the process for transfer of land to tenants would include representatives of the Women’s Peasant Society and AMP.

While in Islamabad, we spent time with two groups of workers involved in long demonstrations for economic rights. The first was a group of nine men who, for the past month, had been occupying a tent outside the city’s Press Center. They represent 491 former employees of the Federal Bureau of Statistics, all of whom were suddenly fired from their jobs before their contracts were finished. They suspect that their jobs are now being filled with new employees hired on the basis of patronage and not merit. The nine we met with were all college educated and probably considered middle class before they lost their jobs. However, many of them were the sole providers for households ranging from 8-10 in number. The group aims to remain in the streets, in protest, until their jobs are reinstated.

Workers fired from the Bureau of Statistics

The second group of workers we interviewed was from the All Pakistan Clerks Association. The clerks were in their third month of public protest. They had moved, the previous day, to an encampment in front of the parliament where they demanded that Members of Parliament devise a budget that would give the clerks a pay raise proportionate to inflation and commensurate with salaries of the police, army and the judiciary. They explained to us that the army, police and judiciary have received consistent pay raises and healthcare benefits; meanwhile, civil society has been abandoned. One man said, “Our pay only covers utilities. We have no remaining money for health care or education. How can we care for our children?” Solidarity demonstrations with the All Clerks Association occurred across the country and picked up in number and intensity after June 3rd when the police baton charged the clerks and members of United Teachers Association in front of the parliament. The clerks intended to remain in protest until the announcement of the 2010-2011 budget on June 15th.

With the announcement by Pakistan’s Finance Minister, Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, that the country’s defense spending will be raised to more than 5 billion beginning July 1st, a 17 percent increase from last year, it’s unlikely that the clerks will receive the raises and benefits they’ve sought.

All Pakistan Clerks Association protest in Islamabad

Since Pakistan’s inception, the military has been a dominant force in running both internal politics and foreign policy. In The State of Martial Rule: The Origins of Pakistan’s Political Economy of Defense, Ayesha Jalal notes that the Pakistani government has faced a menacing set of challenges on the domestic, regional and international fronts that have tipped the balance in favor of the military and civil bureaucracies which were not elected democratically.

Additionally, as detailed in a recent report by Amnesty International, residents in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) “continue to be governed by a colonial-era law, the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) of 1901, which denies basic constitutional rights and protections for the residents of FATA, including their rights to political representation, judicial appeal, and freedom from collective punishment.”

Pakistan faced a considerable increase in external pressure from the United States after the Iranian revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Pakistan’s greater significance in Western security calculations bolstered Pakistan’s strategic defenses, leading to bloated defense budgets that the country didn’t have the resources and capacity to meet. Pressure to increase military spending and expand military powers “intensified Pakistan’s internal socio-economic and political dilemmas,” Ayesha Jalal writes. “The negative impact of economic policies geared to sustain the needs of defense and requirements of international allies contributed to a wide array of social disaffections.” The pattern has really remained largely the same ever since.

During the Bush-Mush years, (President George W. Bush and General Pervez Musharraf headed the U.S. and Pakistan, respectively), the U.S. gave Pakistan 11.9 billion dollars in assistance, 8 billion of which went directly to the military. Now, the Obama Administration is insisting on more military offensives in the northwest parts of the country while Pakistan wrestles with the aftermath of a 2009 military offensive that displaced 3.5 million people, hundreds of thousands of whom still live as refugees. Following the 2009 military operations in Swat and neighboring provinces, the Pakistani armed forces began attacks against alleged militant strongholds in North and South Waziristan, creating new waves of displacement as people were forced to abandon their homes. Continued military operations will require funding, which then diverts needed resources that might otherwise be used to assist remaining refugees, alleviate poverty and reduce wealth disparities.

The military operations are taking place in an almost total media vacuum, in an area which Amnesty International has called a “human rights free zone.” Amnesty has documented that over 1,300 civilians were killed in last year’s fighting in northwest Pakistan and that the Pakistani government has indefinitely detained some 2,500 people without bringing any charges against them. Thirteen hundred people killed? That’s nearly as many lives as were lost during the 2008- 2009 Israeli massacre in Gaza, and where is the outcry? 2,500 people detained and likely tortured? Guantanamo has a long way to go to catch up to those statistics. “It’s the opposite of enforcing the rule of the law,” says Saman Zia Zarifi, the director of Amnesty Asia-Pacific. “This is moving towards chaos.”

The U.S. has insisted that Pakistan undertake military offensives that attack their own people. Meanwhile, U.S. drone strikes kill and maim many hundreds of Pakistanis. Exactly how many? It’s difficult to say. “Killing or violating even one person is wrong,” Dr. Hassan advised us. “The use of weapons against non-combatants is wrong.” These wrongs fuel distrust and hatred of the United States across Pakistan.

Pakistanis also suffer as a result of U.S. and NATO supply convoys that travel through Pakistan en route to Afghanistan. Just outside Islamabad, on June 8, 2010, militants attacked 50 NATO supply trucks headed for Afghanistan. Seven people were killed and 20 trucks were set ablaze. Just as there is no accountability when the CIA destroys a family home from a drone strike, it is doubtful that the United States offers any compensation to those who are injured or have lost family members as a result of an attack on a supply convoy. In fact, we met a young Afghan man who was hired by NATO as a convoy driver three years ago and who, earlier this year, while driving with a NATO convoy, drove over an Improvised Explosive Device (IED). The explosion shattered his leg. He received no compensation whatsoever from NATO forces.

Pakistanis also face increased militant and terrorist attacks in their cities as a result of U.S. policy. Continued U.S. interference serves as a recruitment tool for extremists. Militant and religious organizations train others to attack population centers and marginalized minority groups within Pakistani society. Recently, a Taliban group attacked two Ahmadi mosques in Lahore, killing over 80 people. Obviously, this kind of behavior cannot be attributed solely to the United States, but the U.S. government has to face its history of fostering and arming radical Islamic movements in South Asia when it suited U.S. geo-strategic interest. And after increased U.S. operations in the country since 2004, U.S. policy seems to be intensifying rather than decreasing militancy. Since the Pakistani government’s military offensives in the spring of 2009, launched under great pressure from the United States, hundreds of Pakistani civilians have been killed by retaliatory terror attacks.

With 60 million people living in poverty and many more living just above the poverty line, the people of Pakistan have priorities that do not include acting as a proxy to fight U.S. wars against purported terrorists. For many people, including those like Muhammad Akbar, a desperate rickshaw driver who committed suicide on Wednesday due to prolonged financial hardships, these priorities may be simply to put food on the table and to provide for their families. For others, including women’s and minority groups, fighting for their own political and human rights takes precedence.

People in the United States wishing to show solidarity with Pakistanis struggling to make ends meet should try to dialogue with Pakistani led grassroots movements. These indigenous efforts hold the keys to reducing poverty, ending discrimination and countering extremism in the region. We should also simplify our lifestyles and consumption patterns to require less of a share in the world’s resources, so that corrupt institutions like the U.S. government and the IMF do not have a pretext or a supposed mandate to continue interfering in the lives of others in order to serve the so-called U.S. “national interest.”

We would do well to heed Dr. Mubashir Hassan’s words. “Please leave us to our fate and to our devices,” he requested. “We’ll mess up, but we’ll get there.” He added that in spite of anxieties that his country is unraveling, there is still something hopeful. It’s this: perhaps people will be shown the result of violence and be prepared to believe that war doesn’t solve anything.

Joshua Brollier () and Kathy Kelly () are co-coordinators of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. www.vcnv.org.

The world cup of economic and military warfare

Joshua Brollier — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 07:29:46 -0500

Short Information Teaser
Plausible alternatives to US policies in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Excerpt
By Kathy Kelly and Joshua Brollier

June 2, 2010

Islamabad— “Our situation is like a football match. The superpower countries are the players, and we are just the ball to be kicked around.” This sentiment, expressed by a young man from North Waziristan, has been echoed throughout many of our conversations with ordinary people here in Pakistan and in Afghanistan. Most are baffled that the United States, with the largest and most modern military in the world, can’t put a stop to a few thousand militants hiding out in the border regions between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Body
By Kathy Kelly and Joshua Brollier

June 2, 2010

Islamabad— “Our situation is like a football match. The superpower countries are the players, and we are just the ball to be kicked around.” This sentiment, expressed by a young man from North Waziristan, has been echoed throughout many of our conversations with ordinary people here in Pakistan and in Afghanistan. Most are baffled that the United States, with the largest and most modern military in the world, can’t put a stop to a few thousand militants hiding out in the border regions between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Just about everyone we have spoken with, Pashtuns included, has little to no sympathy for the Taliban or their tactics. Many people have lost limbs, homes and loved ones to the brutal assaults of suicide bombers or the indiscriminate violence of IEDs. Yet, people expressed frustrated confusion over uncertainties regarding U.S. government goals in relation to the Taliban. Some believe that the United States might be working with the ISI (Pakistani Intelligence Services) or at least not working against them, to enable continued Taliban resistance. If there is no resistance, according to this view, a military presence in the region cannot be justified. Nor can a so-called humanitarian presence further flood the Pakistani and Afghan economies with millions of dollars in aid that most often lines the pockets of the politicians, elite bureaucrats, and United States corporations involved in construction and security.

The fact that very little aid money has reached the impoverished and war weary people who need it most has been confirmed to us by members of the Afghan and Pakistani governments, human rights organizations, Non-Governmental Organizations and several very unfortunate families forced to live as refugees. As Hyder Akbar, a Pashtun working on NGO assessments in Afghanistan, said to us, “If you are pouring 100 million dollars into a tiny and impoverished province like Kunar and seeing no results, you’re obviously doing something wrong.” However, several seasoned analysts agree that money alone can’t solve problems faced by impoverished people in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Both Dr. Mubashir Hassan, former finance minister of the Peoples Party of Pakistan, and Nur Agha Akbari, from the Ministry of Agriculture in Afghanistan, strongly believe that efforts to bring people out of poverty in South Asia must be initiated, at district and village levels, through consultation with grass roots, indigenous community groups. Mr. Akbari stressed that there is still an opportunity for the United States government and people to play a positive role in Afghanistan, but that role will not be possible until the United States stops giving orders and starts listening to community groups living in Afghanistan.

It’s also time that the United States drop the facade of humanitarianism that guides our national discourse concerning Afghanistan and Pakistan. For too long, most people in the United States couldn’t find Pakistani areas such as North Waziristan or Orakzai on the map. They had no idea where Helmand or Kandahar were located. Now, with our newspapers less preoccupied by Iraq, we learn to be worried for Afghan and Pakistani women if there is a Taliban take-over in the area. This isn’t to say that the United States should not care about the rights of women in both countries or the implications of a spread in extremist ideology. But, military intervention is not curbing the growth of Islamic militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and U.S. “strategic interests” in the area certainly guide most U.S. policy makers more than altruistic concern for women. For instance, the United States government seldom mentions the rights of women who are forced to live, as a result of U.S. policy, in refugee camps just outside of the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Women and children almost always have less physical and food security in refugee camps, and they are easier targets for sexual violence.

One doesn’t have to spend much time in South Asia to find many people who feel that tactics like the U.S. offensive in Kandahar, torture and indefinite detention at Bagram, and the drone strikes in Pakistan are fanning the flames of resistance and increasing the ranks of violent groups that manipulate Islam for their own purposes. Muslims in both Pakistan and Afghanistan have asked that we tell people in the United States that Islam is a religion of peace. “A man who uses violence has no religion,” says Abbas, a young man from Islamabad.

Students, professors, and human rights advocates in both countries affirmed that relationships, independent of military force, could be built between the people of the U.S. and South Asia. Those who’ve told us that military force is necessary to confront extremism have invariably added that the timing and control of military action should be in the hands of those who live in the region and know the society.

The United States bears a huge responsibility to make reparations to people of Afghanistan and Pakistan after pursuing nearly 10 years of destructive warfare that has destabilized both countries. There is a looming fear that, in Afghanistan, the United States is going to abandon the country and its people, returning Afghanistan to a Taliban or pre-Taliban era. But the withdrawal of troops does not require the U.S. to abandon Afghanistan. There are models for securing development efforts, in conflict zones, that do not require hundreds of thousands of troops, networks of military bases, and the overwhelming force of aerial surveillance and bombing.

Mr. Abdul Rahman Hotaki, a lawyer and director of the the Afghan Organization of Human Rights & Environmental Protection (AOHREP), points out that, roughly, only 20 percent of the funds given the U.S. Army Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) ever reach the stage of investment in an actual project. Even when PRTs effectively build a road or a school, gaining the trust of a community is problematic because the lines between military and humanitarian work become blurred. Schools, roads and other projects are often sabotaged under the suspicion that the projects are built more to serve U.S. imperialistic interests than to help Afghans.

In Afghanistan, it’s helpful to evaluate the construction of schools by Community Development Councils (CDCs) which, from start to finish, included participation of people living in the locale where the school was being built. In the CDC model, communities start by putting put up some funds or guarantees in advance of the project and then provide their own security throughout the process. Ashraf Ghani, former finance minister of Afghanistan, initiated the setup of these CDCs under the National Solidarity Project, which was loosely based on a model proposed by Nur Agha Akbari and Ahmad Shah Massoud. Not a single school built by the CDCs has been attacked by Taliban or other forces. Hyder Akbar attributes this to the sense of ownership by the community which creates security for the schools. USAID and other international donors have lauded such models but then revoked funding before projects could get off the ground. Both Mr. Nura Agha Akbari and Mr. Abdul Rehman Hotaki expressed frustration about having been involved in extensive preparation for CDC modeled projects, only to see their communities let down when donors from the U.S. and Canada decided they had other priorities.

The Italian NGO, Emergency, provides another solid example of dedication to Afghanistan that both philosophically and practically surpasses the United States’ policy of continued warfare as a means to achieve security. Emergency’s goal is providing health care and medical treatment to civilian victims of war and poverty. And they do it well. Their involvement in Afghanistan first began in 1999 through construction of a Surgical Centre in Anabah, a village in the Panjshir Valley. Emergency has since developed three major hospitals and 28 first aid posts and medical centers, treating over 2.5 million people. They treat all sides in a conflict without discrimination and they charge nothing to their patients. Although they operate on a modest budget and can’t afford to pay the higher salaries offered by other NGOs, they attract and keep employees who admire Emergency’s work. Their employment rosters steadily show staffing that is half Afghan and half international. Most employees we met told us they are motivated by principle rather than profit. “Utopia? No,” says Emergency’s founder, Dr. Gino Strada, M.D., “We are convinced that the abolition of war is a political project to realize, with great urgency. For this we cannot be silent in the face of war, any war. We are guilty of proposing the abolition of war.”

Altruistic principles are evidently not driving the continued presence of the defense corporations operating in Afghanistan. As Bill Quigley, legal director of New York City’s Center for Constitutional Rights points out, executives for the three largest U.S. defense corporations, Northrup Grumman, Lockheed Martin and Boeing, have received a combined 177 million dollars in personal compensation over the past three years. With profits rolling in at this rate, there is not much incentive for weapons suppliers to encourage the Obama administration to enact a speedy withdrawal of U.S. forces and their weapons from Afghanistan.

Even the NGOs and aid organizations have something to gain from a continued war economy. Peter Marsden, author of Afghanistan: Aid, Armies and Empires, worked with British NGOs in Afghanistan from 1989 to 2005. His book describes the way in which the United States has provided money for its own NGOs instead of directing money to the Afghan government. This policy causes a flood of overpaid charity workers from all over the world, most of whom buy supplies from their own countries. Not only do they spend their money elsewhere, but these aid workers usually draw a salary as large as 150 to 300 times the average Afghan income, which sits around $200, per person, per year.

Though the United States constantly threatens and carries out drone strikes in Pakistan, the Obama Administration insists that it has goodwill towards Pakistan and that the U.S. economic and military presence in the country is intended to be mutually beneficial. In its most recent National Security Strategy outline, the White House proposes to build cooperation with its international partners through “governance reform of the IMF and the World Bank.” The administration also says it is renewing U.S. leadership in the IMF, leveraging its engagement and investments, to “strengthen the global economy” and “lift people out of poverty.”

This rhetoric falls short of reality in Pakistan where the IMF, under U.S. leadership, is pushing through an aid package of US$ 7.27 billion for the Pakistani economy. On the surface, $7.27 billion dollars sounds quite generous, but the deal will subordinate Pakistan to U.S. military and strategic interests and comes with another string attached, the Value Added Tax (VAT). Quite contrary to “lifting people out of poverty,” the VAT amounts to an additional 15% sales tax on Pakistani products throughout every step of production. Practically, it amounts to a tax on the poor in a country that already has 60 million persons living below the poverty line and inflation reaching 40%. There have been demonstrations against the VAT and U.S. interference in Pakistan nearly every day throughout the past month that we have been in the country.

There is no simple answer or brilliant conspiracy theory that sums up exactly why the United States is at war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. War profiteering, energy resources, the Trans-Afghan pipeline, strategic geo-political positioning and even the narcotics trade may all play a part. But whatever the case, it is clear that the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan have become a football to be kicked about by the powerful players in world politics. If the United States truly wants to move away from this sort of selfish strategy and be appreciated as a genuine partner in the region, it should move towards an approach that values the lives and input of those most vulnerable in Afghan and Pakistani society.

Kathy Kelly () and Josh Brollier () are co-coordinators of Voices for Creative Nonviolence (www.vcnv.org).

Unarmed and Courageous

Dan Pearson — Mon, 31 May 2010 12:01:42 -0500

Short Information Teaser
Emergency Workers in Afghanistan
Excerpt
by Kathy Kelly and Josh Brollier

June 1, 2010

For six days in late May, 2010, Emergency, an Italian NGO providing surgery and basic health care in Afghanistan since 1999, welcomed us to visit facilities they operate in the capital city of Kabul and in Panjshir, a neighboring province. We lived with their hospital staff at both places and accompanied them in their weekly trips to various FAPs (First Aid Posts) which the hospitals maintain in small outlying villages.

Body
by Kathy Kelly and Josh Brollier

June 1, 2010

For six days in late May, 2010, Emergency, an Italian NGO providing surgery and basic health care in Afghanistan since 1999, welcomed us to visit facilities they operate in the capital city of Kabul and in Panjshir, a neighboring province. We lived with their hospital staff at both places and accompanied them in their weekly trips to various FAPs (First Aid Posts) which the hospitals maintain in small outlying villages.

One morning, accompanying a field officer from the Kabul hospital, we pulled off of the main road and traveled over unpaved lanes, then walked a short distance to a shady grove outside a small Afghan village. Villagers, eager to welcome Emergency’s staff and drivers, served ripe mulberries and a salty cucumber yogurt drink. We sat in a circle, shaded by the trees. When breezes stirred the branches, we’d enjoy a momentary rain of mulberries, much to the amusement of little children nearby.

The five youngsters, age five – ten, smiled shyly at us, shook our hands, and then joined their older brother to systematically gather mulberries. Using a large hoe, the older brother slammed the tree trunk. The children caught the cascading mulberries in a plastic tarp. Then they sorted the fruits, seeming to take discipline and routine for granted.

Earlier, Felippo, an Emergency nurse in Panjshir, had told us about how hard life can be for Afghan children in rural areas. “They never get a day off,” exclaimed Felippo. “Never. If they attend school, and school is closed for a day, the kids join workers in the fields.” Felippo, who has been to Afghanistan for three six month rotations, fantasizes about building a theme park where kids could play and be entertained.

The majority of Afghanistan’s agricultural laborers, both children and adults, face harsh realities.

Many villagers have little access to health care or education. Diseases such as pneumonia, gastroenteritis, malaria, and malnourishment contribute toward the deaths of 850 Afghan children every day.

In rural areas, a family typically has 10 – 15 children. Not all are expected to survive. When a child is born, a ceremony to name the infant takes place several months later because the child’s survival of the first months of life is a cause for great relief and celebration.

Felippo’s supervisor, Micha, the Medical Director at the Panjshir Hospital, explains that malnutrition is a social problem. “Mothers aren’t instructed about nutrition,” she says. “Sometimes in large families, the four year old is in charge of the one year old. Or the mother doesn’t breast feed during the first month, - the most crucial month. If fraternal twins are born, the boy will be breast fed, but not the girl.”

“They don’t come to the hospital when symptoms of sickness appear,” Micha continues. “They wait till a child is near death. Malnutrition is difficult to manage. Children will become healthy, but the malnourishment recurs; it’s often fatal.”

“Poor hygiene is another serious problem, especially if families can’t provide clean water,” Micha pointed out, “and, you see, this is also related to poverty. Sometimes the children drink unclean water, causing gastroenteritis.”

Intent on helping solve these basic problems, Emergency workers use the FAPs to educate people about nutrition and basic hygiene. In winter months, the roads often become impassable. In some places, Felippo hikes for two hours beyond the point where a vehicle can’t continue, carrying medicine and supplies in his backpack.

“Can you imagine,” asked Felippo, “that last year, when I finished my term of service, in January, when it was my last visit to a First Aid Post that is furthest from our hospital, people walked four hours in the snow to say goodbye to me. Yes, I fell in love.”

It isn’t hard to imagine why the staff feels so loyal to Emergency’s patients and to the organization’s goals.

Emergency is treating war victims as patients, and won’t allow police or military to enter the hospital, carrying weapons. Circumstances that occasion an injury or a wound never determine whether or not the patient will be admitted. While neutral as regards offering medical treatment, Emergency has been clearly partisan in it’s rejection of all wars. Their literature and outreach clarifies that the most important preventive measure to safeguard against war related wounds and injuries is the abolition of weapons.

In a pediatric ward at the Emergency hospital in Kabul, doctors and nurses tend youngsters who’ve mainly been hurt by landmines. Sometimes the boys go outside and sit on the grass with older fellows. Many share in common the experience of having lost limbs or fingers or toes to land mine or remote controlled explosions.

One afternoon, we sat in the hospital garden listening to the director of an Afghanistan human rights NGO talk about plans for President Hamid Karzai’s peace jirga, scheduled to begin on June 2nd, in a tent outside of Kabul. 1600 people are expected to attend. We watched boys and young men assemble in a circle, all wearing thin hospital gowns, most with bandaged limbs and some having suffered amputations. They were each from different regions and likely held quite divergent views….a jirga of sorts.

Esmatullah, 7 years old, came to the hospital a month ago because of a mine injury. He is from the Paktika province. “He has never cried, not once,” said Anil, the hospital’s physical therapist. “Not while dressings were being changed, not during physical therapy. He’s a real Pashtun.” Esmatullah beamed when Anil patted him on the head.

Anidullah , age 11, suffered a bullet injury. He was studying inside the mosque, in his town in the Ghazni province, when a battle erupted between U.S. and Taliban fighters. He doesn’t know which side hit him.

Nur Said, a teenager, lost one eye and has only one finger on his right hand. He is learning to feed himself. An unexploded device exploded when he picked it up. Sometimes the children try to open up the unexploded devices and take out the brass so that they can sell it.

A young man, age 21, was injured when he was a driver for U.S. forces. He said that the U.S. convoys have GPS systems for the front car and the back car, in each convoy. He was driving a Land Cruiser, in the middle of a U.S. military convoy, without benefit of a GPS.

“I could tell a lot of stories,” he says. “Some people were killed for no reason.”

After he was injured, the U.S. forces brought him by helicopter to Emergency’s hospital in Lashkar Gah, where treatment, as in all Emergency facilities, is free of charge. Emergency staff then brought him to Kabul for surgery. The U.S. hasn’t offered this young man any compensation or assistance for future rehabilitation. He’s anxious not to talk more about his case for fear of being harmed.

But, asked what he would do if U.S. forces attacked his family, he said he would fight. “I would react against them if they killed my family. If I lose my family, I don’t want the life.”

Unlike ourselves on this visit, the Emergency staff doesn’t ask many questions about what brought patients to their hospital. Their all-consuming task is to help them leave, healed, and, as much as possible, physically rehabilitated.

Still, they can’t help but feel frustrations over problems that could be solved if the westerners who’ve come to Afghanistan would establish priorities more sympathetic to human needs.

“The price of fuel for one of the U.S. warplanes roaring overhead, on a routine flight between Bagram and Kabul, could allow many creative choices if it were made available to an Afghan village,” said Mr. Noor Akbari, an analyst working for the Ministry of Agriculture. “Villagers could build a health center, buy a communally owned pump, get assistance to spray the trees, hire a midwife, or organize agronomy training and literacy programs.”

Anil suggests that the concrete used for protective blocks surrounding U.S. bases and checkpoints could build as many as ten dams to provide electricity for people.

Felippo notes that the Italian government spends one million dollars, every day, to maintain Italy’s military presence in Afghanistan. “What could we do with just one day of their funds!?” asks Felippo. “We could build another hospital.”

As the eight year long war drags on, claiming more victims every day, the U.S. develops increasingly sophisticated means of surveillance, laser guided bombing, and robotized weapon usage. Meanwhile, Taliban bomb makers develop their expertise and teach new recruits to make and plant explosives. “In 2007 there were 2,600 attacks, in Afghanistan, using homemade bombs. In January alone, in 2010, there were 1,000 bomb attacks,” according to a May 30th report in The Sunday Times. “Over the past three years the US military has pumped more than £10 billion into research and technology designed to detect and neutralise the IEDs, (Improvised Explosive Devices) that cost the Taliban just £20 to make.”

If we want Afghans to reject the Taliban’s brand of weapon development and attacks, we in the U.S. need to show our own determination to foster the works of mercy rather than the works of war. The Emergency hospital staff, unarmed and courageous, provide a fine example.

Kathy Kelly () and Josh Brollier () are co-coordinators of Voices for Creative Nonviolence (www.vcnv.org)

“I Want to Live with my Family”

Dan Pearson — Mon, 24 May 2010 11:21:46 -0500

Short Information Teaser
Some of the devastating effects of military offensives in Pakistan
Excerpt
by Kathy Kelly and Josh Brollier

May 24, 2010
Refugee Family Living in Shah Mansoor Islamabad—Abir Mohammed, a refugee from Bajaur, says that the battles which raged in his home province since 2008 have dramatically changed his life. We met him in a crowded Islamabad café where he politely approached customers, offering to shine their shoes. He isn’t accustomed to shoeshine work. But, he needs to earn as much money as possible before reuniting with family members who await him, near Peshawar, in a tent encampment for displaced people.

Body
by Kathy Kelly and Josh Brollier

May 24, 2010
Refugee Family Living in Shah Mansoor Islamabad—Abir Mohammed, a refugee from Bajaur, says that the battles which raged in his home province since 2008 have dramatically changed his life. We met him in a crowded Islamabad café where he politely approached customers, offering to shine their shoes. He isn’t accustomed to shoeshine work. But, he needs to earn as much money as possible before reuniting with family members who await him, near Peshawar, in a tent encampment for displaced people.

Formerly, he lived with his wife, his five children, his mother and four brothers in a home near the Afghanistan border. “We were very satisfied with our life,” says Abir Mohammed. “My brothers and I cultivated wheat crops and maintained orchards.” His land is full of rich soil. “But, in these days,” says Abir, “due to disasters and lack of water and electricity, there is no chance of cultivating crops.”

In late January, 2010, Pakistani military and paramilitary units launched a major military operation in Bajaur, one of Pakistan’s seven Federally Administered Tribal Agencies (FATA). Jane’s Defense News (Feb. 2, 2010) reported that 30,000 troops conducted the drive into Bajaur, accompanied by artillery, tanks and five military helicopters.

Battles with militants in Bajaur date back to late 2008 when “some 8,000 troops including a full brigade from the regular Pakistan Army, fought insurgents who had become so entrenched that they were running a parallel administration.” (“In Bajour, Pakistan says U.S. needs to do more” by Myra MacDonald, Reuters). Now, the Pakistani army claims to have cleared out all of the militants. News reports have shown collections of weapons found by Pakistani soldiers. Pakistani military officials point to networks of tunnels and cave dwellings, impervious to aerial bombardment, that are now empty.

Many Pakistanis, including some Pakistani military officials, feel astounded by the U.S. government suggestion that Pakistan should do more to dislodge militants from strongholds in FATA and in other parts of Pakistan. Myra Mac Donald, reporting for Reuters, quotes a Pakistani Army officer, Colonel Nauman Saeed, insisting that following Pakistani army operations in Bajaur U.S. forces in Afghanistan allowed about 700 militants to escape into the neighboring Kunar province. “In their language, they need to ‘do more’,” says Colonel Saeed.

The Pakistani military says the casualty figures and troop levels speak for themselves. Pakistan has lost 2,421 soldiers fighting militants since 2004. In Afghanistan, 1,777 U.S.-led coalition troops have died since 2001, according to the website icasualties.org. Currently 147,400 Pakistani troops are stationed in the west and northwest along the Afghan border, fighting militants, while total U.S.-led coalition troops in Afghanistan will number about 140,000 when a U.S. troop surge is complete.

Meanwhile Pakistanis outside the military wonder whether there is more for the U.S. and Pakistani governments alike to do that does not involve deploying and sacrificing more troops.

For Abir Mohammed and his family, there’s only a slim chance of moving back into their home. When fighting first began, in 2008, some of Abir Mohammed’s tribal members had been murdered by the Taliban. For this reason, although the Taliban warned them not to do so, members of Abir Mohammed’s family supported the Pakistani army. Anticipating a military offensive, the political agent of Bajour encouraged all of the people in Abir Mohammed’s area to leave their houses. Collecting as much of their valuables as they could carry, Abir Mohammed’s family fled across the border to Afghanistan. Two months later, while warfare continued, they crossed back into Pakistan and headed to a camp for displaced people. Abir Mohammed said that during the military offensive, Pakistani troops indiscriminately hit civilians and the Taliban. The military drove the Taliban out of his home, but then the Pakistani army moved in, and they are still occupying his home.

Thinking he may have to give up on regaining his fields and orchards, Abir Mohammed is trying to begin a new line of work. In Islamabad, he hopes to become a cobbler. But, the women in his family are begging him to join them in the refugee camp, where they are afraid to leave their tents lest they violate the traditional purdah customs. They long for their homes in Bajaur, but Abir Mohammed believes it is still unsafe to return. Taliban fighters, reputed to have escaped to Kunar, could still return and, as far as he knows, the military is still occupying his house. As far as Abir Mohammed is concerned, the Pakistani military could quite appropriately “do less.”

Others ask: is there a non-military solution to the problems afflicting people like Abir Mohammed and his extended family?

Students from North and South Waziristan studying at a university in Islamabad emphasized that doing more to meet human needs for food, housing, roads and, most importantly, education, would quickly diminish the Taliban strength. “Look at me,” said one student. “I am not part of the Taliban. I am educated. Why would I join the Taliban?” The U.S. counter-terrorism strategy in North and South Waziristan has relied almost solely on force through U.S. drone strikes and Pakistani military offensives.

Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed of the Pakistan Muslim League says that Pakistan has had enough military aid and that non-military solutions are needed. He also advises that if the U.S. wants to help, it should focus on concrete financial aid for education and health, distributed through reliable Pakistani civil society groups.

If the U.S. wanted to declare war on fundamentalism, rather than the desperate poor of the Middle East and South Asia that are so vulnerable to recruitment by fundamentalists, it would decide to genuinely help the Pakistani government “do more” to meet its population’s human needs, and a good first step would be to ensure that desperately needed resources are not railroaded into maintaining military strength, a lingering legacy in U.S. and Pakistani relations that traces back to the Bush - Musharraf era. During the “Bush-Mush” years, the U.S. gave Pakistan 11.9 billion dollars in assistance, 8 billion of which went directly to the dictatorial military regime. Not a single public works project was initiated by the U.S. throughout that period.

Richard Holbrooke, the United States special representative to Pakistan, has recently convinced the United States Congress that the 7.5 billion dollars in non-military aid appropriated to Pakistan through the Kerry-Lugar bill should go directly to Pakistani firms, thereby cutting costs and empowering Pakistani civil society. This may be a step in the right direction.

However, Senator Mushahid notes that the U.S. will give Pakistan no more than $10.5 billion over the next 5 years. “This amounts to the same sum spent on 2 ½ weeks of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan,” says Senator Hussain. “Meanwhile, Pakistan is paying the highest price in terms of human lives.” He’s referring to military casualties, but these are not nearly the entire human cost.

Pakistan is suffering from a very high rate of child malnutrition, with 39 per cent of children moderately or severely malnourished. Half of the population in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city by far with over 15 million residents, live in squatter colonies and urban slums without access to basic civil amenities. Load shedding due to electricity shortages and the Value Added Tax (VAT) recently imposed by the IMF have led to mass demonstrations in the streets of Pakistan’s major cities. If these are the conditions in the urban areas with more government support and infrastructure, what must it be like for those living in the FATA and the NWFP? What’s more, the past year’s military offensives have left Pakistan with the question of how to deal with the displacement of 3.5 million people.

Though many of the refugees have managed to return home to uncertain and often frightening circumstances, hundreds of thousands still remain in IDP camps. According to a report published by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, conditions in the camps are tough. People are burdened by lack of security, inadequate access to medical facilities, crushing heat and food shortages. In many camps, foreign donors gave displaced families bags of wheat, but, lacking facilities to cook or grind the wheat, many families just sat on the bags.

Like the students from North and South Waziristan, Senator Hussain believes that education is the way forward. “Education, education, education,” he said, as though repeating a mantra. Abir Mohammed agrees with him. A madrassa in Islamabad is educating his two sons, free of charge. He feels sad because the madrassa only allows him to visit his sons twice a month.

This former landowner and aspiring cobbler wants to secure a better future for his displaced family. He has lost his home, his land and his livelihood because of successive Taliban and Pakistani military attacks. Two of his cousins were killed by drones and two members of his tribe were killed by F-16 attacks. We don’t know whether or not Abir Mohammed would welcome a non-military solution to the problems in Bajaur province, but when we asked him what message he would like to send to people in the U.S., he didn’t hesitate to answer. “Tell them,” he said, “please, that I need financial assistance to start a business. And, I want to live with my family.”

Kathy Kelly () and Joshua Brollier () are co-coordinators of Voices for Creative Nonviolence (www.vcnv.org).

Drones and Democracy

Dan Pearson — Tue, 18 May 2010 10:11:18 -0500

Short Information Teaser
eyewitness accounts of U.S. drone strikes in North Waziristan, Pakistan
Excerpt
May 18, 2010

by Kathy Kelly and Josh Brollier

Islamabad—On May 12th, the day after a U.S. drone strike killed 24 people in Pakistan’s North Waziristan, two men from the area agreed to tell us their perspective as eyewitnesses of previous drone strikes.

Body
May 18, 2010

by Kathy Kelly and Josh Brollier

Islamabad—On May 12th, the day after a U.S. drone strike killed 24 people in Pakistan’s North Waziristan, two men from the area agreed to tell us their perspective as eyewitnesses of previous drone strikes.

One is a journalist, Safdar Dawar, General Secretary of the Tribal Union of Journalists. Journalists are operating under very difficult circumstances in the area, pressured by both militant groups and the Pakistani government. Six of his colleagues have been killed while reporting in North and South Waziristan. The other man, who asked us not to disclose his name, is from Miranshah city, the epicenter of North Waziristan. He works with the locally based Waziristan Relief Agency, a group of people committed to helping the victims of drone attacks and military actions. “If people need blood or medicine or have to go to Peshawar or some other hospital,” said the social worker, “I’m known for helping them. I also try to arrange funds and contributions.”

Both men emphasized that Pakistan’s government has only a trivial presence in the area. Survivors of drone attacks receive no compensation, and neither the military nor the government investigate consequences of the drone attacks.

Mr. Dawar, the journalist, added that when he phoned the local political representative regarding the May 12th drone attack, the man couldn’t tell him anything. “If you get any new information,” said the political representative, “please let me know.”
In U.S. newspapers, reports on drone attacks often amount to about a dozen words, naming the place and an estimated number of militants killed. The journalist and social worker from North Waziristan asked us why people in the U.S. don’t ask to know more.

It’s hard to slow down and look at horrifying realities. Jane Mayer, writing for The New Yorker, (“The Predator War,” October 26, 2009) quoted a former C.I.A. official’s description of a drone attack:
“People who have seen an air strike live on a monitor described it as both awe-inspiring and horrifying. ‘You could see these little figures scurrying, and the explosion going off, and when the smoke cleared there was just rubble and charred stuff,’ a former C.I.A. officer who was based in Afghanistan after September 11th says of one attack.”

“Human beings running for cover are such a common sight,” Jane Mayer continues, “that they have inspired a slang term: ‘squirters.’”

Just rubble and charred stuff…

The social worker recalled arriving at a home that was hit, in Miranshah, at about 9:00 p.m., close to one year ago. The house was beside a matchbox factory, near the degree college. The drone strike had killed three people. Their bodies, carbonized, were fully burned. They could only be identified by their legs and hands. One body was still on fire when he reached there. Then he learned that the charred and mutilated corpses were relatives of his who lived in his village, two men and a boy aged seven or eight. They couldn’t pick up the charred parts in one piece. Finding scraps of plastic they transported the body parts away from the site. Three to four others joined in to help cover the bodies in plastic and carry them to the morgue.

But these volunteers and nearby onlookers were attacked by another drone strike, 15 minutes after the initial one. 6 more people died. One of them was the brother of the man killed in the initial strike.
The social worker says that people are now afraid to help when a drone strike occurs because they fear a similar fate from a second attack. People will wait several hours after an attack just to be sure. Meanwhile, some lives will be lost that possibly could have been saved.

The social worker also told us that pressure from the explosion, when a drone-fired missile or bomb hits, can send bystanders flying through the air. Some are injured when their bodies hit walls or stone, causing fractures and brain injuries.

The social worker described four more cases in which he had been involved with immediate relief work, following a drone attack. He didn’t supply us with exact dates, and we weren’t able to find news articles on the internet which exactly matched his accounts. Riaz Khan, an AP reporter covering a drone strike on May 15th, noted differences in details reported by witnesses and official sources. “Such discrepancies are common and are rarely reconciled,” according to Khan.

Exasperated by the neglect and indifference people in Waziristan face, especially those who say they have nowhere to hide, the journalist and social worker began firing questions at us.
“If the US had good intelligence and they hit their targets with the first strike,” Safdar asks, “why would the second one be necessary? If you already hit the supposed militant target, then why fire again?”

“Who has given the license to kill and in what court? Who has declared that they can hit anyone they like?”

“How many ‘high level targets’ could there possibly be?”

“What kind of democracy is America,” Safdar asks, “where people do not ask these questions?”

Reliance on robotic warfare has escalated, from the Bush to the Obama administrations, with very little significant public debate. More than ever before, it is true that the U.S. doesn’t want our bodies to be part of warfare; there’s also not much interest in our consent. All that is required is our money.

But, you get what you pay for in the U.S.A. The social worker and the journalist assured us that all of the survivors feel hatred toward the United States. “It is a real problem,” said Safdar, “this rising hatred.”

Kathy Kelly () and Josh Brollier () are co-coordinators of Voices for Creative Nonviolence www.vcnv.org

From Prayer to Paralysis

Joshua Brollier — Sun, 16 May 2010 15:40:36 -0500

Short Information Teaser
Story of an Afghan man's journey to Pakistan in search of medical treatment
Excerpt
Patient Waiting for War’s End

Islamabad—

Through the Soviet invasion and occupation, the Afghan civil war and now the United States war and occupation, a young man named Zainullah, around 25 years of age, has seen war his whole life. But you’d never know it by his engaging smile and his relaxed countenance. Zainullah currently lives at a paraplegic center in Hayatabad, Pakistan, a suburb of Peshawar, the capital city of the North-West Frontier Province. He is originally from the Helmand province of Afghanistan, which has been one of the most intense battlegrounds during the “war on terror” launched by the United States in 2001.

Body
Patient Waiting for War’s End

Islamabad—

Through the Soviet invasion and occupation, the Afghan civil war and now the United States war and occupation, a young man named Zainullah, around 25 years of age, has seen war his whole life. But you’d never know it by his engaging smile and his relaxed countenance. Zainullah currently lives at a paraplegic center in Hayatabad, Pakistan, a suburb of Peshawar, the capital city of the North-West Frontier Province. He is originally from the Helmand province of Afghanistan, which has been one of the most intense battlegrounds during the “war on terror” launched by the United States in 2001.

Zainullah was paralyzed about nine months ago after being struck with shrapnel from a U.S. cruise missile. On the day of the attack, Zainullah was getting ready to start his prayers. He heard a bomb blast, and before he had a chance to realize that he was the target, Zainullah was laying prostrate on the ground with a piece of metal lodged in his spinal cord. Two men from his village carried him to the nearest clinic. There he was given an injection and then taken to the International Commission of the Red Cross (ICRC) facility in Helmand. Now paralyzed from the waist down, Zainullah spent one month at the ICRC , and then decided to seek more extensive rehabilitation treatment in Pakistan.

With the help of friends, Zainullah was able to arrange travel to Karachi, where he spent 15 days, and afterwards he was transferred to a facility in Gwadar. He spent the next two months in Gwadar awaiting admittance to the paraplegic center in Hayatabad. Given the circumstances, Zainullah is doing very well at the Rehab center. The center provides quality care that stresses independence and encourages patients to reach their fullest capacity possible. Zainullah has a busy schedule which includes daily prayers and going to the campus Mosque, walking with a set of leg braces, life-skills and independence classes, occupation training and socializing with others at the center. In the half year he has been at the center, Zainullah has learned to tailor clothes and has shown considerable progress in his ability to walk with the braces.

Back in Afghanistan, Zainullah was a religious student. Beyond being raised by a Muslim family, his basic inspiration for pursuing religious studies was that there were hardly any other options for youth. Zainullah believes that people in Afghanistan are fighters, but that they did not choose this way of life. He says that Afghanistan has certainly become a place of war, but that the world will not let Afghanistan live in peace. Zainullah longs to see his family back home. He has only seen his father once since the bombing and has not seen his mother. He is missing his family and home especially badly, as he is facing difficult and new challenges being paralyzed.

Zainullah is determined to go back home when he is able, but that may not be possible any time soon with conditions worsening in his region. The ICRC in Helmand has seen increased injuries and casualties since February of this year when the United States and NATO forces launched their military offence in the Marja district of Helmand. The Red Cross also notes that traveling conditions have worsened due to the continued fighting and an increase in IEDs, making it hard for the sick and wounded to reach hospitals. This does not bode well for a paraplegic trying to return and re-integrate into his society. Zainullah thinks that he may have to wait out the fighting in Karachi.

With the United States beginning “major push” in military operations in nearby Kandahar, Zainullah will likely remain in Karachi for quite some time. President Obama recently told Afghan president Hamid Karzai that “there is going to be some hard fighting over the next several months,” and U.S. General Stanley McChrystal thinks it will be at least the end of the year before the operation’s success can be measured. After the Kandahar offensive comes to a close, Gen. McChrystal will likely face a half-hearted evaluation from the Obama administration and the citizens of the United States. If he fails, he might be dismissed. If he succeeds, he may retain his post and possibly be promoted.

Will the administration or those living in the U.S. take time to measure the loss of mobility in one young man’s legs, or the loss of a loved one from a cruise missile fired from an F16 war plane? Zainullah recalls hearing F15 and F16 fighter planes roar above his house night after night. Members from his community have been killed from aerial assaults, and he says that others who have fled to IDP camps have also been attacked while living as refugees.

Faced with such overwhelming violence in his homeland, Zainullah would have every reason to pick up and encourage others to pick up a Kalashnikov and fight the occupation forces. But he is welcoming to Westerners when he meets them at the center. Zainullah is able to distinguish between the U.S. government and the people. And he realizes that not all those living in the U.S. are for the war. He says that he still has much anger about his injury, but he hides it well with a playful smile and a sharp sense of humor. Mostly, Zainullah says he wants an end to the war so that he can return home, make some money and start a new life.

VCNV Author
Joshua Brollier

Pressured from all sides in Pakistan’s Swat Valley

Joshua Brollier — Fri, 14 May 2010 14:27:33 -0500

Short Information Teaser
Kathy Kelly and Joshua Brollier write from Pakistan
Excerpt
by Kathy Kelly and Joshua Brollier

May 14th, 2010 Schoolkids from Swat: Photo taken by G. Simon Harak In May of 2009, under tremendous pressure from the United States, the Pakistani military began a large-scale military operation in the Swat District of Pakistan to confront militants in the region. The UNHCR said the operation led to one of the largest and fastest displacements it had ever seen. Within ten days, more than two million people fled their homes.

Now, a year later, our small delegation visited the Swat District. After a breathtaking ride through the Hindu Kush mountains, traveling in a pick-up truck from Shah Mansour in the Swabi district, we arrived in Swat’s capital, Saidu Sharif.

Body
by Kathy Kelly and Joshua Brollier

May 14th, 2010

In May of 2009, under tremendous pressure from the United States, the Pakistani military began a large-scale military operation in the Swat District of Pakistan to confront militants in the region. The UNHCR said the operation led to one of the largest and fastest displacements it had ever seen. Within ten days, more than two million people fled their homes.Hindu Cush Mountains on the road to the Swat Valley: Photo taken by G. Simon Harak

Now, a year later, our small delegation visited the Swat District. After a breathtaking ride through the Hindu Kush mountains, traveling in a pick-up truck from Shah Mansour in the Swabi district, we arrived in Swat’s capital, Saidu Sharif.

Saidu Sharif is a small town, ringed by mountains. The Swat River, a few hundred yards in width, runs through it. It’s easy to imagine a former time when tourists would flock to visit this scenic treasure. While we were there, the town seemed tranquil. Stores were open and the streets were bustling. Merchants, children, shoppers, bicyclists, goats, cars, donkey carts, rickshaws, and tractors jostled for space in the narrow roadways. But, we also saw dozens of uniformed men, carrying weapons, suggesting that tensions still prevail in Swat.

We arrived at sunset, shortly before the evening call to prayer. On top of a hill, we approached a modest home, a courtyard surrounded by rooms which housed several families. Our host in Saidu Sharif operates three small shops. He had purchased the house with money earned while he worked as a shopkeeper in Saudi Arabia. Joining him was his close friend who had spent ten years working in Saudi Arabia, also as a shopkeeper. Now, he has an antique/specialties shop in Mingora. Both men hope that tourism will be revived, soon, in the Swat Valley. They are finding it extremely difficult to make ends meet.

Nevertheless, they extended the warmest of hospitality to us. They served us seasoned rice, yogurt, chicken, parata bread and, for desert, pudding with the word “Welcome” spelled out in bits of coconut. We discussed life and conditions in Swat until late evening. We learned that the brother of one of our hosts had recently lost his spouse in an attack that had also destroyed his home, an aerial attack by the Pakistani military that was supposed to be targeting Taliban militants. Our host offered to take us in the morning to speak with her brother, the other survivors of the attack and others in the area who had been affected by the fighting. But the visit was never to occur. Hospitality in Saidu Sharif, Swat Valley, Pakistan: Photo taken by G. Simon Harak The next morning, May 9th, tragic news arrived that her brother had just died. He had started his morning prayers, finished them, walked into the washroom and took his last breath.

Despite such a horrendous loss, and although falling headfirst into the sudden whirlpool of urgent funeral preparations, the family continued to look after us graciously. They managed to arrange for us to meet with a distant relative later that day in Swat.

We expressed our earnest condolences with our goodbyes and in the afternoon removed ourselves from the circle of their bustle and grief. A quick drive through town followed, and we were on the next stage of our journey.

The relative they arranged for us to meet, Jamshaid Ali, is a “Nazim” or “mayor” of his town’s governing council. He is a man of considerable local power and prestige, yet he had his own story of violent loss to share with us. While one side of the family had recently faced the careless injustice of the Pakistani military, this very wealthy Nazim and his brothers had barely survived successive assaults by well-armed militants in the area.

The account of the assaults, according to Jamshaid, went like this:

In December of 2007, militants in the Malakand province warned Jamshaid to resign from his public post, or else. He’d worked for years as a contractor, managing large construction projects that added to his already considerable inherited wealth. He says that while he served, for ten years, as an elected official, he obtained funding from the government for projects that would benefit his district, and he added his own money into these projects.

The militants, however, had put him and all his brothers on a hit list, targeted for assassination. On December 28, 2007, Jamshaid Ali survived a remote control bomb attack that killed eight others. Starting the next day, fighters used heavy weapons and mortars to attack his home and the homes of his relatives in Barkala Bishbarn. The attacks lasted for two days.

A year passed. Jamshaid Ali had spent this time in constant, wary vigilance. He and his family found housing outside of the Swat District.

On the 7th and 8th of October of 2008, attackers ransacked and blew up the homes belonging to Jamshaid Ali and his brothers. One brother told us that he and his wife had tried to fight off the attackers, his wife helping to load the machine gun he was using. He told us about this in the room where it happened. But when militants had launched a grenade into the house, they had realized they were defeated and managed to survive only by hiding. The militants killed one of the household servants (named Saeed Karim Bakhat Wazir), the next day.

Jamshaid showed us a newspaper with his photo: one of about a dozen men shown out of eighty six that the Taliban had ordered to appear before a Taliban Shura Council which would hold them accountable for their wrongdoing. The council was held in the meeting house of a Taliban-run section of Swat. He had refused to attend.

He said that the militants destroyed forests, fruit gardens and trees belonging to him and his brothers. Four pipelines for water were destroyed, ruining crucial infrastructure for the masjid in the village, the Government Primary school and the home of one villager. They also blew up the Girls Primary School.

Jamshaid and his brothers have applied to the Pakistani government for hundreds of thousands of rupees, each, in compensation for their losses. As wealthy land owners, they’re lucky; they have the resources, chief among them security, with which to document their losses. Most Pakistanis living in Swat, suffering through grief for loved ones or the sudden homelessness of displacement, are not able to document their circumstances. Nor have all those who have been displaced been able to return home.

Jamshaid was able to produce a booklet presenting tables, photographs, medical reports, news clippings and detailed accounting of the losses sustained by him and his family members. In all, sixteen houses were destroyed. The “before” photos show picturesque villas nestled in the mountainside. The Pakistani government has not given one rupee of compensation, at this point, to Jamshaid Ali and his family members. We imagine how hard it must be for Swatis who aren’t prosperous to petition their government for compensation.

Rumors are still flying, in the Swat District, as to who attacked Jamshaid and his family, and why. Some believe that that the militant activity which destroyed Jamshaid’s home was more the result of a family rivalry than “Taliban” activity. In an area with very striking economic inequality, there are still feuds between wealthy landowners for dominance of the region.

With the external pressure put on the Pakistani government to violently confront militant groups in Swat and other districts in Pakistan, there have been reports of families attempting to use the government forces to knock off their rivals. There are also instances of similar tactics being employed in Waziristan, where locals will feed the U.S. false intelligence, hoping the CIA will use a drone strike to eliminate a rival. Schoolkids from Swat: Photo taken by Simon Harak

Whatever the truth is about these specific incidents concerning Jamshaid, we left the Swat district with strong impressions of inequality and insecurity afflicting residents throughout the area. Numerous people accused of being militants have been imprisoned. Several women in Jamshaid Ali’s family acknowledged that torture was regularly used to extract confessions from the accused prisoners. One of them insisted that electric shock and beatings were necessary, “otherwise no one would be so honest as to confess what he has done”.

According to the Pakistan Human Rights Commission, militant groups conscript youngsters, telling a family that they must either pay a large sum to support Taliban projects, or send one of their sons to join as a new militant. This is a horrible reality, reminiscent of the conscription of child soldiers in Uganda. In fact, many of these forcibly enlisted children are the ones who are often attacked or imprisoned in the Pakistani Government’s efforts to sweep the area and rid it of Taliban and other militants. In the face of such tactics, the Pakistani military and Frontier Corps militias have hardly distinguished themselves from non-state actors like the Taliban. .

Mr. I.A. Rehman, head of the Pakistan Human Rights Commission, told us that he is very worried about the way the military carried out operations in Swat. There have been credible reports of civilian losses, mass graves, extra-judicial executions and mysterious disappearances. He said that the government is holding over one thousand people incommunicado, while refusing to take any of them to trial. It’s likely that many of these prisoners were taken from Swat and Malakand, during past seasons of military offensives here.

People living in Swat have borne the brunt of military offensives, forced evacuations, militant attacks, reprisals, destruction of homes and livelihoods, economic decline and ongoing insecurity. The government offensives, the militants, the landowners and the United States insistence on crushing the Taliban have all made life unbearably difficult for the people of Swat. A hospital administrator in the region, Syed Muhammad Ilyas, said it will be ten years before Swat will return to normalcy. Yet we are inspired by the hospitality, resilience and courage of Swati residents who carry on in their daily lives through such turbulent times. As we continue our delegation, we’ll try to relay more about people who have suffered acutely from war, displacement, and neglect in a land of incredible beauty.