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NEIGHBOURS: AFGHANISTAN

Barbarian Culture

While the foreign staff is likely to be deported after a jail term, the Afghans are in a much more dangerous position. Under Islamic law, the punishment for converting from Islam to another religion is death. The Taliban has already ignored a new decree issued only in June, which states the punishment for foreigners caught proselytising should be between three and 10 days in jail followed by deportation. Aid workers say the vaguely worded Decree 14 will also hamper their humanitarian work, particularly because it prevents them from talking to Afghan women. It also orders foreigners not to buy magazines or newspapers that are against the Taliban's policies, and warns them against failing to respect the Taliban's customs.

A similar decree last year ruled that Afghan women should not be allowed to work. That announcement jeopardised a crucial WFP bakery project in Kabul where widows bake bread, which is sold at subsidised prices for the city's most needy. Apart from not being allowed to work and forced to wear burqas, the clerics have debarred women from going to recreational areas.

While the new decrees and the Shelter Now arrests may not be part of a comprehensive policy, many fear they point to rising hostility towards foreigners and a power struggle within the militia itself. The arrests come only a month after the US renewed its sanctions against Afghanistan. "Until now the situation has not been very ominous," said one senior aid official in Kabul. "Now it is suddenly very serious. There may be a campaign to get the western organisations out of Kabul."

Much of the impetus for clearing out western aid agencies appears to be coming from a powerful section in the Taliban militia that is seeking a closer alliance with foreign Islamic fighters, particularly the Arabs, who have been arriving in Afghanistan in increasing numbers this year. The fighters are closely linked with and funded by Osama bin Laden, the Saudi terrorist who in August was charged by India with planning to bomb the US Embassy in Delhi. He is also wanted for the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in east Africa that killed 224 people. Bin Laden's relationship with Omar has grown ever closer. Early this year, foreign fighters were used on Taliban frontlines and in the series of massacres against the minority Shia community members in Hazarajat in central Afghanistan.

There is a project to build up a foreign legion," said another senior aid worker. "The western presence here is alien to that. If these people come into ascendancy then clearly sooner or later they will get rid of all westerners." Three years ago, the UN and all foreign aid agencies pulled out of Kabul after the Taliban told all aid workers to move their offices into one building. They returned after several months, by which time the quality of healthcare and nutrition had declined rapidly in the city. Many of these agencies have brought succour to Afghanistan, which is facing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

Much of the Taliban's resentment against western aid agencies may also demonstrate their opposition to what remains of Kabul's richer, better-educated elite. The Taliban comprises poor religious students who emerged from madarsas along the border with Pakistan in 1994. One element of their movement was to destroy the Kabul elite which they believed did not play a big enough role in resisting the Soviet occupation of the 1980s. "Now it is the peasants who have the power and the weapons," said the head of a western aid agency.

Since there is a plethora of rules restricting the lives of Afghans and curbing the work of foreigners the potential for more conflict is always at hand. "The problem is that everything is forbidden but a lot is tolerated," the aid worker said. "I think they are getting nervous because there are many expats in Kabul now. They just want to get rid of as many people as possible."

Back at the ramshackle ministry, Toyota pick-up trucks roll out every few hours carrying armed soldiers on patrol around the city enforcing Taliban edicts. The men are certainly in no mood to let up on their campaign of repression.

MetroScape

Looking Glass

Delhi Restaurant:
Kootub Restaurant

Delhi Dance Festival: Abhinaya Sudha

Delhi Restro-bar:
Buzz, Get It Here

Bangalore Exhibitions: Cinnamon