Let American firepower win back our homes, say Afghans

THE prospect of American bombs falling on Afghanistan was welcomed yesterday by Afghan refugees and migrants living in neighbouring Iran, many of whom have families still living in Taliban-controlled areas.

On the building sites and backstreets of Teheran, young Afghans vowed to return home and fight. Their older compatriots expressed their grief at being unable to return home to rescue their families after Iran sealed its border against a new wave of refugees.

Iran, which is desperate to avoid being dragged into a fresh war, has shown alarm at the surging emotions among its normally downtrodden Afghan underclass. It has warned Afghan opposition groups against trying to raise an anti-Taliban force from among the exiles.

There are more than two million Afghans in Iran, some as refugees and some as illegal migrants. They do work shunned by local people as too dirty or too ill-paid.

Until the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington brought America into the equation, many had despaired of ever overthrowing the Taliban. But now the prospect of US firepower has stirred up hope, as well as fear.

Young Afghans working as labourers in a wealthy Teheran suburb said they were listening every night, with mounting excitement, to the BBC World Service.

Hafiz, a 21-year-old builder, said he left his native Panjshir valley three months ago, shortly after his older brother was killed fighting under Ahmad Shah Massoud, the recently assassinated opposition commander.

An incongruous, scrawny figure, overshadowed by the high-walled millionaires' villas, Hafiz declared: "Before the attack on New York, I didn't want to go back to Afghanistan.

"There was no hope for the opposition. But now, maybe there is a chance to end this." He added: "If it's the Americans, I don't care. I would be proud to be killed by an American bomb, and my family too, if it finished the Taliban."

Hassan, another young Afghan on the same building site, yearned to see his family in Kabul, from whom he had no recent news. But first, he said, he would have to wait to grow the long beard demanded by the Taliban, who have declared shaving un-Islamic.

"The Taliban put you in prison if your beard doesn't stick through when they clutch it with a fist," he said, demonstrating with a dusty hand to his chin.

Many Afghan refugees, Hafiz and Hassan among them, have ethnic reasons to hate the Taliban, whom they accuse of repressing the country's Tajik, Hazari and other minorities. One diplomat cited reports that Afghan refugees, especially ethnic Tajiks, were "girding their loins" for conflict.

He said: "There is a lot of strength of feeling among Afghans." Though Iran also hates the Taliban, it has taken steps to avoid being dragged into its neighbour's war.

Gholam-Hossein Nasseri, a spokesman for the Wahdat Islam Party of Afghanistan, said individual refugees might "personally" want to fight. But he insisted that there was no organised recruiting or arming of warriors within Iran.

He said: "We live here under the laws of Iran. The Iranians have told all the Afghan parties, 'do not organise fighters'."

Iran has also sealed all crossing points along its long border with Afghanistan, leaving only hazardous routes used by drug and people-smugglers.

Hashem, living illegally with five other Afghans in the windowless basement of a Teheran apartment block, was frightened for his wife and children, left behind in the eastern Afghan city of Ghazni.

He said: "I have two sons, one of them 10 years old and the other two. I last heard from my wife a month ago. But the border is closed, and I don't have enough money to pay to get across and bring them here."

Hashem, a battered-looking 40-year-old, fought Russian invaders in his youth but now he is ready to see foreigners attack his country once more.

He said: "We are tired, tired of everything. It doesn't matter who defeats the Taliban - the west, the north, south or east. We just want change."

In spite of stories like this one, the America-haters throughout the world say that the whole problem is caused by American oppression of Muslims. Of course, the same people didn't mind when the Soviet Union oppressed the Muslims in Afghanistan.

WFTR
Something that Hasn't Changed (Stop Blaming America!).
Bill

Good post I heard the same thing directly from a Christian relief worker and his Doctor wife who have spent a great deal of time in afganistan. Recently limited to the north which is not under taliban control.

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