Word: talibans
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...success of the Taliban's intimidation blitz has added to Western concern about President Hamid Karzai's government, which remains unable to assert its authority much beyond the capital city, Kabul. "In many respects, I think that this insurgency is less about insurgent strength than government weakness," says Ronald Neumann, U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appeared in Kabul last week in a show of support for Karzai, while 10,000 coalition troops launched a fresh offensive against Taliban insurgents in the south. But few Afghans believe the threat posed by the resurgent Taliban is close...
...Taliban, the night letters are a cost-effective way to exploit such anxieties. "They don't have weapons to come to town to fight," says Captain Jammilla Bargzai, head of the Kandahar police department's crime-investigation unit. "Their only weapon is to scare people." Her bravado fades when she begins to talk about her own fears. Bargzai hasn't seen any night letters posted in her neighborhood, but her neighbors have told her that strangers on motorbikes have asked about her and marked her house. She has moved six times in the past year. "If I see a strange...
...Taliban isn't relying just on violence to shake Afghans' faith in the authorities. The rise in crime in Kandahar has provoked a new round of letters, reminding people how safe the city was under the Taliban regime. Many are starting to listen. "Life under the Taliban was not good," says Hyatullah Rafiqi, Kandahar's education administrator. "But it's not good now. At least with the Taliban we had security." Rampant corruption, police abuse and an unchecked drug trade have bolstered the Taliban claims. A former mujahedin commander who fought with the Taliban against the occupying Soviet army...
Critics fault Karzai and the 26,000 allied troops in Afghanistan for failing to strengthen institutions like the police. In Kandahar, Asadullah Khalid, the governor, is desperate to counter Taliban propaganda with a more robust police force. He estimates that he has only 40 officers for every 100,000 citizens. (By comparison, New York City has 40 officers for every 8,000 civilians.) He says he has petitioned Karzai's government for funding for a larger police force but says he has received little response. The police situation in Kandahar province is emblematic of the country as a whole. That...
...life for Afghans across the country continues to swing between hope and cruelty. In Panjwai, where a U.S. air strike in May killed 24 suspected Taliban along with 16 civilians, wails of mourning were mixed with sighs of relief that the Taliban might finally have been defeated. But then the night letters resumed, warning villagers not to become puppets of the American "infidels." Two weeks later, the Taliban seized two local police officers accused of collaborating with the government. Within two hours, they were publicly tried, sentenced and beheaded. It took more than 48 hours to gather enough...