July 19, 2008I arrived in Kandahar this morning. To be honest, I was scared to be coming here alone. Everyone I talked to - Afghan or foreign - said that "things were bad" down in Kandahar. The taxi driver who took me to the airport offered to drive me back to my guesthouse in Kabul for free... And a private security guard at a bar I went to last night in Kabul gave me his card and, with a serious nod of his head, told me that "he knew people who could help me if the shit hits the fan..." Gulp. But I was determined to go because there are numerous civilians in Kandahar who are suffering so much from the fighting. And their stories need to be told.
My first stop was Kandahar Air Field (KAF) where I met with a government official who accompanies military forces into remote parts of the southern provinces and organizes stabilization projects. His stories were shocking. He described finding one young woman who had, he was told, been a sex slave to the Taliban. She had been raped, mutilated and killed. Such stories suggest that there are horrific atrocities committed against civilians that are hard to document and verify. Many of the regions in this part of Afghanistan are controlled by the Taliban and other Anti-Government Elements (AGEs) and are completely inaccessible to most NGOs.
No comments:
Post a Comment