AFGHAN TRANSLATORS LIVE IN FEAR AND MISTRUST

It was midday 5 May when Azizullah received a devastating phone call about the death of his 24-year-old son Sardar Mohammad, who was a translator with foreign forces in the southern Kandahar Province.

“They [foreign forces] told us that he was killed in a Taliban’s ambush in Chora District in Urozgan Province but we doubt it,” the bereaved father said adding that his son could had been killed “purposely” or “mistakenly” by his employers.

“He was hit in the heart with one bullet and was bleeding freshly when we received his coffin,” he said.

As with other similar cases the government did not launch a criminal or judicial investigation and his parents did not even know if they had a right to demand an impartial inquiry into their son’s death.

No one at NATO’s regional command in Kandahar Airfield was available to comment on Mohammad’s death and NATO’s spokespersons in Kabul refused to talk about the subject.

When Mohammad was offered the translation job in 2007 his family fled to Pakistan because they feared Taliban insurgents would harm them. The insurgents widely target people who work for foreign forces and the government.

Vulnerable

Hundreds of Afghans, mostly young males, work as interpreters and language assistants with over 120,000 foreign forces stationed in Afghanistan. They earn about US$400-1500 monthly based on their contract type and job location which could be a military base or a combat zone.

While the insurgents are their arch enemies several translators interviewed for this report expressed deep concerns about mistreatment and risks they faced from their own employers.

“They don’t trust us and if they find out anything suspicious about a translator his life will be in hell,” said an Afghan working for NATO forces in Wardak Province who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“We are not trained to be fighters and soldiers but they take us to front lines where god knows who kills who,” said another interpreter who used a pseudonym, Jalil.

“Our live is cheap, cheaper even than an insurgent’s life,” whined another translator.

Whether a misunderstanding or a reality such grievances have sometimes led to tragic events.

A “"disgruntled” Afghan interpreter reportedly shot dead two US soldiers before he was gunned down on 30 January in Wardak Province.

NATO’s press office in Kabul said it could not comment on the issue due to its sensitive and “classified” nature.

Unknown casualties

Over 1,780 foreign troops have died in Afghanistan since November 2001, according to a tally, but the number of local interpreters killed and maimed during their work for international forces is unknown.

NATO said it did not know how many of its local language assistants were killed over the past eight years.

“We have started tracking translators’ casualties since March [2010],” said Kevin Bell, a NATO spokesman in Kabul.

Ironically the translators are not protected by the country’s labour law and their work contracts are only managed by private companies which deliver human resource services to NATO and US forces in Afghanistan.

“Afghans working for foreign military forces, embassies and UN agencies are not covered by the labour law,” said Mohammad Ghaws Bashiri, deputy minister of the Ministry of Labour, Martyrs and Social Affairs.

“We don’t deal with their work and contractual disputes,” he said.

However, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said the government must enforce a low to protect its citizens employed by external civilian or military actors.

“They must have access to legal protection and their rights, privileges and safety measures must be legally transparent and respected by their employers,” said Fareed Hamidi, a commissioner at the AIHRC adding that the translators’ work conditions must be humane and civilian.

Translators said they were entitled to a life insurance scheme which pays a sum to the family of a fallen translator (provided the death is during duty and meets all regulatory measures).

Dozens of interpreters recruited by the US military have been granted residence in the US over the past three years and Canada has announced it will provide special immigration services to some of the translators employed by its military in Kandahar Province in 2010-2011.

Big news no coverage

Kabul-based foreign journalists have missed a very important issue which has been taking place over the past three days!

It seems the world’s top TV channels, newspapers and online outlets are deliberately overlooking the ongoing strike at the Wolesi Jirga (lower house of the National Assembly) because reporting it could offend Karzai. Mr. Karzai was reassured in Washington last week that he would have a lapdog media.

The MPs are on a democratic strike against Karzai’s prolonged failure to introduce nominees for 11 ministries. Karzai has appointed the very same individuals as “care-taking ministers” who were rejected by Wolesi Jirga. According to a law recently adopted by the parliament ‘a care-taker minister can only work for no more than a month’ but the Karzai Argg does not buy the law.

Almost seven months have gone by since Karzai re-inaugurated himself but half of his cabinet is throng with ‘care-takers’.

A Taliban suicide attack usually makes breaking news and headlines unwittingly feeding dangerous propaganda. However, democracy and big democratic events hardly reach to editors’ desks in London and New York.

The problem is with this approach the Taliban are our news-makers and opinion-dividers.

Washington’s second bad choice: Dr. Abdullah

Washington has only concluded the glitzy and formal part of its hospitality to Afghan politicians but the informal and behind-the-doors meetings are still ongoing.

Almost the same policy-makers who held lengthy discussions with Hamid Karzai last week are now listening to Dr. Abdullah’s rants.

On Tuesday Washington Times ran a story on Abdullah’s malicious predictions on a number of issues including the upcoming Consultative Peace Jirga and talks with the Taliban.

Unsurprisingly Dr. Abdullah looks at every issue from his ethno-negativistic prism.

I am not astonished to see the Abdullah who tried to deceive some people with his fake Pashtun identity card during the presidential election is now a staunch and vocal Panjshiri (in fact a Shora-e-Nezaree).

He welcomed Karzai’s choice for the IEC only because Mr. Manawi is a Panjshiri and a Shora-e-Nezaree but he fiercely demanded all the key Pashtun ministers (defense, interior, education and finance) to be sacked in October 2009.

Abdullah is not short of ills and evils which I don’t want to focus here. I would like here to protest another of Washington’s historic mistake in my country which I fear will have grave consequences for us.

For over eight years we have been suffering and losing precious opportunities under a Karzai-centric US engagement in Afghanistan. As Karzai reaches to end of the show – or in order to have a B-plan in case Karzai dies – Dr. Abdullah is steadily making headway into corridors which led Karzai to the Argg.

This is wrong. Abdullah is by no means better than Karzai but has several worse factors.

Abdullah is not and should not be the future of Afghanistan unless the plan is to push the country from bad to worse.

The untold truth behind Hazara-Kuchi conflict

Why are Kuchi herders unwelcomed in Behsud, Bamyan and other areas in the Central Highlands where Hazaras make the majority of settlers?

The Kuchis flock to almost all other parts of the country where they are not treated as “invaders” or “Pashtun terrorists”.

Over the past five years seasonal pasture-related tensions in Behsoud have often erupted into dangerous ethnic conflicts as both Kuchis and Hazaras blame each other for repression and wrongdoing.

Hazars say Kuchis storm into their agriculture fields, inflict damages and disappear.

Kuchis say their traditional right to “public” grazing lands has been denied by Hazaras and in some instances local Hazara strongmen have grabbed their legitimate properties.

This is only a fake face of the problem.

As you go deep into the issue, listen to kingpins and use some intelligence the underlying truth goes into two directions: A) corruption, and B) ethno-politics.

A) Blessed with free and flooding dollars the Karzai regime earmarked over 160 million Afghanis (about US$31 million) to compensate warring parties (affected Kuchis and Hazaras) in 2009. Most of the money ended up in the criminal coffers of prominent ethnic power-brokers and government officials. However, the regime has failed to buy peace and accord with corrupto-dollars and the profiteers have re-orchestrated another violent drama again.

B) Tehran has brainwashed many Hazara leaders and activists with the idea of “an independent Hazaristan” – another Shia state in the region. Maps showing the Central Highlands, Daikundi and parts of Urozgan as a sovereign Shia/Hazara state have been produced to inspire the powerful Hazara leaders. Purging the region from non-Hazaras is a prerequisite for the ideal Hazara country. The U.S. foreign policy, undoubtedly, is pro-minority and Hazaras strongly believe they are following the path of Iraqi Kurds.

How a landlocked Hazaristan will live in a landlocked Afghanistan is a question Hazara protagonists need to ponder about.

What’s Karzai doing in U.S. barracks?

Karzai and McChrystal are buddies definitely. The top U.S. general has accompanied Mr. Karzai in his almost all provincial travels over the past few months; sitting legs-crossed, drinking tea and listening to Karzai through his interpreter. McChrystal has studied the embattled Afghan leader more than any other U.S. official in Kabul.

His spontaneous public apologies after every major civilian casualty incident involving international forces and indeed a major reduction in NATO’s notorious air strikes (which has reportedly decreased civilian deaths attributed to NATO) have made McChrystal a favorable figure.

In an unprecedented gesture of friendship Karzai popped into McChrystal’s dual headquarters – NATO’s HQ in central Kabul and U.S. (non-NATO) command center in Bargram Airfield – over the past one month.

Through these visits Karzai has tried to re-assure Washington that he’s not lost his mind totally to seek a new patron in the region. He just wants to say he does not like diplomats and envoys pressing him on corruption and inept but likes to work with non-critical generals.

“Don’t criticize me! Cherish me and I’m all your guy!” is what Mr. Karzai telling Washington.

Well-taken Mr. Karzai! Ambassadors Holbrook and Eikenberry have got their lessons and are not going to displease you in future. You’re status has been elevated to that of Hosni Mubarak and other U.S.-backed dictators in the Muslim world.

What for us in Karzai-Obama row?

Despite his groundless tirades, Karzai is defiantly the winner of recent Washington-Kabul war of words as he has been increasingly cherished by U.S. officials.

Ironically a military commander, Gen. MacChrystal, has played far better diplomacy in Kabul than the veteran diplomat Richard Holbrook. MacChrystal knows well how fond of commending is Karzai so he has all the sweets in his shop to keep the incompetent President pleased.

Just as Afghanistan is bound to its unfriendly geographic neighborhood Washington feels obliged to work with Karzai, no matter how ineffective or even harmful he could be.

Ice is melting between Argg and the White House and a victorious Karzai expects no “No!” but all “Yes!” during his May 12th visit to Washington.

Unsurprisingly and despite his displeasure President Obama seems ready to keep issuing “blank cheques” to Mr. Karzai, as did his predecessor.

Looking at Mr. Karzai’s shrewd skills in selling his inept, corrupt and criminal presidency to Washington makes me wonder why this man cannot, or does not want to, play his talents for his country?

Karzai deserves a strong bravo at least for his well-played survival tactics.

As corruption, warlordism and bad-governance win over democracy and good governance I feel sad for our generation’s unending miseries under a government loved by outsiders but disliked by most of us.

What have we, ordinary Afghans, achieved from this? Who is speaking for us in Kabul and Washington?