The Buddhas of Bamiyan? Everybody knows that story. There is a less known, or rather unknown, act of historical vandalism just north in Tajikistan: the Bereaved Mother of Hoyit.

Photo by Alexander Yablokov:

The image of this grieving mother was constructed out of white marble to commemorate the  victims of Tajikistan’s 1949 Khait (Hoyit) earthquake and landslide (20km long and 1km wide). As many as 28,000 people may have died and the bodies that could be recovered are in a mass grave behind the statue.

Now, this is no 1,500 year old Buddha, but it was by Soviet standards a beautiful and meaningful monument. And the locals likely had a lot of emotions tied into this memorial.

Unfortunately, this monument was located in the Karategin (Rasht) valley, next to the Yarhich River between Jirgitol and Gharm where field commanders of the Islamic Rebirth Party held territory during the Tajik Civil War. Unfortunately, the Grieving Mother of Hoyit was “unIslamic” and had to go. So they destroyed it. I thought at first that the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan may have had a hand in this, but I can’t quite match the timelines with the available info. I’ll ask when I go there (and get an “honest” answer, I’m sure).

For more info you will need to google “Скорбящая мать Хаита,” (lit. “Bereaved Mother of Khait”) as most of the writing is in Russian.

I forgot how much time an intensive language course takes [duh]. And when I have time to spare I really should be in the library making use of the amazing American university inter-library loan system. So I’m wading through books and scanning and copying, etc… Some of these books are only in 4 or 5 libraries on the planet.  I don’t have this level of access down under, so I need to really take advantage of my time here at Indiana University this summer rather than with the blog.

No worries, I’ve got a research assistant who is helping me out:

This is really bugging me. I just got asked this question from someone who I probably told this to, as I have relayed this anecdote on several occasions. It goes like this:

During the Soviet-Afghan War, some prominent Afghan families strategically placed one son in the mujahideen and one son in the communist government (and perhaps sent off one son to get a spiffy professional education). Basically, “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” applied to your children. It says a lot about self-interest versus ideology.

Who wrote about this? It was a rather small mention in a long article or book. I’m in the US without my books or notes and I’m trying to go off of memory. And it’s not working.

Can anybody help on this one? I’m leaning towards someone who’s been writing for a while like Rubin, Dorronsoro or Roy…

A little late, but I’ve put up a new photo header of addicts who shoot up/smoke at the old Soviet Cultural Centre in Kabul. It’s from a NY Times article and slideshow, which is worth a quick read.

I will return to the Kandahar incident next week. For now I’m just going to make a short post that will break one of my promises.

As an intro, the title above refers to Kunduz, a city/province in the north that is not doing so well lately. The BBC saw fit to do a little write-up recently:

A recent spate of attacks by the Taliban and al-Qaeda has altered the face of Kunduz beyond all recognition.

“The Taliban have closed girls’ schools in the districts. They collect taxes from people and they have their own courts. The governor was attacked and the Taliban are in the villages. All because Kunduz is ignored by our president and ministers in Kabul,” said a group of elders over endless cups of green tea in the provincial capital.

[...] In recent months, Kunduz has felt the consequences of the Taliban presence – a senior Afghan government official was shot dead while driving to the Tajikistan border and four US soldiers were recently killed by a roadside bomb.

This is not exactly a revelation. Kunduz has obviously, for anyone who cared to notice, been going downhill  progressively for at least a couple of years now.

Last month Al Jazeera English even made the trip up north in their quest to write exaggerated headlines:

The headline may be exaggerated and there may be some major omissions in the report, but essentially Kunduz is going in a very bad direction with increasing momentum.

And this is where I break my promise to not discuss my case studies. Kunduz is one of them, along with Qurghonteppa in Tajikistan. Well, Kunduz was one of them. When I wrote up my PhD proposal, field research in Kunduz was reasonable, albeit with restrictions. Now? Even if I wanted to toss caution to the wind, we PhD students must secure permission from our universities. I didn’t even bother. About 6 months ago I tossed Afghanistan out of my funding and ethics committee proposals. I know what the answer would be. I did do the historical research, so if you want to know about historical population dynamics, Murad Beg, ethnic/political relations, cotton farming, and the colonization of agricultural areas of the north, I’m your man.

So I don’t technically study Afghanistan as a PhD student anymore.  Anyways, I’m far more competent dealing with the civil war in Tajikistan. But regarding Afghanistan, reporting and analysis on the issue is so weak that I feel quite comfortable continuing with the blogging. That of course will slow down as I do fieldwork in Tajikistan starting in September. Feel free to toss me some contacts in Kurgan-Tyube if you have any.

Yes, it is quite close to the Afghan border. One hour’s drive or so.

Hopefully I’m there long enough to become an FC Vakhsh fan.

And yes, other people have bigger worries than me. I know. I hope life in Kunduz and in the rest of Afghanistan improves sometime over the next decade.

[Note: I'm following a breaking story over a one-day news cycle, to see how it breaks, and how good/bad a job is done doing so. I won't edit incorrect info as news comes in, as that is sort of the point: to see how incorrect the info is. I'll do an analysis later this week.]

6:00-8:00am- EST:

…the only source reporting on it that I can find is Alex Strick van Linschoten’s twitter feed. Sounds super, super shady. Either US or Afghan SF messed up badly or the Kandahar Police Chief and associates were doing something really dirty. [update: not even close on my part.]

Of course, later today the mainstream news outlets will be all over it, and by “it” I mean Reuters and Alertnet reports. The ugly details will slowly come out.

Alex is on the ground in Kandahar, he’s not embedded and his reporting is usually the best. This is why I follow Alex on twitter. And he also started Afghan Wire, which recently started publishing again.

Update: That was predictable. Alertnet is the first news agency/source reporting on the incident (note: Alertnet regularly updates breaking stories at the same link, so check this link multiple times):

The police chief for Afghanistan’s southern province of Kandahar, a Taliban stronghold, and eight other officers were killed in a clash with U.S.-trained Afghan special forces on Monday, senior provincial officials said. The clash erupted after the soldiers entered the prosector’s office in Kandahar city and forcibly removed an unidentified prisoner, said Ahmad Wali Karzai, head of the Kandahar provincial council and a brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. A gunfight erupted with police when the soldiers left the prosecutor’s office, he said. “The police chief for Kandahar, the head of the city’s criminal department and seven other police were killed in the clash,” Wali Karzai told Reuters by telephone from Kandahar.

No word on if the prisoner is a suspected insurgent or a drug guy. I wonder if this is the first we are seeing of the new counter-narcotics strategy of going after the traffickers? If so, reports indicate the guy they were fighting over was already on his way to court. Strange. And why are the ANP and the ANA fighting? I recall they fought once over a truckload of opium, a few years back.

And nice to see that Ahmed Wali Karzai can now talk to a reporter without threatening him/her. And always good to see his name pop up in a news story.

Update 2: My RSS feed was a little slow, as Quqnoos had an earlier news item out:

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Zemaray Bashari in a phone call confirmed the causalities of the gun-fire that erupted after the guards – employed by US special forces – opened fire on the police.

The fighting happened as troops attempted to take away a prisoner from the provincial attorney’s office, Bashari further said.

And Karzai is demanding the Afghans involved in the shooting be handed over. I assume they scurried back to the safety of US troops after their shootout with the ANP.

How about US Army spokesman Greg Julian? He in Kandahar and he’s now on tweeter as part of the US forces news internets friendly policies and communication strategy. What is he saying, besides what he said in the article above, which was redundant info?:

I’m back from leave, and busy working on setting up a Media Operations Center in Kandahar and plans to merge ISAF and USFOR Public Affairs.

That was three hours ago. Yawn. Back to Alex.

Update 3: RFE/RL has a brief report. Nothing new. But here are the names, as I didn’t identify them before:

[Amhed Wali] Karzai said provincial police chief General Matiullah Qahteh and eight other police officers were killed. Karzai is the younger brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

A senior Kandahar security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told RFE/RL that Qateh, along with the head of the city police department and four other police officers, were killed in the gun battle.

Update 4: Complain and ye shall receive, via Greg Julian, US Army spokesman:

US and International forces were not involved in the incident in Kandahar today, it was an Afghan on Afghan event.

Update 5: Al Jazeera reports from Kabul with a new detail that has nothing to do with a prisoner:

Al Jazeera’s David Chater, reporting from the capital Kabul, said: “The head of the provincial council in Kandahar, President Karzai’s brother, said the Afghan security forces  -  we believe it was the special forces under the control of the Americans in Kandahar  – were stopped by the police and their vehicle taken.

“We do not know why that happened but they demanded their vehicle to be returned by the police.

“The police chief himself came down, the CID head came down, and there was a huge argument at the scene, insults were swapped and bullets started to fly.

“We don’t yet know how many injured but [these were] extraordinary scenes. Afghan fighting Afghan on the streets of Kandahar, which of course had been under attack by the Taliban in recent weeks,” he said.

Update 5:

Alertnet updates: So the suspected bad guys in this incident are [private] guards:

Kandahar governor Tooryalai Weesa said the prisoner was a relative of an employee of the company for which the guards worked. Authorities had arrested all 41 of the guards involved and the men were being sent to Kabul, he told reporters in Kandahar.

Update 6: From the NY Times:

President Hamid Karzai immediately blamed gunmen from “a private security company employed by coalition forces” for the official’s killing and the deaths of four other Afghan police officers in the incident. He demanded that American and NATO forces turn the security guards over to Afghan authorities.

10:00am EST (during Tajik-mandated break):

Update 7: Via Alex, the Globe and Mail reports the Canadians cleaned things up. But some confusion regarding gunmen’s ID:

Blaming the violence on Afghan guards working for U.S. forces, President Hamid Karzai demanded that the gunmen be handed over to Afghan authorities.

“President Hamid Karzai has asked for the immediate handover by the coalition forces to the Afghan government of the private security guards involved in the killing of Kandahar province security officials,” a terse statement released by his office said.

It added that “President Karzai said that such incidents negatively impact the state building process in Afghanistan and called upon coalition forces to avoid actions that weaken the government.”

Following the shootout, Canadians Forces soldiers cordoned off the scene and arrested the alleged gunmen. Contradicting Mr. Karzai’s characterizations of events, the Canadians said the gunmen were Afghan National Army soldiers, not private guards.

1:00-2:00pm EST:

Update 8: Four hours in intensive language class done, lunch eaten, back to the issue at hand…

Put this in context? Why, that is beyond the power of the billion dollar media! How about an unpaid blogger providing some great context. Go read Josh’s analysis at Registan. I agree with Josh and Alex’s analysis in the blog entry: perceptions are what counts. What actually happened is something else…

Nothing new on Greg Julian’s twitter account. I guess he is busy with the “big guys”m for whatever that is worth.

Update 9: Unlike Alertnet, Al Jazeera does not indicate that it has updated or changed its article, which it has. The first article was way off. In fact it was the least accurate of any news I came across today. But they swept the article under a rug and posted a new one. The old article is off their site, but the link still works.

Update 10: Forgot to mention it, but the G&M article cites Greg  Julian’s twitter account. So at least one other person is following it.

Update 11: According to CNN, Michael Jackson is still dead. Stay tuned to CNN for further updates. Losers. CNN: Neither speed, nor quality.

Update 12: BBC bides its time, and then posts an article that won’t embarrass them later in the day. Good for quality, bad for speed. They did clear up one question I had:

The BBC’s Martin Patience in Kabul says that Afghan guards are often employed at coalition military bases across the country. They are paid and trained by the US. While the guards are recognised by the Afghan government, they do not come under their command. Locals often refer to these guards as Afghan special forces as they are well-trained and well-armed, our correspondent says.

And it seems that the BBC does not read Greg Julian’s twitter feed.

Update 12: The CBC followed a similar strategy of waiting for as many details as it could before rushing out an article. And, of gosh, they have a video report, featuring some embedded guy who looks like he just got cut from a Junior B hockey team in Moose Jaw. In which, Greg Julian denies that the gunmen are private security guards employed by Americans. Now that reporter needs to get back to his KAF work-out regimen and his collection of too small black t-shirts.

Update 13: The Guardian reports:

Later, the governor, Thoryalai Wesa, said 41 private guards had been disarmed and arrested and would be sent to Kabul for a military trial.

The article is decent. I’m sure they’ll compensate for this later with an incoherent quasi-ludicrous opinion article by some crack-pot guest writer. When it comes to guest editorials, they’re like the Wall Street Journal of the left in terms of quality and mental imbalance.

5:00pm EST (1:30am in Kandahar)

Update 14: I ask that journalists come up with a description of Kandahar other than “Spiritual Birthplace of the Taliban.” There are other descriptions.

Update 15: Oh, thank God! The Taliban spokesman is here to clear everything up. Apparently it was their brilliant plan to make the munafiqeen and kafirs fight amongst each other. Via AFP:

A Taliban spokesman, [Qari] Yousuf Ahmadi, claimed men from his militia had deliberately sparked the clash between the Afghan forces but this was not confirmed.

The Taliban have in the past falsely claimed involvement in incidents or exaggerated clashes.

Google him for a hilarious list of claims about the dozens of tanks they regularly destroy, in addition to the large number of invader crusaders they slaughter. The National Post has an article about him that’s worth a read, wherein it’s noted that despite the obvious exaggeration and fabrication:

…Taliban media strategies are becoming more sophisticated. They work hard at getting out messages to local populations, and at shaping public opinion, here and abroad.

Even their most outrageous claims can become conventional wisdom. Once accepted by Afghan civilians, Taliban propaganda often filters into Western media stories where it can be interpreted as fact.

It’s a problem for the coalition. Indeed, many observers agree that insurgents are winning the information war in Afghanistan.

7:00pm EST:

Update 15: Iran’s Press TV weighs in with a copy and paste article. Neutral, mostly. It does still have that earlier reference to the gunmen as guards on the US payroll. I wonder if we are going to get into a debate on definitions on the “guards or soldiers” issue. I’m sure they do “guard,” and the ultimate source of their pay is probably the US (or Canada, or…etc.).

9:00pm EST:

Update 16: The story is actually 3 hours old, but CNN did find time in between diet tips and Michael Jackson to run a story. And they have the same story as the Iranians. But I’m still confused:

A U.S. military official with direct knowledge of the situation told CNN that his understanding at the moment was that the security forces accused of the attack included 40 Afghan nationals hired to do counterterrorism work with U.S. special forces. Without the assistance of any U.S. or NATO troops, the official said, the nationals tried to get a friend out of a Kandahar jail.

Well, CNN is  a sloth, but they do seem to have access. I just wish someone would name the “program” these Afghans are in. Or does it even have a name? Meh. I’m going to bed.

One day later:

Some morning after commentary by Spencer, BruceR (who was there recently) and a report from McClatchy.

I will return to this incident next week, mostly to analyze the responses and the reporting.

Oh yawn. The Moroccan carpet salesman versus the stingy western tourist dance has apparently ended. The United States government has reached a deal with Kyrgyz Prime Minister Bakiev’s extended patronage network government on the exact price of using the Manas air base to transit “goods” to Afghanistan. Reuters reports:

The United States has agreed to pay $180 million to Kyrgyzstan to keep open the last remaining U.S. air base in Central Asia which is used to supply troops fighting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. The United States has been bargaining with Kyrgyzstan to keep the Manas air base open since February when the former Soviet republic announced its closure after securing pledges of $2 billion in aid and credit from Russia.

Oh no! What ever shall we do with our paranoid Russocentric geopolitical chicanery explanations for everything? [I do not recommend viewing Russia's Afghanistan policies through the lens of Europe and the Caucasus] Just FYI, the Russians do not want the Taliban on the Amu Darya, AKA “the soft underbelly.”

Photo via flickr user RaskarKarpak: Manas airbase

$180 million? What would that get you? A one-third share in an F-22 at the bulk rate?

Winners: tourist with carpet and carpet seller’s immediate family and “associates.”

Note: Yes, this counts as my one-per-week summer blogging commitment.

Busy, busy, busy. I’m in an intensive language class for the next two months and finishing off another dissertation chapter and scanning as much material from American libraries as I can and trying to get my hands on a visa to a country that doesn’t really make that sort of thing easy and working on the next bibliography and…: blogging occasionally.

How about I post on Tuesday evenings? That makes it predictable and you can avoid checking the blog for updates only to find nothing. Of course, if something inspires/annoys me I may just throw an entry on the blog randomly.

Gotta run. I have homework to do. I feel like an undergrad again, especially as I’m back for the summer at Indiana University, my alma mater.

Pic by jtwrights: where the means streets of Bloomington meet the rough campus of Indiana University.

Who’s the target of this presidential election ad?

I was curious to see any local Ashraf Ghani TV ads that are actually aimed at Afghans. I went to his Dari page and found only a video message to the Oxford Research Group in English. Perhaps a local ad will eventually appear on his youtube page? For all the rest you can check out the English section of his website.

If anyone sees a local TV ad in Afghanistan, please let me know. I would love to see a transcript (I should be able to read through it slowly if in Dari) or a copy of it online. I’m curious as to how the phrasing will go and what the message will be.

I’m not trying to pick on the guy (everybody seems to think he was a really competent minister and all that), but is does seem like he appeals more to an international audience than to locals.

[Update]: Just got the official email, the ad is specifically targeted at Afghan expats overseas.

And the only poll so far (albeit of unknown accuracy) was not kind to him.

Nice work Holbrooke. Via WaPo, h/t BruceR:

U.S. envoy Richard C. Holbrooke, red-faced and sweaty, sat on the dirt floor of a stifling tent as Aslam Khan, a 38-year-old laborer, spoke haltingly of his family’s panicked flight from a Pakistani army offensive against Taliban forces in their mountain village, three hours north of here.

Holbrooke asked some questions about the Taliban but got few answers. “Are these all your children?” he asked with a smile. Yes, Khan said, he had nine.

“Your daughter is beautiful,” Holbrooke continued, nodding toward a young woman who sat quietly at the edge of the family. Her head was covered in a royal-blue scarf that revealed only her stunningly dark eyes.

“That’s not my daughter,” Khan said abruptly.

Yeah that’s what you should do, tell rural Pashtun men that you’d like to take their daughter for a test drive, which is basically what Holbrooke did. Turns out she wasn’t his daughter, but the effect was to tell the man if that was his daughter he would have enthusiastically disrespected the man and dishonored his family.

I agree with BruceR, who has definitely spent some time with rural Pashtuns:

You know, if there is somewhere a list of things you don’t use as conversational openers with Pashtun and other conservative Muslim males, I’m pretty sure “how fetching their daughter is” would be pretty high up there.

You can find more great insights from BruceR, a recently returned Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team member (I’m told the acronym is pronounced “omelette”) who served in Kandahar province with the Canadians, on his blog “flit.”