HS Kandaharissa
Kaisa Rautaheimo HS, teksti
Outi Pyhäranta HS, kuvat ja videot
”Miksi ihmeessä haluatte matkustaa sinne?”, Talebanin ulkoministerin edustaja ihmettelee.
Olemme Afganistanin pääkaupungin Kabulin keskustassa sijaitsevassa Taleban-hallinnon ulkoministeriössä pyytämässä lupaa raportoida maasta.
Suunnitelmana on matkustaa Kandaharin maakuntaan.
”Teistä ei pidetä siellä. Heille te olette miehittäjiä. Teitä ei tulla kohtelemaan hyvin”, ulkoministeriön edustaja jatkaa.
Jos jonnekin Afganistanin sota tiivistyy niin Kandaharin maakuntaan ja sen vieressä sijaitsevaan Helmandiin. Maakunnat toimivat Nato-johtoisen kansainvälisen liittouman ja Taleban-liikkeen välisten ankarien taisteluiden päänäyttämönä lähes 20 vuoden ajan.
Tdue to the security threat, Helsingin Sanomat has not visited civilians in the area for 15 years.
In the aid organizations’ security maps, almost the entire province has glowed red – as a high-risk area – since the early years of the 2000s.
Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban movement, and the movement’s support has always been strong in the southern provinces.
Currently, the ministries are located in the official capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, but the real top leadership of the country is now based in Kandahar.
Taliban policemen patrol the streets of Kandahar.
Afghans tend to say that whoever rules Kandahar rules the whole country.
During the 20-year war, the southern provinces saw the highest number of international coalition soldiers die. It was also where the most civilians died, tens of times more than coalition soldiers. No one knows the exact number.
The area was important to the NATO-led operation, because it was believed that if the south could be pacified, a new direction could be found for the entire country.
NATO failed in its mission, and one province after another surrendered to the Taliban exactly one year ago.
Now the Taliban movement is stronger than ever. For the first time, it has almost the entire country under its control. The coup has been followed by a catastrophic economic collapse, and the new administration has severely limited women’s rights in particular.
Ruined villages are a reminder of the fighting in Maiwandi County.
PA few kilometers from the village of Baizy towards the main road, our driver stops the car in the middle of the dusty desert. Here it was, he says.
In front of our eyes is a small hill, on top of which you can see a piece of concrete fence, a couple of sandbags, and not much else.
This was the base of the foreign soldiers.
According to information provided by NATO to HS, it was held by the US military.
Judging from the tracks, the base was several hundred meters in size in one direction.
Based on open data, the name of the base was COP Terminator and it has been active between 2008 and 2019.
Now everything has been stolen, down to the sandbag.
The locals whisk us away from the ruins. They don’t want the Taliban soldiers to notice our presence.
Abandoned and looted base by foreign powers in the middle of the desert in Maiwandi County.
AThe international coalition formed to stabilize Afghanistan is one of the largest military alliances since World War II.
NATO took over the operation in 2003, when its mandate expanded to cover the entire security of Afghanistan.
The goal of the operation was the reconstruction of the country and the support of Afghanistan’s own newly formed army.
Military vehicles are transported on truck flatbeds. The international coalition left a lot of equipment in Afghanistan, which now belongs to the Taliban’s Ministry of Defense.
At the same time, the United States had its own mission in Afghanistan: eradicating international terrorism.
In the eyes of the common people, they were all the same.
The resources of both operations were spent on the war against the Taliban, especially in the southern provinces.
In retrospect, one of the biggest mistakes of the NATO-led international alliance has been considered to be that it tried to eradicate something that could not be eradicated.
The Taliban is part of Afghan society. The movement should have been included in the country’s administration when it was at its weakest in the early 2000s.
The ring road from Kandahar to Helmand was life-threatening during the war
Farhad dawari works as the dean of political studies at the second largest university in Kandahar.
“They destroyed this country. They violated international law. They came for themselves, even though they said they were protecting human rights and building peace,” Dawari says when I ask him about the success of the NATO operation.
Under the previous administration, he worked for the election committee in Kabul. Such work is no longer needed in the Taliban’s one-party system.
Farhad Dawari, dean of political studies, sees the future as bleak.
In Dawar’s opinion, the faculty he leads should right now be doing research on the NATO operation and its consequences, but under the current administration it is not possible.
Independent information has no value and the new administration must not be viewed critically.
Dawar’s gaze is dark. He says he feels the future is hopeless.
“This society takes steps backwards every day.”
With the new administration, the number of students in political studies has dropped by half.
Families cannot afford to pay tuition fees. Many educated people have left the country. It is almost impossible for a social scientist to find work under the Taliban regime.
End of semester exams are in progress at the university.
21-year-old political studies student Alina snorts at the instructional board defining women’s clothing.
She flashes her high heels under her long dress.
“I act as I want.”
Alina started studying social sciences three years ago with the dream of becoming a politician.
Alina’s last semester at the university starts in the fall.
Three years ago, he started studying social sciences with the dream of a career as a politician.
Now everything seems impossible.
Although Alina’s life under the previous regime was unsafe, she felt she was freer.
Now life is limited to home and university, between which Alina travels accompanied by her brother.
However, she wants to stay in her home country and fight for her own and other women’s rights.
Alina’s war has just begun.
Kaisa Rautaheimotext
Outi Pyhärantapictures and videos
Virve Kähkönentext editing
Janne Elkkivideo editing
Petri Salméngraphics
Taru Ukkolalayout
PUBLISHED 13.08.2022 © Helsingin Sanomat
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