Afghans Dream of Exile Once Again
    By Marie-France Calle
    Le Figaro

    Tuesday 20 March 2007

"Save yourself!" This watchword is spreading throughout Kabul once again and threatens to sound the death knell for "the new Afghanistan."

    "Bekash Khoda!" In Dari, it means, "Save yourself!" Idriss explains, "That watchword, Afghans know it only too well." He adds, "They pass it on from generation to generation. It sounds the kill every time the country goes badly." Afghanistan is accustomed to history's reverses. Now, rumor is spreading in Kabul once again. In wealthy circles, of course, among intellectuals and all those who have the wherewithal to leave for abroad. Threatening to sound the death knell for "the new Afghanistan" that the international community has been carrying in its arms financially and militarily since the fall of the Taliban regime at the end of 2001. Too much violence, insecurity, corruption. Not enough hope. And then, too much rain, too much mud....

    Idriss, who has just completed his medical studies, points with a weary gesture to the grisly landscape - rutted sidewalks, open sewers transformed into disgusting swollen torrents, without even counting the blanket of pollution that weighs on the Afghan capital. Beset by untamed capitalism, the city center is on a drip-feed. Without generators, there's hardly any electricity, no Internet and no television. Just two years ago, Idriss dreamed of opening his clinic in an Afghanistan where his competencies would be needed, where he would become wealthy. He fondled the idea of an eventual political career. Today, he is looking into the possibilities of doing his internship in India. "There are ever fewer jobs in this country, which partly explains why Afghanis are going on to seek their fortunes elsewhere," he says. Only partly, since the other worry that circulates is insecurity. Not only in Kabul, but also in the little towns, even in rural areas.

    In Charikar, the tiny capital of Parvan province, about a hundred kilometers north of Kabul, insecurity is seen as the worst of evils. Jumakhan is a fabric merchant there. His business is not going too badly and he confesses that in this region, Incha Allah, "reconstruction has known a certain amount of success, not like the south of the country. But," he says, "that's because the Taliban haven't come back here." What would he do if the rebels got as far as Kabul and threatened the North? "We would return to arms," he retorts without hesitation. "Even children would fight."

    Jumakhan's sentiment is broadly shared. "This nation has always struggled for its freedom, and the Mudjahadijn of the former Northern Alliance are ready to take up arms again against the Taliban," confides ex-General Hilaluddin Hilal from his residence in the Afghan capital. He fought alongside Commandant Massoud during the 1990s, then he was named vice minister of the interior under the first Karzai administration. Today, he is a member of the commission Parliament has charged with interior security. "International forces must also do their job," he adds. "They are there to discover the sources of the terrorism that is destroying Afghanistan." Pointing his finger at Pakistan, which he accuses of training the rebels, he emphasizes: "They must be found and annihilated." Daoud Sultanzoy, who also sits in Parliament, adds: "If foreign forces leave Afghanistan now, the whole system will fall apart and there will be civil war."

    Also in Charikar, Mohammad Zarif, who owns a candy store, totally approves. "Without security, there won't be any investment," he asserts. "Investors started leaving Afghanistan in 2006, after the first suicide attacks."

    Yesterday, the Taliban brought the war right into Kabul. Worse, they targeted Americans again. An American embassy convoy was attacked. There were several wounded. Mullah Dadullah, one of the Taliban military officials, past master in the art of propaganda, immediately declared that "victory." He promised other bloody attacks. February 27, the Islamists targeted American Vice President Dick Cheney, at the very gates of the Bagram base, fifty kilometers north of Kabul. About fifteen people were killed. The rebels, who count not only Taliban among their ranks, but also al-Qaeda members, are financially supported by drug barons; they could well have raked up another victory thanks to the liberation yesterday of Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo. The "La Repubblica" reporter and his translator were freed in exchange for the liberation of five "big fish" Taliban held prisoner by the Afghan government - opening a Pandora's Box ... and the way to new kidnappings. Above all, highlighting the weakness of the Karzai government. "Weakness is not all," snorts Mohammad Zarif. "There's corruption too. It infects government circles and the administration all the way to the lowest echelons." According to a report published yesterday by the NGO, Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA), every Afghan household paid an average of one hundred dollars in bribes during 2006. And can Afghanistan perhaps still be saved before the Afghanis start saving themselves?