Interview with Afghan students
Dr Quasim is the director of an the English language department
of an Afghan college in Peshawar.
A polite, friendly man in his mid thirties, he escorts me round three classes
in the college to discuss with the students their views on the war across the
border in their homeland.
In each of the classes, there are around 20 students and a teacher. All of the
classes are mixed, and one of the teachers is a young woman, Dr Neelo.
To open the discussion, I put questions to Dr Neelo in front of the students,
She speaks with forceful eloquence of her hatred of the Taliban and her anger
at the destruction of her country by the West,
"I am here in Pakistan because of the Taliban," she says. "But
the Taliban is our problem. What happens in our country is for us to solve,
not for America or anyone else,
"Now the whole world, not just America is against us,
" We have no food, we have no clothes, we have no education, we have no
culture, we have no work,
"But we don’t want rice or clothes from other countries – we want peace,
Because if we have peace, we will produce our own rice and our own clothes.
"For 24 years my country has been at war, we have not had a day of peace.
I say to the United Nations: Leave our country alone, Please leave us in peace."
Every one of these students has family and friends back in Afghanistan and they
fear for their safety. One student, Fareed, says:
"Early this morning my friend came to me. He told me his brother was killed
by a bomb in Mazar-e-Sharif.
"Today he went to Afghanistan just to bring to Pakistan his brother’s family
- his children and his widow - because now they do not have anyone to feed them.
"But there is a lot of problems on the border. The people in charge of
the border do not allow Afghan people to cross into Pakistan. So he will find
another way, not over the road but over the mountains."
He was extremely upset, he was even crying."
Fareed argues that "Osama and the Talibans are living in such places that
they will never be bombed, even in a whole lifetime of bombing. But the common
people are dying under these bombs."
I ask in all the classes if anyone has any sympathies with the Taliban. Dr Ghairat
says: "We are all Talibs, The word Talib just means students but the Taliban
have stolen the name.
"We have no sympathy for them, They have destroyed our country. But America
is not killing the Taliban, They are killing common people who hate the Taliban,"
Another student describes the actions of America and Britain as "cowardly
and cruel". He says: "The Afghan people, we are a poor people. It
is not right that a rich country attacks poor people in our country,"
With her voice trembling with anger, a female student says:
"Bus does not even know where Osama is. He just kills our people and destroys
our country.
If Osama was responsible for September 11 he is a terrorist. But Bush, he is
also a terrorist/
"he just wants revenge. He just wants to kill our people,
"This is not human, The United Nations should never allow America to carry
out these attacks."
Many of the students do not believe that Osama bin Laden was responsible for
September 11. They say that Osama lives thousands of miles away from America,
and that there are no phones or or other means of communication in Afghanistan,
"Why have they never presented proof of his guilt to the Afghan people."
Says one young man. " If they cannot provide proof, how can they expect
us to believe he was involved?"
Another student insists that America just wants to take control of Afghanisatn,
like the Russiands before them.
"But Afghan people will never be slaves. Pakistan and other countries have
submitted to to America, but Afghanistan will never submit. We will never accept
slavery."
These students are by no stretch of the imagination religious extremists. Male
and female students denounced the oppression of women by the Taliban. In contrast
to most women in Peshawar, the female students here wore no veils over their
faces.
Yet all of the students spoke with passion and fury of their hatred of the rulers
of the West who in their eyes are mass murderers, just the Taliban with more
ferocious weapons at their disposal.
They thanked me warmly for coming to Peshawar under dangerous circumstances
to listen and report back the Afghan people’s side of the story.
As one student said: "Your BBC, it never talks to us. It talks to Americans,
to Northern Alliance, but never to the ordinary Afghans."