Word: samimi
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...Afghanistan today, it can be impossible to know whom to turn to for help. Seeking justice from government officials, says Samimi, "is like going to the wolves for help when the wolves have stolen your sheep." As the Obama Administration signals that it intends to devote more attention to the war in Afghanistan, many Afghans claim that in the name of fighting the Taliban, the West is ignoring abuses committed by its Afghan proxies. One of the worst offenders, alleges Samimi, is Abdul Rashid Dostum, an ethnic-Uzbek warlord who helped in the triumphant ousting of the Taliban...
Like many mothers in Afghanistan, Maghferat Samimi has affixed a photo of a child to her mobile phone. But the 2 1/2-year-old is not her daughter. She is a rape victim, one of scores that Samimi, a researcher with the Afghanistan Human Rights Organization, has documented in the country's northern provinces over the past year. Witnesses to the child's abduction by a local militia commander have had their rape claim backed up by a nearby hospital, but the district police chief maintains that the child fell on a stick. The chief's objectivity in the matter, however...
...been able to maintain their core militias in the form of private security companies, political parties or loose business networks. Many derive their income from lucrative cross-border smuggling routes. Allegations of land grabs, rape, murder and kidnapping are common. Human Rights Watch and Afghan human-rights organizations like Samimi's have documented extortion rackets operated by former warlords and militia-run prisons where captives are held for ransom. Afghan journalists covering these crimes have been harassed by police or thrown in jail. In 2007, Samimi received a phone call from Dostum threatening to have her raped...
...Samimi laments the squandered chance for Afghanistan to start over. "Right after the collapse of the Taliban, the government had the opportunity to go after these commanders because they were scared and weak," she says. "Instead, the international community and the government supported them and made them stronger. They didn't bring them to justice. They waited until they committed more crimes. For this we ousted the Taliban...
Educated moderates like Samimi have no love for the Taliban. But they have become disillusioned with the current government, in large part because of the unaddressed venality of militia commanders. Francesc Vendrell, the former European Union envoy to Afghanistan, holds that warlordism, as he calls it, is just as much at the root of the insurgency as religious ideology. "In Muslim society, justice is the most essential element, and here in Afghanistan, people simply don't see it exist. They see impunity, they see a few people become extremely wealthy, and they see cruelty," Vendrell says. "Therefore I think many...