Defence`s Feeds

40 days after the violent killing of Farkhunda, supporters gathered on Monday, 27 April 2015, to mourn and protest her death. Afghan public opinion has now reached a broad consensus over the unprecedented gravity of this murder. Yet, many questions remain as to what triggered the killing and how it was possible for such a terrible incident to take place in central Kabul at the hands of what looked to be otherwise law-abiding and ‘normal’ citizens. In the first of two dispatches on the murder of Farkhunda, AAN’s Fabrizio Foschini and Naheed Esar have been looking at the specifics of the social environment where she met her death and exploring some of the social types who were possibly party to her murder, from the amulet sellers and beggars, whose economic interests revolve around shrines such as that of Shah-e Du Shamshira where the murder took place, to the petty criminals and police of that part of the city, Police District (PD) 2.

A second dispatch by AAN’s Borhan Osman will look at the responses of civil society and the ulama and how a polarisation emerged over how each interpreted the murder; this, he will argue, has complicated chances for a much-needed internal debate among Afghanistan’s clergy.

At the traditional 40-day ceremony, marked all over the Muslim world to mourn a death, those protesting Farkhunda’s murder re-enacted her killing. The dramatised scenes, the beating and burning were painful to those watching – many were in tears – and were later relayed on television news reports. The Shah-e Du Shamshira shrine was closed after the murder, but the messages of condolences and the images of the dead Islamic studies student left by the protesters have turned the place into a new shrine. The area is now calm, but passers-by told AAN an uneasiness remains and they now fear to pass down the road where Farkhunda was murdered.

With the many unsettling issues connected to the killing of Farkhunda, considerations about the place where it happened have generally been sidelined. But geography was and is important in this killing. The area of the incident, Shah-e Du Shamshira and the Kabul riverbanks beside it, are places everybody knows and that many people have to pass when crossing the city. If such a terrible murder had happened in some remote province, or in the outskirts of the city, it would not have been any less grave or atrocious. However, the shrine where everything started and the riverside where her mangled body was finally burned and discarded, lie at the very centre of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan and are arguably perceived as the safest, most controlled and ‘civilised’ part of Afghanistan.

A central place in downtown Kabul

The spot where the incident happened can truly be termed the heart of Kabul. Administratively in urban district number and police station number two, the Shah-e Du Shamshira complex, with mosque and shrine, stands on the left bank of the Kabul river, at the junction of the Old City and the new residential and administrative expansions beyond the river. The latter symbolised the transformation of Afghanistan into a modern state in the late 19th century. Located at the western entrance of the characteristic riverside quays, which form one of Kabul’s most recognisable icons, the Shah-e Du Shamshira is also oriented towards West Kabul through Jada-ye Asmai, the road which crosses the narrow Kabul river gorge and skirts just behind the complex.

Many of the historical and social landmarks of Kabul surround the mosque or are in plain view of it: the mausoleum of Timur Shah, the sovereign who made Kabul the capital of the Afghan kingdom towards the end of the 18th century; Lycee Aisha Durrani, built in the 1920s as one of the European (in this case German) high schools wanted by King Amanullah to modernise education and still the largest girls school in the country; Pamir Cinema, one of the first cinemas to open in Afghanistan in the relatively peaceful mid-20th century, and the Central Polyclinic hospital established by the communist government in 1985.

The area hosts numerous other landmarks, from the National Gallery to the Turko-Afghan Technical Institute, but it is the National Bus Company Central Station close by that influences its human geography most. The square in front of the Shah-e Du Shamshira mosque and the riverside lane to the south of it have become a single transportation hub crowded by taxis, minivans and buses connecting the Old City with other areas of Kabul and the city with the provinces. Thousands of travellers transit through the area every day, and an adequate deployment of street hawkers, food sellers and pickpockets are ready to meet them.

The area was heavily damaged during the civil war in the 1990s, leading many residents to leave, while reconstruction in recent years has been rather selective. The Old City of Kabul proved less attractive than other areas for private investors, split as it is between key government facilities in the flat patches of ground along the riverside and the poor mud-house settlement on the hill slopes to the north and south of it. Although some new residential and commercial buildings have arisen, the area’s former social fabric has not been fully reconstituted. Rather, impoverished immigrants from outside Kabul have replaced many of the original residents.

The mosque of Shah-e Du Shamshira, a shapely square building showing mixed Ottoman ‘Belle Epoque’ and Italian baroque influences and abutting the riverbank, dates from Amanullah’s time. It was Olya Hazrat, the king’s mother, who commissioned the new building on the site of a smaller Mughal-era mosque and inaugurated it, as a votive offering (offered in fulfilment of a vow) for the quelling of the Khost Rebellion in 1925.

If the mosque itself is a favourite spot for Kabulis to go and pray, there is another part of the religious complex that attracts visitors from even farther away. Right across the street, the namesake ziarat (shrine) of Shah-e Du Shamshira stands in memory of the heroic death of an unnamed ghazi, a Muslim warrior, said to have kept wielding his two swords against the infidels, even after his head had been severed by a blow as he fought against the Hindu-Shahi dynasty which ruled Kabul at the time of the Ghaznavid conquest in the 10th century. Inside this highly revered shrine, frequented by visitors to the mosque and people in search of blessings, a number of beggars and amulet-sellers can be found. It was this practice, the selling of amulets, which brought Farkhunda into confrontation with the keepers of the shrine on the day of her murder.

Selling blessings in the shrine

Amulets (tawiz) have a long history in Afghanistan. They can be found all over Afghanistan, most commonly in the form of written pieces of paper and worn on the body of the person it is meant to benefit. They can be different in form and size; some are square, some rectangular and some roundish; they can be made from fabric or metal or be in the form of crystals or gems. Tawiz are often used in the belief that they heal or protect from illness, or solve a person’s problems in life – typically related to love affairs or the wish for offspring, particularly male offspring. However, more recently, the range of wishes has expanded to new topics, from passing the university kankur entry exam to getting a foreign visa. Women are the most frequent, though not the sole users of tawiz: they carry them in the form of a bracelet, necklace, pinned to their clothes, or hidden in houses and cars. They can cost anything from 100 Afghani (two dollars) to 15,000 Afghani (300 dollars).

The status in society of those who write amulets is presently unclear. Traditionally, also in the context of the presence of popular devotional practices centred around persons claiming descent from the family of the Prophet or from Sufi saints, some of them used to be quite prominent and respected as ulama (read a previous AAN piece here). Today, with changing social patterns and religious practices, due to some degree of modernisation at least in the urban centres, amulet-writers are being slowly pushed to the fringes of society.

According to Afghan scholar Abdul Zahir Dayi, the origin of the amulet-writing tradition in Afghanistan was Hinduism and Judaism (see here). Islamic scholars have contradicting views about the status of tawiz in Islam. Some divide amulets into two kinds, those with Quranic verses and those without. Tawiz without Quranic verses are largely considered haram (sinful), while amulets containing Quranic chapters are permissible according to some scholars. The Wahabis, on the other hand, believe that all tawiz are un-Islamic, primarily because there is no mention of them in the Quran or Hadith (see here). The latter attitude seems to have been shared by Farkhunda. A friend of hers whom AAN spoke to during the 40-day commemoration at the location of the murder on Monday said that “for about the past three years [Farkhunda] had regularly gone to the shrine of Shah-e Du Shamshira” to try to convince the amulet writers to desist from what she considered an un-Islamic practice.

Selling other things in the shadow of the shrine

The Old City of Kabul is definitely not ‘uptown.’ Despite the area being frequented by many people for shopping, it is not regarded as the safest. Crime rates are rather high, and while the security forces keep tight control of the area against possible insurgent attacks because of the many potential targets in it, they are not much concerned about repressing common criminality, according to a security analyst working for an independent organisation.

In the immediate post-2001 period, Kabul’s police districts were taken over and staffed by the military victors – different commanders belonging to Jamiat-e Islami/Shura-ye Nazar and Ittihad-e Islami factions of the Northern Alliance. Enjoying the support of heavyweights like the first post-Taleban interior minister, Yusuf Qanuni, or the first defence minister, Qasim Fahim, they managed to withstand foreign-sponsored reforms for quite a while. Eventually, the commanders had to give up their posts. However, their men have largely remained in place. The majority of the policemen there have been assigned to the area for a decade now and have resisted all attempts to transfer them. According to a Ministry of Interior officer interviewed by AAN, policemen have developed a strong attachment to their posts of duty in Police District (PD) 2, an area that is eminently commercial and offers additional income by levying protection money from shopkeepers and other businessmen in exchange for turning a blind eye on irregularities.

This part of the city is thus a hotspot of petty criminal activities. The massive presence of shoppers and travellers from outside the city draws groups of thieves from the settlement above the area, Deh Afghanan. The partially dry riverbed has also become the abode of drug addicts in recent years and their number has grown considerably, making it second only to Pul-e Sukhta area (see AAN report here). Large amounts of narcotics are thus brought to the area and pass from traffickers, often via shopkeepers for whom it is a side activity, to retail sellers who sell it to those on the riverbed. According to a social worker once engaged in a program to help widows in the area, the amulet sellers and some of the beggars in the shrine are also rumoured to be accomplices in the smuggling and safe-keeping of drugs there. Even the presence of a prostitution ring run from the shrine has been hinted at by the police, who have now temporarily closed the place down.

Together with the amulet-sellers, there are also many gadagaran, beggars, mostly female, within the ziarat enclosure. They can be roughly divided into two categories: those who regularly frequent the shrine and those who come only for religious festivals or during the days preceding them. On such occasions, wealthy merchants and businessmen visit the ziarat and are expected to give alms to the shrine and the assembled beggars. The right to ask for alms inside the shrine is sold – with the involvement of police and shrine staff, as on such occasions, high profits can be made – reportedly for as much as 30,000 Afghanis (600 dollars) in months with such religious celebrations. Some of the beggars at the shrine are said to work in close partnership with the amulet sellers as well.

A widow who often begs for alms inside the shrine told AAN that Farkhunda had had arguments with the amulet sellers in the past.  Another woman, Latifa, a visitor to the shrine and a former customer of Zainuddin, the shrine attendant who would later be accused of having initiated the false accusation that Farkhunda had burned a copy of the Quran, also said she had seen Farkhunda in the shrine on other occasions. “Farkhunda would debate the ‘sin’ of tawiz in Islam and ask the caretaker of the shrine, Zainuddin, to stop this trade.” Farkhunda had also enjoined female visitors to stop buying tawiz. The amulet sellers’ anger about her interference was shared by some of the female beggars who feared a loss in the ‘business’ tawiz clients bring to their begging grounds. The widow also told AAN the female beggars were among the first to instigate others to kill Farkhunda after shrine caretaker Zainuddin’s initial call for Muslims to “save the Quran.”

This is not to suggest that her killing was planned, although worse conspiracy theories about her death have circulated. But given the links between some of the criminal groups active in the area and those in charge of business inside the ziarat, some of those who took part in killing Farkhunda might have known more precisely what they were doing and had one or two ‘reasons’ for it.

The killers: Zainuddin, Sharaf Baghlani and others

“On Thursday at around 3.30, the voice of the cleric Zainuddin was heard from the front window of Shah-e Du Shamshira, and he called the crowd to punish an American woman who had burned pages of Quran.” This is how a female eyewitness, a frequent visitor to the shrine, recalls the start of the murderous rush which resulted in Farkhunda’s death. Reportedly, Zainuddin further provoked the crowd by saying, “If you are a real Muslim, please come and save the Quran.” Following that, some men gathered around Farkhunda aggressively asking her questions, some of which were: “Are you American? Are you America’s agent? Why did you burn the Noble Quran?

Representatives of the presidential investigative commission later also stated that that it was Zainuddin who first shouted that Farkhunda had burnt the Quran and asked the people to punish her. During the investigation, he admitted he had lied about the Quran-burning.

Another man, Sharaf Baghlani, who is in his thirties and has claimed a connection with the Afghan Forces on his Facebook account (the page has since then been removed), bragged about his role in the killing of Farkhunda. The translated version of the post said: “Salam: today at 4.00 pm, an atheist woman burned the Quran at the Shah-e Du Shamshira shrine. Afterwards, the religious people of Kabul, including myself, killed her. Hell shall be her place.” Baghlani was one of the first suspects to be detained. He had already posted, on 21 March 2015: “I believe in an extra-judicial court system for an un-Islamic country like Afghanistan.” He said, “suicide bombers released by the Afghan government” was one reason why he thought handing over criminals to the state authorities was pointless.

One of the other suspects, a young man in his late twenties, would later say his “religious emotion” was the reason he joined in the killing. Others would later condemn their own actions. One man in his early thirties spontaneously surrendered himself to the police saying his “sleep at night had been extremely disturbed by the anxiety and fear created by his feeling of guilt.”

Those involved in the crime were typically young men in their early 20s to late 30s, many of them ‘modern-attired’, sporting jeans and fashionable clothes. Some of them may have been associated with the drug users or crooks crowding the area, but many more seem to have issued from the mosque, while others might have been shopping in the bazaar along the riverbanks when the turmoil started.

If Zainuddin represents the conservative and self-interested use of religion to cow society into obeisance and Sharaf Baghlani the violent and ruthless face of the vigilante, the majority of people who took part in the killing cannot easily be dismissed as leftovers of Afghanistan’s past of violence and extremism, or as dangerous characters living at the margins of society. Rather, they appear to forebode a new generation having lost its bearings in terms of culture and social behaviour.

No shelter from the mad crowd

With the crowd being this diverse in its motivations, the criminality and degradation in the area we have described and the availability of goons to conduct a killing does not yet explain how a mob of some 400 persons could have gathered for such a long time to lynch one girl. The sheer numbers of the crowd prevented the police from succeeding in their, albeit half-hearted, attempts at rescuing her. It also doomed the efforts made by a few individuals to help Farkhunda and bring their fellow Kabulis to reason. It seems that some bystanders did try, in vain, to help her. AAN talked to a woman who asked a policeman only about ten metres away from Farkhunda to intervene. She said the policeman did not budge and calmly remarked, “Let her be killed. That will be a good lesson to those who insult Islam.”

Some observers have wondered why the gender of the victim did not protect her, given that women are usually at less danger from public (although not domestic) violence in patriarchal Afghanistan. While largely agreeing with this analysis, looking deeper into Afghan ‘traditions’, there is a different approach to gender to be detailed. Afghans can be said to treat women in a more ‘equal’ way than that often imagined by outsiders, meaning the treatment meted out by society to a woman seen as guilty of something is unlikely to be more lenient because of her sex. In the Afghan psyche, the duty to defend a ‘helpless’ women is not linked to some romantic idea of chivalry, but to a very concrete understanding of collective honour and respectability. Women who have not trespassed the boundaries set for their place in society are indeed more protected. However, those who are seen as having transgressed lose their status as women who need to be protected. This might have reduced Farkhunda’s chances of eliciting feelings of pity from the people who were attacking her.

What was also shocking about the killing was not just the behaviour of the mob but also of the people who witnessed it. Many filmed it on their smartphones or joined in to take part briefly in a sort of ‘I was there, too’ attitude. Judging by the images, this social type of the casual onlooker, among them many young shoppers, far outnumbered the actual killers. This is disturbing particularly given the hopes so often placed in young people to bring much needed changes in society and push it forward, away from the scars and ruins of the civil war.

But also most of the remarkable mobilisation witnessed in the days following the murder was initiated by Kabul youth, albeit a different section. These activists have been calling for “justice for Farkhunda”, that is, harsh punishments for her murderers. This attitude may feel reasonable at this stage, but it does not seem sufficiently introspective. This murder needs deeper and harder questions to be asked as to how Kabulis came to murder one of their own in the heart of their city.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

When the casualty incident described in this piece occurred, it fell to me to tend to the unit’s “family.” Beyond the families directly affected, the rest experienced these events through my messages. They chronicle a small piece of what happens on the home-front when casualties come home. [1] These events unfold regularly in our midst, more so in the last decade of conflict, but most in the general public have no experience of this aspect of war; they should.

 

Reflecting upon the conflict and mayhem that has been unleashed in Iraq since the instigation of the military operations to end the regime of Saddam Hussein, there are many issues to confront the scholar. As a military historian, most fundamentally for me I never believed regime change in Iraq was a good idea. Breaking states should only be a strategy choice of last possible resort, and even then it is probably best avoided. But as the spouse of a Marine Officer my professional and intellectual opposition would be challenged by personal obligations.

I was not unfamiliar with this internal conflict between scholarly and real world obligations. In 2004, as a Fellow in their Summer Seminar in Military History, I watched the veterans among the West Point uniformed historians experiencing both cognitive dissonance as well as resonance as they confronted their intellectual material. I could tell that they were comparing their experiences with their scholarship, but I did not understand what that meant at the time. Years later, humbled by my own small experience, I have a sense of how they must have felt and thought. My hope is that this glimpse into the wider experience of war and conflict will offer a similar bit of enlightenment for others.

The vagaries of the personnel system meant that my former husband missed the first several years of OIF. He spent its first year “Stop-Moved” in Okinawa – a one year unaccompanied tour doubled at the commencement of hostilities in 2003. Then a B-Billet tour in Newport, RI, followed, because the alternation between line units and administrative jobs is relentless in the Marine Corps, no matter the state of conflict. At the first opportunity, after only two years in Newport, the Fleet Marine Force beckoned once again, specifically for Iraq. After a three months’ preparation, in January 2007, as a Major, he deployed to Iraq in command of a Military Training Team (MTT). As a training cadre the team was small, giving the families in support an intimacy and closeness that would colour the experience of the deployment. Furthermore, I was the unit Key Volunteer, which made me the point of contact between the unit/Marine Corps and the families of the serving Marines and Sailor. For the most part this meant I was responsible for providing official and correct information about the unit’s movements and activities to the families on a timely basis. Secondarily, as possible, I tried to offer some measure of additional information and support, as well as to coordinate any assistance the unit or the families might require. [2] It is the sort of responsibility that anyone not afflicted with terrific arrogance will feel that they have done inadequately.

By way of background on the context of the deployment, Fallujah in the first half of 2007 was roiling. At the time of the casualty event the Marines and the Iraqi Army battalion they were training had already seen significant and regular combat action. Their AOR, an area of the city known as the “Pizza Slice,” was particularly dangerous, with regular and daily insurgent activity. The Lieutenant Colonel commanding the Iraqi battalion was experienced and educated, having served during the Hussein regime. [3] Pragmatic and hopeful that a new start could be made for his country, he was a willing and able partner in the rebuilding of Iraq. The battalion and its training team would endure several months of sustained attacks until the insurgency broke – of its own stupidity and the civilian population’s shifted allegiance – early in the summer.

However, before that break occurred, a sniper ambush towards the end of a day’s activities took the lives of one of our Marines, and wounded two others. On the afternoon of 29 April, an element of the battalion and its trainers had been conducting a dismounted patrol of Marines and Iraqi soldiers with vehicles in support. As the last task of the patrol, they had stopped to conduct a search. With the units’ vehicles deployed along narrow and twisted streets, the dismounted elements cleared a building which had been identified as a potential insurgent base. Finding nothing in the building, as the Marines made their way to their vehicles the attack opened with precision sniper and general supporting fire.

Within short order, no more than five minutes of fighting, the three casualties were taken. The remaining 15 to 20 of minutes combat was fought as the dismounted Marines struggled to safely remove the fallen to the vehicles while those in the vehicles provided cover. Unable to safely extricate from the killing ground on their own, the timely arrival of the QRF (quick reaction force) ended the engagement. It was a close run thing, as the Marines engaged on the ground were running out of ammunition to continue their fight.

I remember the day clearly. I was probably munching bagels and driving home to Newport with my son and dog after a weekend visiting family in New York, while these events were occurring. (Yes, you do stop to note the surreal aspects of such moments.) Or maybe I was reading the Sunday New York Times, which had a story on the turning tide fighting the insurgents in Ramadi. Although the deployment was not easy, things were not terrible, and I had just returned from the annual conference for the Society for Military History conference and was energized for my research. [4] We arrived home, safe and sound. And completely oblivious.

It was later that night when the Major sent me the following email:

Do NOT say anything/tell anyone.  The worst happened.  Notifications are being made.  I’m still alive.

Brevity enhanced, rather than diminished, the impact of the news.

The identity of one of the casualties was the first detail I would receive regarding the incident. Shortly after the email arrived the phone rang. On the other end was the brother of the unit’s corpsman (Doc) who had been wounded the ambush. As awful as it was in its brevity I was now happy to have received the message. While there is no way to prepare for such things it was better not to be caught completely unaware. I spent hours on the phone with the brother that night, talking through what was happening to Doc and trying to get what information I could from the unit in Iraq. This effort was complicated by the fact that when casualty incidents happen a unit goes into communications lockdown – “River City” [5] – so as to avoid the unfortunate circumstance where rumour gets ahead of the official notification procedures of the service. Technically the Major should not have been in email contact with me. But as I was conferring with him on behalf of the family of a wounded service member, judgment and discretion were exercised to provide every support possible.

That night we settled the first round of issues and for the moment Doc’s situation was stable.

 

 

The next day’s shock was my notification of the Marine who had been killed in action.

When the liaison from the Marine unit in Camp Pendleton called and started talking me through the details of the event and what was now happening, my mind was whirring through the names and what the loss of each individual would mean. A widow. A child who would never know his father. A new mother left at loss for her spouse. A beloved child’s life ended. A fiancé who would never marry. When I heard the name of the Marine who had been killed, I was gutted.

Even as some scenarios had been averted, in the end there was no good answer to the question I had been considering, who had been lost?

I was informed of the dates and locations for the return of this fallen Marine and the funeral services. The family was from the East Coast, so I would attend. At the time we expected Doc to return to Bethesda on the same weekend, so my plan was to go there after the funeral. As it would turn out, this did not happen, his return to the States was delayed by complications from his wounds. To be honest, when he did return the experience of seeing him in the hospital in those early days was not easy and so the delay was for the best. I would have struggled mightily that weekend to confront both shocks.

It was for me to break the news to the rest of the families. Studying war and military history, casualty notifications are a common part of the narratives. To write one in reality is far more difficult than the words put to paper suggest. It is a humbling responsibility.

 

01 May 2007

All — If you have not heard from your family member in the last two days, it is because their communications have been shut down in light of recent events. I can tell you that the team was involved in a serious incident yesterday, with one critically wounded, and another, unfortunately, killed in action….I am not certain when the guys will be able to resume communications, but I hope it will be in the next day or two. I have been in contact with both families involved and have been assisting them in every way possible.

The team member wounded was Doc. His injuries were serious, but he was operated on and stabilized in Fallujah before being evacuated to Balad, where he underwent further surgery. He is in stable condition and improving, and is nearing the end of the period of critical concern. They expect to evacuate him to Germany, where he will stay for a couple/few days before being returned stateside for the recovery and recuperation process. There is good cause for (guarded) optimism that he will make a complete (or near complete) recovery.

As concerns the other casualty, I am very saddened to have to inform you all that the team has lost [a] Lieutenant. I know from various things the Major related to me that the Lieutenant was a superb officer. He was instrumental in setting the sort of moral, ethical and professional standard that was a credit to himself, the Marine Corps, and the mission to which he had been assigned. His family is, of course, suffering from this tragedy, but they are trying to hold onto these positive values, and the importance the Lieutenant himself placed in them, as a means to help them through this time. I will be in contact with them later in the week regarding the plans for the services. As they are located relatively near to me I will be in attendance.

Obviously both families are trying to come to grips with the enormity of the situations they face, and neither is able to put into words what they might need or appreciate in terms of support or assistance. After the passage of some time I will find out what you all can do for them or on their behalf. I would suggest that you all allow a few days before attempting to reach out to the [Lieutenant’s family]. I know that they are surrounded by friends and family right now, and do not lack for the support necessary to make it through this time….

If you would like, you may forward messages to me to pass along to the families as appropriate. I will keep you apprised of the situation with Doc, and will let you know details regarding the service for [the Lieutenant] if there is interest.

Unfortunately I do not yet have information regarding the third casualty [a member of the augmentees assigned to the team], but as I receive details I will pass those along as well.

I will tell the Major to have everyone send a message home when communications are restored.

I think that’s it for now. My best to all of you,

Jill

 

That week passed in a blur as I tried to come to grips with the events, continued assisting Doc’s family, and made plans to travel to Pennsylvania for the funeral. I would speak to the Lieutenant’s parents briefly during this period, as well as send them the following message.

 

02 May 2007

Please allow me to again express my deepest sympathies to you on the loss of [your son]. I knew early on that there had been a fatality, but the Major, of course, could not let me know directly who it had been. When the GySgt from I MEF contacted me to discuss what had happened, and informed me that it was your son, the news was crushing. Part of it had to do with the email exchange we had last week — his loss did not seem right given that we had been talking about him just so recently. Another part was due to the role I know he played on the team and with the Iraqis, and how much his influence would be missed by all of them. I’ve spent a fair bit of time staring at the picture of [the Major and your son] sharing a cigar, trying to come to grips with his loss. It seems that he is staring right at me, and I just can’t imagine that he is gone. It provides me with the smallest glimpse into the enormity of what you must be going through right now.

I have attached a copy of the message I sent to the team families regarding the events of last Sunday. All of the immediate family members, as well as a wide universe of people secondarily related to the team, stand ready to provide you with whatever you may want or need, and when the time is appropriate, I hope you will feel free to let me know how they might help you and/or honor [your son’s] memory. I do not know whether you wish to remain informed of the doings of the team, and it is certainly not something you need to concern yourself with now. However, given what I have learned about you from our brief conversations over the past few months, and what I know about the sort of man [your son] was, I have to assume that despite your terrible loss you still hold the team close to your hearts — perhaps even closer now than before. Please know that I stand ready to accommodate whatever your participation desires might be when the time is right.

I have been collecting notes for you from the team families and others, and will bring those that I have with me. I will continue to collect these as time goes by and pass them to you as appropriate. And, as previously mentioned, I will forward the memorial collection that the team puts together. I know that the Major is eager to provide you with anything you need communication and information-wise, and will move heaven and earth to contact you directly tomorrow. I hope that speaking to him will assist you in this terrible time.

Finally, it will be an honor to meet you both in person on Saturday and to properly express my own sentiments, as well as those of the Major, the other team members, and their families.

My warmest regards, Jill

 

I drove to Pennsylvania on that Friday for the services. It was a long, exhausting weekend, and on Monday I reported back to the rest of the families.

 

07 May 2007

Good morning all,

I am returned from the weekend’s journeys and wanted to pass along an update on Doc and tell you a little something of the services that were held in honour of the lieutenant.

Despite his continued recovery and improvement, Doc’s return to the states has been delayed for a few days/a week. He developed a very minor infection, so in an abundance of caution they have kept him in Germany to continue his recovery. He remains on a respirator and sedated, although I understand that this is to give him the rest his body needs to recover, and is not bad news. The parents travelled to Germany yesterday, arrived there this morning (EDT), and have been in to see their son. I spoke with the brother, who did not make the trip, and he let me know that, despite the difficulties associated with seeing their son in such condition, just being with him had provided them with a large measure of comfort. I am certain that Doc is aware, on some level, of their presence and that this will help him along as well. [The fiancée of one of the other Lieutenant’s] is stationed in Germany, and will do everything possible to get down to Landstuhl, while the parents are there, to visit with them and help, if necessary, in any way that she can. As soon as Doc returns to Bethesda I will make a trip down to see him. I will continue to keep you all as up to date as possible on his progress.

===

I would like to tell you as much about the services for [the Lieutenant] as possible. I hope I can do justice to the event, though I will admit that parts of it exceeded my comprehension at times, both in terms of the scale of support and love that was in evidence from the family and the local community, as well as in the magnitude of the effect that [he] clearly had on the wide universe of people who knew him.

Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to PA for the services marking his return home. However, I am attaching a link to the video of the event, so that you might share in it somewhat….

The services on Saturday began with the viewing. I will admit that I had a great deal of difficulty with that part, as I waited and was thinking of the events, and I must express how grateful I was to have the [liaison officer] who had been sent by the Advisory Training Group in Pendleton there with me — he went above and beyond to support and help me. As soon as I was introduced to [the Lieutenant’s parents], as well as [his] sister and her husband, they embraced me as family. I cannot tell you how humbled I was at their graciousness, at their thoughts for me during this incredibly difficult time for them. It is easy to understand how [the Lieutenant] became the man of character that he did given the qualities of the family in which he was raised.

I took this last moment with [the Lieutenant] to offer the farewells of his teammates, as well as those of the families who love and support the team. I let him know that Doc and the other Marine wounded were doing well and would recover from their injuries with few if any ill-effects. I told him that this was not how I had wanted to see him again — I had wanted to have the team to our house when they returned to Pendleton for a big dinner and some fun to celebrate their homecoming. I am certain, however, that he will be with us in spirit as we get together to mark the end of the deployment. I made certain that he knew that we would take care of the team during the second half of the deployment. I also assured him that we would also see to it that his family did not lack for the love and support we could provide them to help them through this very difficult time.

As the viewing period came to a close and we prepared to move to the Church for the services, more evidence of the magnitude of the event was in evidence. The legion of vehicles, bedecked in the flags of the Marine Corps and the Stars and Stripes was awe inspiring. As we made our way through the town it seemed that every person there was out on the streets to salute their fallen neighbor and show their support for the family. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom, the town a rare beauty of old and stately homes, there were American flags everywhere. At first I felt inappropriate for taking account of the beauty, but as I thought on it more, I realized that it was as it should be, that a force beyond our comprehension had intervened to provide a day and a scene worthy of the event and the people involved. [The Lieutenant] had clearly reported to his next duty station — in the parlance of the Marine Corps and the idea that fallen Marines guard the streets of heaven — and was already proving to be outstanding in his job and had made certain that all was taken care of.

The services held at the Church were a tribute to the character, faith, and personality of the Lieutenant. We were given glimpses into the parts of his life that reflected upon the totality of the man. There were moments of laughter, as humorous stories were related about him. There were moments of reverence, as the depths of his personality were revealed. There were moments of profound sadness as the reality of what had been lost became abundantly clear. The family and friends chosen to speak on his behalf were eloquent, offering such meaningful words of praise and insight into the life of someone who had clearly made a difference at every moment he had on this earth. There was not a person in the Church who was not touched by their offerings. I intend to get copies of these remarks so that I can send them to the team back in Fallujah, and I will try to provide them to you all as soon as possible.

In order to convey to you the scope of the procession to the cemetery, let me tell you that I have, on many occasions, followed the exact same route as I travelled from my home in New Jersey to Washington, DC. It is a very busy route that is filled with businesses and often congested with traffic. To imagine the efforts that went into allowing the free procession that must have stretched for several miles is a testament of the lengths to which the local authorities went to show their support of the family and to pay their respects to the Lieutenant. It seemed that every local fire and police department was out to pay their respects. At one point we passed under the arch of crossed ladders from two fire trucks — an image I will never forget. Again, scores and hundreds of people lined the route to pay their respects. As I looked upon the people in cars who were stopped to provide for the free passage of the procession I am certain that I could see their profound respect for what they were witnessing.

The burial ceremony was simple, and yet filled with all of the honours and traditions that the Marine Corps holds dear. There was a piper playing in the background as we arrived. We shared in the playing of Taps, by a lone bugler off in the distance, and the rifle salute. The detail of Marines there to assist in the ceremony fulfilled their duty with all of the honor and respect they knew was due to a fallen comrade. As I took a moment to thank them afterwards for their service, on behalf of the team back in Fallujah and their families, they offered with great humility and true emotion that they could think of nothing they would rather do. The ceremony ended with the bestowal of flowers upon the casket.

At the end of the long day, one filled with many tears and sad thoughts on such a tragic loss, the family and friends gathered at the [family] home to share a brief moment of lightness and perhaps a little joy, as they reflected upon all of the good things associated with [the lieutenant] and his life, the funny stories that made up the texture and fabric of his character, and the things that would be missed in his absence. I had the opportunity to speak with several of his friends, and they told me a little of the person he had been in his youth, and the effect that he had had on their lives. I also talked with a Marine, recently returned from Fallujah, who had served as part of the augment in personnel the team had received near the beginning of the deployment….Although he indicated that things were challenging for the team, and at times downright rough, that they were all doing very well, their spirits were as high as possible, and were comforted and deeply appreciative of all the support the families had provided.

To close, I would like to relate to you all that, as I spoke with [the lieutenant’s father] before leaving, he made certain that I know that the family remained committed to the team and wished to remain a part of our group until the end of this deployment — a sentiment echoed by every member of the family with whom I spoke. Despite having an inkling that this would be the case, I was still amazed at what it said about them that they maintained the willingness to partake of something that would, on many levels, remind them in such stark terms of their loss and pain….And, as they face the difficult of simply living with the new reality, I am certain that there is nothing the rest of us won’t do to help them out….

My best to all of you,

Jill

 

The funeral was closure for only one part of the event. The long and often painful recovery of the wounded personnel was the next challenge to face.

Returning to the Doc, initial optimism for his recovery would be eroded over the next several weeks as his body struggled to cope with the terrible trauma to which it had been subjected. However, just after the funeral these difficulties were in the future and at that moment we celebrated the good news that he would be returning to the States.

 

09 May 2007

It is my distinct pleasure to pass along some good news. This is the latest report from [our family member in Germany]:

//I went back down to Landstuhl today to see Doc one last time before they fly him back to the states and I am happy to announce that his is fully alert and breathing on his own. He looked really good, considering what he has just gone through. His parents were not there so I stayed and talked to him for a little while. Even though he is breathing on his own they still have the ventilator hooked up for supplemental oxygen only so he isn’t able to talk yet. He mouths words when he can but mostly writes everything down. It was good to see he has a sense of humor and one of the first things he asked about was the rest of the team. He told me he remembers everything about their encounter but he asked who died and if [my fiancé] got shot. For a brief moment I started tearing up on him as I had to tell him about the Lieutenant and [my fiancé’s] grazing. He wants me to tell the guys that he is doing well but he’s not coming back! I had to chuckle at that after he wrote it. I know you will tell the Major so he can pass it on to the others. I’m sure he will be doing even better by the time he gets to [Bethesda] and hopefully you will be able to make it down to visit. I just wanted to pass along this information so you could spread the good news. Well, I must get started on my school work, talk to you later.//

I will let you all know when he arrives in Bethesda and how to contact him there.

Best, Jill

 

During all this time I had known there was a third casualty. However, as he and a dozen or so other Marines from his unit had been attached to the team after deploying to Iraq I did not have any information on them. Finally, in the second week after the event I was able to track him down.

 

09 May 2007

Hello all,

So, I finally made contact with the other Marine (a Lance Corporal) wounded during the incident of 29 April. He is back in the states, recovering at [the hospital]. His direct dial phone number is…, I’d say give him a call if you want — I did, and he seemed to enjoy the contact. He is doing pretty well, all things considered, able to get up and move around, and his spirits seem appropriately high — relative to what has happened to him, of course. He’s not able to eat anything more than toast and liquids, so there is no need to send him food care packages. However, he picked up something of a Sudoku habit over in Iraq, and so would enjoy books of those, as well as magazines along the lines of National Geographic, Time, etc. Cards and flowers would also be welcome. (I checked, and he sheepishly said that flowers would be good.) He will be [at the hospital] for about two weeks, so take that into account when sending anything….I would assume that you can send things to him care of the hospital, but it might be worth making a call to double-check the addressing procedures.

As mentioned in the previous update on Doc, he is conscious, alert, and cracking jokes, albeit in writing. He will probably be flying back tomorrow – I will receive word when his departure is confirmed. For the purposes of sending things to him (same magazines as above, cards, and flowers), I would assume that delivery for Monday is a safe bet. I will try to get down there for Monday to visit with Doc and his family.

I think that’s it for now. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

All my best,
Jill

 

When the Doc finally arrived to Bethesda Naval Hospital in mid-May I flew to DC to visit with him and his family. I had, by this time, spent quite a lot of time on the phone and emailing them. The visit was more difficult than I let on in the message below. I had last seen him hale and hearty on the eve of the deployment. His wounds had transformed him utterly. And the strain upon his parents was, as a parent myself, almost too difficult to bear. As well, at the end of this message to the families, there is the reminder of the toll the losses had on the rest of the team.

 

21 May 2007

All,

I hope this finds you all doing well. My apologies for the time between postings, I didn’t even realize the time had passed — deployment brain, I suppose. However, I do have quite a bit of information to pass along.

On Doc – I travelled to Bethesda on Friday to visit with the Doc and his family. It was a tremendous pleasure to finally meet the family after the weeks of phone contact. I can’t express how valuable it was to me to have a chance to talk with Doc, about the team, about what happened, and so forth, both with him and  his family, and [with him alone] for the few moments we had while they were having dinner. As for his medical condition, considering where he started in this, he is doing remarkably well. There are still medical issues to deal with, and he remains in significant discomfort, but all of the medical personnel remain really pleased with his progress and entirely optimistic about his recovery. I would suggest that his biggest “problem” right now is the loss he is feeling at being separated from the team. Because of the small size of the original MTT (and even with the augments the team retains its “small unit/big family” feel), and how close they got with one another, separation from the team must be very difficult. I also suspect that, although he had worked with Marines before, this was the first time the Doc had been fully integrated into a unit – if we stick with the family metaphor, I suppose I would describe it as the difference between being a favorite cousin and being a brother. I have passed this impression along to the Major and he will make sure that Doc gets a call from someone on the team on a fairly regular basis. If you are searching for something to do for him I think that contact — mail, visits (to the extent that they are geographically feasible), or phone calls — would mean the world to him.

On the Lance Corporal: [He] has made remarkable progress. Rather than the two weeks he thought he would spend in the hospital at LeJeune, he was released to home care here in Rhode Island last weekend. On Wednesday we got together for coffee at his favorite local place…, a lovely spot right on the water — of course we remarked on how the locale could not possibly be more different from where he had just come. It was great to talk to someone who had just been with the team. Although he was a recent augment to the MTT, he had already gotten quite attached to it, and is very disappointed that he has lost the opportunity to continue to work with them. This weekend he suffered a minor setback…and was checked into the Newport Hospital. When I visited with him on Saturday he was waiting on a friend to bring him some food and griping about the hospital, so he is clearly doing quite well. I will check in with him today and continue to visit with him as long as we are here in Newport.

The Team: I had a letter from the Major this weekend that described how the team was coping with recent events. I’ll let his words tell their story — “It’s the day after our memorial service for [the Lieutenant]. I do feel like it provided some closure for us about all of the losses we took. The last week reminded me of a portion of one of the wolf shows we’ve watched. I recall the part where one wolf has died and there is no play in the pack for almost two weeks. It’s been like that around here since April 29th. Everyone still moved about their business but the smiles and joking around were gone. Shortly after the memorial, once we were back home I heard laughing in the other room. One of the new guys had done something dumb, I don’t even know what it was, but the guys were teasing him mercilessly. I knew then that we were moving along.”

 

Doc’s medical condition took a turn for the worse in the following weeks. The reality of the physical trauma from his wounds was more serious than initially expected. As well, the suffering of his family, of watching him in pain, of not knowing what would happen, was tremendous.

 

02 June 2007

Hello all,

I called down to Bethesda today — I had sent a package (cake and brownies, and a few other items), and I wanted to check on whether it had arrived. I had expected to have a nice little chat with Doc and his family. Unfortunately, in the last few days there have been complications with his condition. He has had a fever, is on a feeding tube, and is sleeping a fair bit. I neither want to be excessively morose and pessimistic, nor do I want to give the impression that this is insignificant. The fact of the matter is that his original injuries were extensive and serious, and the process of recovery is difficult (if not something just shy of miraculous). As for me, I refuse to believe that we have come so far in this not to have a good outcome. I spent a fair bit of time speaking with his mother, and while she is worried (she’s his mother, after all), she remains nothing but steadfast in her certitude that things will resolve themselves in a positive fashion, full stop.

I have let the Major know the situation….

Finally, I am certain that this will wear heavily on the guys, so reach out to them as well.

My best to you all,

Jill

 

They would continue in the vein through June, and it was only by July that the certainty of his recovery was a comfortable fact.

The Lance Corporal, though the least seriously wounded, struggled with his return home. Late one night he called me, in distress. He had gone out with friends and found civilian obliviousness a crushing contrast to his military and deployed experience. I knew the Lieutenant with whom he had served, so I wrote this message to him in Fallujah.

 

13 June 2007

Hello,

I hope this finds you doing well… or, well enough for a guy doing duty at “the Rock”. I suppose it would be terribly mean of me to tell you about the brilliantly mild spring we’re enjoying here in Newport — I don’t think we’ve gotten over 70 yet, and right now it’s almost chilly! Well, the weather in Pendleton should be nice for your return, so you have that to look forward to.

 Seriously, though, I wanted to let you know that [your Lance Corporal is] having a bit of a hard time being away from the unit. He called me just a little while ago, needing to talk to someone who had some sort of a clue — he’s feeling a bit guilty for not being there for you guys, and is generally pissed at the run of the mill selfish civilians. Anyway, if you can keep after him, giving him a call now and then, I think it would be good. If you could get [his buddy] to call, that would be good too. I’ll do what I can, but the Major’s wife is not quite the same thing as a fellow Marine.

Oh, and I had a good laugh over the ruckus my having him sit in the Major’s seat for dinner has caused. You guys are relentless!

Sorry to hear that you missed the birthday party… I hope you’ve given the Major a hard time about it!….

Best, Jill

 

I would continue to have the Lance Corporal to dinner throughout that spring, to include a birthday dinner. He tried to be annoyed that I had informed the team of his struggles with having been taken from them and sent home, but I have the distinct impression that was only for show.

Only gathered and stood up for the deployment, at the end the remaining members of the unit dispersed upon their return to Camp Pendleton back to their home units. [6] By that time Doc and the Lance Corporal were well on their paths to recovery. But the events and losses of that day in April will stay with them and their families always.

At the beginning of this piece I suggested that more people “should” be aware of this facet of war. Reflecting with the humility such events demand, I might correct that now to say that they deserve to know.

 

Notes:

[1] To give a sense of the significance of the event for the unit and the families, the core unit lost two of its original 11 members. The third casualty was from the ranks of the augmentees the unit received in country.

[2] In the first months of the deployment there was an issue with feeding. Ironic given that subsistence and logistics are the subjects of my dissertation. Essentially the FOB system could not serve them in their location, they could not get to the FOB regularly and the unit was not stood up with organic feeding capabilities. Putting this information out to the families and friends we more than compensated for the deficiencies with a deluge of care packages. A modern iteration of the Berlin Airlift. After about 3 months of ideas that did not work, the Marine command in Fallujah sent a messman from another unit to cook them one hot meal a day. I liked this old school solution.

[3] He was clear on his professionalism, emblematic in that he was field grade professional military education in the UK, and that although he had been wounded by Marines in Desert Storm he dismissed that as the cost of war and worked quite successfully with the training team and Marine units assigned to Fallujah.

[4] Ironically, I recall that weekend being particularly aggrieved to have to listen to a retired General opine – incorrectly, in my opinion and experience – on what affected the morale of military families. I may have had an exuberant conversation or two with colleagues at the conference about what general officers know of the home-front experience – less than most expect – and I still maintain that position.

[5] I have tried and failed to find an authoritative explanation for this term.

[6] Several months later more than half of them would volunteer to join another MTT deployment with the Major.

Russia has revealed a new main battle tank (MBT), representing the most significant modernisation of the Kremlin’s armoured fighting capabil

Livingstone Partners, an international M&A mid-market and Debt Advisory firm, recently co-hosted an Aerospace and Defence roundtable with the team at British Growth Fund. The lunch brought together the CEOs and MDs of some of the UK’s most dynamic mid-tier aerospace, defence

Russia has revealed a new main battle tank (MBT), representing the most significant modernisation of the Kremlin’s armoured fighting capabil

To further harmonise national practices, a voluntary Code of Conduct (CoC) on REACH Defence Exemptions was adopted last month by EDA Member States, as well as an associated technical Framework for Applying for a Defence Exemption from a Requirement of REACH. The Code of Conduct is now open for subscription to EDA participating Member States as well as third states having an Administrative Arrangement with the Agency.

The REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) regulation was adopted by the European Union in 2006 to improve the protection of human health and the environment from the risks that can be posed by chemicals, while enhancing the competitiveness of the EU chemicals industry. The Code of Conduct on REACH defence exemptions adopted last month sets as a common goal that Member States will fully support the objectives of REACH and provide for the highest safety and traceability standards possible when granting REACH defence exemptions. 

In parallel, Member States agree to establish on a voluntary basis suitable measures to acknowledge other Member States' exemption decisions in accordance with national law, as well as to make information on national procedures publicly available. The technical Framework aims to standardise, as far as reasonably practicable, national defence exemption procedures and provide an agreed set of minimum standards in order to guarantee a safety equivalent with the REACH requirements.

Harmonised approach

A harmonised approach towards national REACH defence exemptions will level the playing field for European defence industries by reducing their administrative burden and related costs. It will support the creation of an open and transparent European Defence Equipment Market and a capable European Defence Technological and Industrial Base, providing Armed Forces with the right defence equipment to meet their operational requirements.

 

More information

• EDA's project page on REACH
• EDA Code of Conduct (CoC) on REACH Defence Exemptions
• Annex to CoC - Framework for Applying for a Defence Exemption from a Requirement of REACH

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This year's OPVs and Surface Combatants Latin America 2015 event will explore partnership and business opportunities for global industry in the region. In particular, we shall examine topics intrinsic to the OPV and combat ship market such as shipbuilding capacity, systems design,

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The head of the U.S. Army in Europe has elaborated on plans to keep armoured equipment on NATO's eastern border as a warning to Russia that force

The head of the U.S. Army in Europe has elaborated on plans to keep armoured equipment on NATO's eastern border as a warning to Russia that force

Eight abductions of groups of people have been reported since late February by officials, activists or media as having targeted ethnic Hazaras. The first was also the biggest: the abduction of 31 bus passengers in Zabul on 23 February 2015. Other crimes ‘against Hazaras’ have been reported from Ghazni, Farah, Daikundi and Balkh. AAN’s Qayoom Suroush has been examining the incidents in detail to see if there is a new trend of targeting this ethnic group. He finds much of the reporting has been full of mistakes with assumptions relayed as fact. With the possible exception of the Zabul mass abduction, he finds little to back up a notion of a new trend of ethnic targeting, but does say the reporting points to how vulnerable many Hazaras feel.

On 23 February 2015, a group of gunmen stopped two buses driving from Herat province to Kabul as they passed through Shahjoy district of Zabul province and kidnapped several dozen of the passengers. One female passenger described later how the gunmen first collected all cell phones and national ID cards from the passengers, then separated males from females, then Hazaras from non-Hazaras, and finally took away 31 Hazara men, leaving the other passengers on the road. Another eyewitness, who also said that all the hostages were Hazaras, said the kidnappers had worn black masks and military uniforms and spoke Pashtu and Dari.

Two months later, the majority of abductees, possibly all, are still being held. Some reports  (see for example here) have talked about an old man having died because of the “cold weather” and one ANA soldier who was among the abductees having been found beheaded. (1) The public and the national and international media, almost in unison, have spoken of an incident deliberately aimed at Hazaras, even though the identities, motivation and goals of the kidnappers in fact remain unclear. But if the list of hostages is scrutinised, the assumption that all are Hazaras is not certain and the man who was beheaded – if this report is accurate – was not Hazara, but Tajik. Among the families of the hostages camped out in Zarnigar Park, protesting what they perceive as the government’s inadequate response, there is also a Tajik family who believes their son is among the Zabul hostages.

Allegations to be found in the many, often contradictory sources of information as to the aim of the kidnappers vary from the kidnappers wanting to target Shias to them  being Taliban and wanting to swap the hostages for prisoners. The Taleban have denied carrying out the abduction, though, and no other armed group has claimed the kidnapping. Some members of parliament from Zabul still told Tolo News that the passengers had been kidnapped with the help of Mansur Dadullah, a senior Taleban commander and brother of the notorious Mullah Dadullah who was killed in 2007. Mansur was reported to have joined the Islamic state group, operating from Zabul, but if he had, he is back with the Taleban, according to an interview he gave to Radio Tehran on 5 April 2015 in which he also denied having been involved in the kidnapping of the 31 passengers. He said that “foreign fighters who fled from Pakistan kidnapped the passengers” and wanted to exchange them for “family members” imprisoned by the government (interview in Pashto here). He did not mention the ethnic background of the passengers as being of importance.

This fits with what the chairman of the Zabul Provincial Council, Attaullah Haqparast, told Tolo News on 10 April 2015. He claimed the kidnappers had asked for a prisoner swap. He, too, said the kidnappers were “foreigners” and added, “We have sent our elders several times to the kidnappers, and their translator talked to us. They have demanded the release of twelve prisoners.” (Afghanistan’s National Security Council reportedly rejected the deal.)

Efforts to free the hostages seem to be stuck at the moment. Rescue operations by Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) have, so far, failed. After one mission launched at the beginning of March, Vice President Sarwar Danesh said the ANSF had killed more than 100 insurgents (including some foreigners) and arrested “the leader of the group responsible for the abduction,” whom he named as Mullah Abdullah Kakar. He gave no further information about the man’s political background or possible aims. However, none of the abductees were, in fact, released. Some Hazara elders and activists now claim that no such operation took place and that the government lied about both operation and arrest.

In the end, the evidence that Hazaras were specifically targeted comes from two passengers who were let go and who said the kidnappers had separated Hazaras from the non-Hazaras. This may have been due to ‘ethnic targeting’ – or they could have chosen the Hazaras because, for example, they have the weakest political and tribal lobby and any backlash against the kidnappers would be smaller. When, hopefully, the hostages are freed, things may become clearer.

The second incident: Qarabagh (Ghazni)

On 15 March 2015, another ‘Hazara kidnapping’ was reported, this time in Qarabagh district of Ghazni province (where about half of all citizens are Hazaras). Taleban stopped a car coming from Jaghori district (another Hazara-dominated district) and took ten passengers, all of whom were Hazaras. However, they released them only hours later, after the Taleban had interrogated the travellers and warned the women to wear “proper Islamic attire”, meaning burqas rather than the large headscarves or chadors favoured by many Hazara women. This kind of road block is common across the country, including in insecure Qarabagh district where there is little Afghan National Army (ANA) presence. With both districts having large Hazara communities, chances are that Hazaras will often face such incidents, but such road blocks also hit the local Pashtun population.

Nevertheless, soon after this incident, social media users and news agencies started speculating about Hazaras being systematically targeted, quickly jumping from assumption to ‘fact’. The Shia News Association, an Iran-based news agency, for example, tweeted about a “continuation of Hazara kidnappings.”

The third incident (Farah)

On 17 March 2015, another ‘Hazara kidnapping’ was reported, this time from Farah province. Tolo News said six Hazaras traveling from Herat were abducted by masked gunmen. However, according to Farah governor Asef Nang there had not been a kidnapping of Hazaras; rather, he said, Afghan soldiers “went missing” on the way from Farah to Herat province. He did not even want to confirm that the soldiers had been kidnapped (with the governor later speaking of only one abducted soldier). It also remains unclear how many of the potential victims were Hazara, with local media reporting, for example, four out of the six being Hazara (see here). It seems likely that if the six had indeed been abducted, insurgents took them because they were soldiers. AAN, talking to locals and security officials, could not find evidence for this incident being specifically Hazara-related.

The fourth incident: Daikundi

A few days later, on 25 March 2015, Afghan media reported another ‘Hazara kidnapping’, with the Taleban abducting “20 Hazaras” in Daikundi province as they travelled from Kandahar. On the same day, the Taleban rejected the report and said that they had only stopped the vehicle, not detaining anyone, because of the ongoing fighting between them and ANSF in the area and would allow the travellers to pass as soon as the area was safe. They did so on 28 March 2015.

At this point, the BBC also found out that the travellers who had been affected, had not been Hazaras, but rather (Shia) Baloch.

With much of the media apparently not noticing these at least contradictory details of the accounts available, reporting of the incident increased anxiety among Hazaras. One social media user wrote, “I ask all leaders to take action and stop such kidnappings. It is a tragedy that one ethnic group can be targeted like this in today’s Afghanistan.”

Incidents five to seven: Balkh, Sar-e Pul, Ghazni again

Since then, there have been five more incidents which appear to have been wrongly labelled as having deliberately targeted Hazaras, strengthening a picture of Hazaras being pursued despite a weak evidential basis. For example, on 30 March 2015, five men – who were indeed Hazaras – were reportedly kidnapped in Balkh province. However, as also portrayed by the BBC, it seems the victims were probably taken because they were known to be wealthy coal merchants. A provincial council member told AAN that the kidnapper, whom he alleged was a local illegal militia commander, had asked for a ransom. If true, there seems to have been no political or ethnically-motivated agenda behind the abduction.

The Killid Group reported 13 Hazaras as kidnapped in Sar-e Pul’s Balkhab district on 1 April 2015.  The Taleban released four of their hostages in early April and the remaining nine on 14 April 2015. The reasons for the abduction remain unclear, but AAN was told by members of the provincial council that the person who had initiated the abduction, the district’s Taleban shadow governor Hashim Quraishi, was Hazara himself. Local officials said, “Well, this kind of thing happens all the time.” (As an example of “this kind of thing” happening “all the time”, armed men, kidnapped 12 people on 11 January 2015 in Sar-e Pul  and, after killing two of them, released the rest. However, as ‘Hazara kidnaps’ were not yet on the radar, the ethnic identities of the hostages were not reported at the time.)

Another reported ‘Hazara kidnapping’ on 1 April 2015, again in Ghazni’s Qarabagh district, involved a group of gunmen stopping two cars with 20 passengers – who were indeed Hazara – and taking them hostage for a day. However, it transpired that the travellers were random victims taken with the aim of creating leverage over the police. Before the kidnapping, a local girl had delivered herself to the police and been taken to a shelter in neighbouring Jaghori district. It is not clear why the girl had sought shelter, but the hostages were released after police brought her back to her family (leading one to wonder about the current situation and the safety of the girl; read AAN’s reports on domestic violence and the role of the authorities here).

The eighth incident

Finally, the most recent ‘crime against Hazaras’ was reported on 14 April 2015 in Ajrestan district of Ghazni province, a Pashtun district surrounded by largely Hazara-populated areas, including Jaghori district, Nawur district and Daikundi province. Four Hazaras (from Malestan district) were kidnapped and, soon after, killed. AAN spoke to local Hazaras in Malestan who said they were at a loss as to why such a thing had happened, “We have not had tensions between Pashtuns and Hazaras here in 25 years,” they said. Here too, the perpetrators appear to have had goals other than ethnically-motivated ones. Ghazni’s deputy governor, Muhammad Ali Ahmadi, told Deutsche Welle that the Taleban had taken the four as leverage in an attempt to negotiate the release from jail of their commander and his men, who had been arrested the day before in Jaghori district. The Taleban released a statement condemning the killing and rejecting any involvement, though. They blamed “Kabul’s spies,” meaning the NDS, of trying to “cause ethnic and sectarian violence.”

Routine behaviour for the Taleban

So, what to make of this series of incidents? From what the Afghan media and activists have reported, one could construct a coherent picture of systematic violence against Hazaras (see for example here, here and here). The Wall Street Journal said on 20 April 2015 that “Afghanistan has largely been spared the sectarian strife that plagues other parts of the Muslim world, but many Hazaras see the kidnapping as an indication they, too, now are a target.” And the New York Times wrote, on 22 April 2015:  “A wave of kidnappings followed by numerous beheadings of members of Afghanistan’s Hazara ethnic group have spread alarm and anger among a people who historically have been this country’s most persecuted.” But this picture is both misled and misleading.

Take the NYT piece for example. The piece was headlined, “Taliban are said to target Hazaras to try to match ISIS’ brutality”. Yet, its report that the four men from Malestan (case eight) had been beheaded (its source for this was the Ghazni police) does not seem to have been true. AAN was told by family members and neighbours, who had buried the four men on Monday, that the corpses were intact. They had not been beheaded they said: “They were simply shot.” The New York Times article also claimed an additional case of brutality against Hazaras: six men from Daikundi who were ‘found dead’ in Ajirestan district.  However, none of the security officials, local journalists, residents and two MPs from Daikundi contacted by AAN had heard of any killing in the province in recent weeks.

There also appears to be some problem with the sampling. Strangely, the incidents claimed as Hazara-targeted are mostly kidnappings. If Hazaras were indeed being targeted, there would surely be other, less personnel-intensive and more varied opportunities of harm, such as drive-by shootings, assassinations or robberies. In general, it is not unusual for Taleban to stop and hold travellers – of all ethnicities – and interrogate and search them. Doing so, they usually try to identify those who are earning their living as soldiers or government officials, or others associated with the state. It also serves as a convenient way to generally intimidate the civilian population, projecting the Taleban’s power over people’s daily lives. There have been, over the years, many examples of such incidents – including on the road that featured in two of the recent incidents, the insecure Qarabagh road to Jaghori district of Ghazni, which locals call “a nightmare.” In short, the reported ‘Hazara kidnappings’ in Qarabagh on 15 March 2015, in Farah on 17 March 2015, in Daikundi on 25 March 2015 and in Sar-e Pul on 1 April 2015 look to be fairly routine behaviour for the Taleban and carried out regardless of the ethnicity of travellers.

And then, of course, there have been other, similar incidents over the past months – whether  insurgent, criminal or personal – that hit Pashtuns or Tajiks or Uzbeks. Two recent ‘non-Hazara kidnappings’ were the five – Pashtun – NGO workers killed on 10 April in Uruzgan (reason yet unknown) and the 19 staff (ethnicity not reported) of a demining NGO kidnapped by a group of armed men in Paktia because, AAN was told by one source, they had been clearing an area that the Afghan government wanted to use for a future military camp. Two days later the deminers were released.

Scrutinising the individual incidents which activists and media are citing, there seems to be, for now, no evidence that Hazara are being systematically targeted (the Zabul abduction of the 31 bus passengers is the only case where it seems Hazaras may have been targeted, but even there the initial motivation and the goal of the kidnappers remains unclear).

Yet the fear is real

However, the reaction to the reporting – and sometimes the reporting itself – clearly shows that Hazaras feel very vulnerable. Hazaras generally live in areas where traveling means navigating passes through high, otherwise impassable mountains and through areas where other groups predominate. Hazaras are easily identifiable and, although there are some Sunni and Ismaili Hazaras, the group is largely perceived as Shia. Afghanistan has experienced ethnic-based bloodshed in the past during the war, with Hazaras as both victims and perpetrators – although sectarianism of the kind seen in Pakistan, Iraq and now Syria has been rare. Nevertheless, there is a  fear that insurgents and other groups might change tactics.

The reasoning sounds like this: The Taleban, although currently presenting themselves as a national movement for all Afghans regardless of sect or ethnicity, are largely made up of Sunni Pashtun mullahs. Also, this year has seen an increase in foreign fighters moving into Afghanistan after Pakistani operations drove them out of their stronghold in North Waziristan last summer. These fighters tend to be more vicious and more reckless than the Taleban (it is not their country, after all) and potentially more sectarian-minded. The savagely sectarian Islamic State might also gain ground in the country (although, see AAN reporting here on how the Daesh threat has so far been overblown). Moreover, other countries in the region with previously harmonious intra-ethnic and intra-sect relations (such as Syria and Yemen) have recently descended into bloody, sectarian chaos.

The recent trend of reporting kidnappings as aimed at Hazaras , for the moment, appears to say less about the actual dynamics and trends within the insurgency (or among criminal elements), but a great deal about how vulnerable Hazaras feel about their safety.

 

(1) More recently, a video clip with the logo of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) was released that shows two masked men beheading an Afghan Army soldier and asking the government to respond to what they say is their demand or they will kill all hostages. Some news agencies like BBC World reported the soldier was one of the Zabul hostages, although the IMU fighters do not specifically mention the 31 hostages or indeed specify their demand to the government. It is also not clear if the beheaded soldier, who was from Andarab district of Baghlan province, was among the 31 hostages. He was certainly not Hazara. After the linking of this murder to the Zabul hostages, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) swiftly said the soldier had not been among the Zabul hostages.

Alongside the establishment of AFRICOM, the United States and other Western nations have placed greater focus on a “long war” against terrorism, which involves bolstering weak and failing states so that governments possess the security and public confidence to stave off gra

Jorge Domecq, EDA Chief Executive, today travelled to Cyprus for discussions with the Cypriot Minister of Defence, Christoforos Fokaides on the preparation of the European Council in June 2015 and Cyprus’ participation in EDA projects. During the visit Cyprus confirmed its participation in the Agency’s EU Satcom Market pooled procurement initiative for commercial satellite communications. Mr. Domecq also held discussions with the Cypriot Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ioannis Kasoulides. 

“I would like to underline my satisfaction for the productive meeting we had today with the Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency. I had the opportunity to reiterate our firm will to further enhance our contribution and support to the common initiatives and efforts of the Agency. The signing today of the Satcom Market Joint Procurement Arrangement is just an indication of this. In addition, we have also agreed today to co-organise an important Maritime Security Conference here in Cyprus next November which reflects the emphasis that we want to attribute in this field but also the role that Cyprus can play”, stressed Minister Fokaides.

“Satellite communications are a scarce and investment-intensive capability. The Agency’s approach to pool Member State’s demand of commercially available satellite communications aims to reduce costs, ease access, and improve operational efficiency. There are only advantages for Member States, since they only pay what they use at the best price and when needed. This is why I welcome Cyprus’ decision”, stressed Jorge Domecq during his visit in Cyprus. 

EU Satcom Market

Commercial satellite communications are used by all nations to provide extra capacity on top of their own military and governmental satellite communications. The EU Satcom Market provides a flexible and cost-effective way of doing this, with the European Defence Agency acting as the central purchasing body for all participating countries. So far, Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxemburg, Poland, Romania, and the United Kingdom take part in the project. Since the launch of the project, 20 orders have been processed through this procurement cell, for a total value of about 2.5 million euros. Member States are already forwarding their requirements for 2015 and it is expected that their interest and usage will increase significantly.

Visit to Member States

The visit in Cyprus also allowed for meetings with other high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Defence, as well as briefings about the armed forces of Cyprus and research initiatives. It is part of a series of visits by Mr. Domecq to all EDA Member States following his appointment as EDA Chief Executive and ahead of the Ministerial Steering Board on 18 May 2015. So far, Mr. Domecq visited Spain, Lithuania, Latvia, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands, Ireland, France, Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, Estonia, Poland, Slovenia and Greece. 

More information:

• Project page EU Satcom Market
• Link to Cypriot Ministry of Defence 
• News "Chief Executive meets Hungarian Minister of Defence" (23 April 2015)
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• News "Jorge Domecq in Poland for defence discussions"(20 April 2015)
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• News "Slovenia welcomes Jorge Domecq" (15 April 2015)
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• News "EDA Chief Executive visits Lithuania" (17 Feb 2015)