Kabul Erupts in Gunfire
    By Stewart Nusbaumer
    t r u t h o u t | Report

    Monday 29 May 2006

Surrounded by gunfire in Kabul, the Truthout correspondent describes what makes a spark become a raging riot.

    Kabul, Afghanistan - Today in Kabul the veneer of national progress was ripped off, leaving several Afghans dead and many more wounded and sending this capital city into a lockdown. Four and a half years after the US-led military offensive successfully overthrew the Taliban government, which was protecting Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda, Kabul has erupted in gunfire, leaving citizens shattered and their confidence in the future shaken.

    Sequestered behind the tall walls of the Le Monde Guesthouse in central Kabul, from early morning to middle afternoon - for more than five hours - I have been surrounded by the sound of gunfire, AK-47 rifles and hand guns, automatic weapons, and a few heavy explosions, probably rocket-propelled grenades. And sequestered is where I must remain, since in Kabul today foreigners - especially Americans - are not free to walk the streets.

    What sparked the violence that has left 6 dead and more than 60 wounded was a vehicular accident on the outskirts of Kabul. Here are the facts, as I know them at this time: A US military convoy was traveling in the northern part of city, and at approximately 9 a.m. one of its vehicles slammed into a line of cars - some reports say as many as 12 cars - which resulted in an Afghani fatality. A large crowd quickly surrounded the military convoy and began throwing stones at the US soldiers. The troops attempted to flee by driving away, and injured several more Afghans in the process. The police arrived, gunshots were fired, it's unclear by whom, and Afghans lay dead on the road.

    Approximately an hour later, the sound of gunfire could be heard in the city center, where I am located. At first there were only a few shots, which I mistook to be the pounding of hammers. But the pattern and the sharpness of the sounds soon alerted me that it was gunfire. Soon it was almost constant.

    Two hours later, this was around 1 p.m., I heard a large crowd of demonstrators outside our compound walls chanting "Down with America." Nearby, black smoke billowed into the light blue sky. The gunfire became more intense, and then, evidently, the protesters quickly dispersed.

    The Afghani media reported that protesters had blocked several major streets, and there were gun battles between Afghani army troops and police and the protesters. What I was hearing certainly sounded like gun battles in the streets.

    I was informed by a French banker several blocks away that demonstrators were throwing large stones through his bank windows. Many were also whirling large sticks. Shops on his street were being looted, and some protesters were clearly armed with pistols and rifles.

    Afghani television reports several cars, including several police cars, have been set on fire.

    More information is coming in: A foreigner was dragged from a car and beaten; CARE International was attacked and damaged; an Afghanistan television station was thrashed, and is now off the air ...

    It is now 2 p.m., and again I hear the screaming of protesters, not from the west but from the east. The gunfire has become intense, the heaviest I have heard. Bullets fly overhead; it appears the shooting is now coming from all sides. The manager and I consider getting the rifles out of the storage room. One of the two maids is crying, and she is unable to stop. Two helicopters sweep across Kabul. Their spinning blades drown out the small arms fire - but for only a few seconds. The sharp crack of gunfire grows even stronger - a heavy burst of weapons on the east side of the wall, which is in the direction of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. There are three heavy explosions, this to the south. Just over the wall, a pistol fires off several rounds....

    Behind the Gun Fire

    This morning when the first television report appeared on the US convoy accident that caused several fatalities, a Scotsman in the guesthouse immediately blamed the "trigger-happy American soldiers." He lamented that "this latest US gunslinger incident would set back the Europeans' effort to reconstruct" this war-scarred country.

    In fact, Afghans often complain about the high speed and aggressive driving of US military convoys in Kabul. The US military responds that these driving tactics are necessary to protect their troops from attack. That is a response that only increases the feeling among Afghans that the US military is dangerous to their health.

    Last week, a young man lectured me on how US troops cannot be trusted. He pointed to the recent US bombing in southern Afghanistan that he said left 16 civilians dead, including several small children. "The US military kill and don't care," he said.

    Increasingly, there is the perception in Afghanistan that the US military is out of control. That it shoots first and cares little about the Afghani people. A teenager who works in a copy store told me, "We want your help, we need your money and knowledge to remake Afghanistan, but we don't want your military."

    An Afghani who just came back from the streets tells me that hundreds of protesters marched on the palace of US-backed President Hamid Karzai, shouting "Death to Karzai! Death to America!" That reminds me that several weeks ago, one Afghani told me: "Karzai is not our president, he is your puppet."

    More sparked this violent riot, however, than just the growing negative perception of US troops. Afghans are losing faith that the West will make their lives better. Many of them complain that Kabul is a "toilet." The city has foul open severs, poverty remains gross and shocking, unemployment is sky-high with at least half of working-age adults unable to find a real job, and supposedly 40 percent of the people don't even have enough food. So after four and a half years, many feel their lives are not improving, and they are losing hope that they will improve. That can become a dangerous spark.

    With Kabul in lockdown and sporadic gunfire still echoing through the city, the perception that the US military is the problem and not the solution will certainly grow. But, if the reconstruction of Afghanistan does not deliver tangible results to many more of its desperate citizens, there is going to be more gunfire echoing through Kabul.