Diary of a Correspondent - Part 1

THE MUSLIM WEEKLY 2004
In the wake of unprecedented elections in Afghanistan, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Muslim Media Unit aptly arranged a trip for a group of Muslim journalists to visit the country. I was fortunate to avail of the opportunity presented to me to be a guest of the British Military contingent for 5 days. Hereby is a day by day account of how our hosts laid out our visit:

Day 1:

1300hrs:
Our Royal Air force plane touches down in Kabul where British tanks receive us. As we make our way under armed escort towards the British headquarters, I notice a gentle trickle of traffic in Kabul where despite arriving only two days beyond polling, life appears to be as normal as it would be in Cambridge or Karachi minus the glaring ruins of decades of war.

Warm handshakes and lunch await us as L/Colonel Ralph Arundel and team give us the low-down on how events have panned out over the past few weeks in general and what to expect on our visit.

1600hrs:
Commander in Chief of British Forces in Afghanistan Charlie Darrell.professes his immense pleasure at having us, he portrayed a distinctly positive mood in terms of how the election panned out, exceeding expectations with an 80-90% turnout. Despite issues of many candidates threatening to boycott the election due to the indelible ink saga and acknowledgement of immense effort needed to rebuild the country, examples of some schools conducting 3 shifts to enable as many children to seek education as possible gave rise to hope for the future.

Meanwhile, he pointed to the pre-election threat of the Taleban not materialising and praised Hamid Karzai for fearlessly carrying forward a reformist agenda.

1700hrs:
After further discussions with Team Leader Arundel, dinner and a much needed rest ensue. Noise of rocket fire in the early hours from the city caused some alarm, thankfully no casualties were reported.

DAY 2:

0900hrs:
Our mode of transport changes from Tank to Toyota Landcruisers as we venture out into the city to the Consulate for an introductory meeting with the British Ambassador Rosalynd Marsden for tea and biscuits.

1000hrs:
We cut across to the German sponsored community re-building project (AGEF) to meet local representatives Khalid Noorzad and Nur Ahmed Sarwari. Their activities included PC training /Internet /Basic English /accounting/ management and various self-employment initiatives. This was essentially a method for re-integrating militia of various factions and ex-refugees with measures in appropriating effective strategies for employment.

We visited classrooms and took the opportunity to speak to ex-militia to find out what specific measures were being taken to re-integrate them into society. We also met ex-refugees from Britain who aimed to help rebuild their country, one particularly moving story was of a returnee who had paid agents 13,500 US dollars to get to England only to work 2 and a half years to repay that money by working in a pizza take-away in Leeds before being deported back home.

1230hrs:
It’s back to the British Embassy for a meeting with Non-governmental organisations (NGO’s) about their activities and problems that they encountered. Dave Mather, managing director for Afghan Aid explained how they took measures to build community infrastructures with various initiatives, while Sarah Ireland, country programme representative for Oxfam talked about their particular emphasis on women’s rights. Representing Christian Aid was Teena Roberts who pointed out their long history of involvement in Afghanistan even prior to the Taleban and focussed on their attempts to de-escalate conflict.

They all felt an element of danger and thought some locals were mistrustful of foreign influence while being perceived as soft targets.

0145hrs:
We move to a different part of Kabul to meet with the Afghan Educational Trust (In conjunction with the BBC World Service Trust) and in doing so witness how decades of war had ravaged the landscape. Empty tracts of land and dilapidated buildings told their own story. Meanwhile, the BBC was providing the technical underpin to promote programmes such as ‘New Home New Life’ which although immensely popular since 1994 was now being used as a major vehicle to push boundaries in educating the Afghani people amidst their new found freedom. They emphasised on the social infrastructure, re-integration of refugees and nation-building.We were talked through by their director Shirazuddin Siddiqi.

1515hrs:
Another dart across town as we head towards the Japanese Embassy to learn about the De-mining/De-mobilisation/Re-integration (DDR) programme and their strategy for consolidation of peace. Paul Cruickshank gave us a presentation about how they aimed to de-commission military units, explaining that 450 to 650 commanders Militias/warlords) needed to be dis-banded. Pointing out that the Afghan National Army (ANA) would take years to create, he stressed that they encouraged voluntary submissions by providing incentives and refrained from forcing the policy as that would be the job of the ANA long-term. He felt there was a serious problem with mass communication and the message in many respects was failing to reach through and that their targets were ambitious.

1800hrs:
Truly a hectic day with little respite and we were glad to head back to base to wind down.

DAY 3:

0700hrs:
An early start as we head for the Airport to fly to Mazar-e-Sharif

1000hrs:
We meet with chief of British Operations John Henderson who discusses how they have been dealing with that particular region since July 2003. Re-iterating their focus on stability and identifying warlords and drugs as the major causes for concern, he explained how they concentrated on developing the grounds for a self-sustaining government using institution-building as a tool while engaging with the community.

1145hrs:
As part of our day tour, the Imam Ali Shrine, where the city derives it’s name is where we meet the local Imam Naafi. Describing the architecturally stunning building as the 4th shrine in Islam, he gave special thanks to Germany for kick starting the peace process (viz.Bonn Conference) and quelling the bloodbath that had tarnished the region. He assigned special praise for the elections but criticised Islamic countries for not helping enough and rued that Muslims from other parts of the World did not visit enough while thanking Iran and Pakistan for hosting their refugees.

1430hrs:
A visit to a Police station where we were welcomed by a quasi-military parade. The chief hailed that in his tenure of 5 months there were no major crimes to report and threats from the Taleban or other militia were non-existent. He considered complete disarmament of the Afghani people was a necessity for stability. Nevertheless, he lamented his pay of $80 dollars a month (An equivalent ranked ANA soldier is thought to earn 10 times that amount) although he maintained that he would continue to work in the national interest.

1530hrs:
After an opportunity for a spot of shopping, it’s back to the airport for our return to Kabul.

1800hrs:
Back in Kabul. Time for dinner and writing up of this report!

Watch this space for the rest!
(Next Week)