Interview: “My Afghanistan – Life in the Forbidden Zone”



The insurgents in southern Afghanistan are different groups fighting under one umbrella – the Taliban organisation. My experience is that most of the insurgents in southern Afghanistan are driven by more than ideological reasons. Some fight because of tribal rivalries with the authorities like the police and district governors, while others fight because they have been oppressed by local power holders such as corrupt police or paramilitary forces. Then you have the drug lords and opium farmers who need their crops to be protected by the Taliban, and of course there are also ideological insurgents who want the political system of the Taliban to prevail. The people who are fighting the Afghan government and foreign forces have different agendas and the reality is much more complex than we have been told by the mainstream media. For example, in Musa Qala and Sangin the local police and district governor oppressed the local inhabitants who then sided with the Taliban and took up arms against them. Our forces then helped the local police and authorities which obviously makes us look like the bad guys. There are several examples of ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] helping criminal elements which have infiltrated the authorities and are the cause of why local people consider the Taliban to be the lesser of two evils.

How much support does the Taliban have in southern Afghanistan?



The Taliban in southern Afghanistan have been under immense pressure for the last three years because of the so-called ‘surge’ where the Americans had radically increased the amount of soldiers in southern Afghanistan. It made a difference, pushing the insurgents out of central areas in Helmand, but they were definitely not defeated. For the past year the Americans have started to decrease the amount of soldiers in the ‘surge-area’ and this will, of course, have a positive effect on insurgent activities. The insurgents still have a well-functioning organisation which is capable not only of challenging their opponents in their own areas, but also of making spectacular attack inside the so-called ‘ring of steel’ in inner-city Kabul. It´s hard to say how much the ‘surge’ has hurt the insurgents but time will show whether they have been weakened or they have just kept a low profile for the past three years. It should be said that while the insurgents’ level of activities decreased in southern Afghanistan for the past three years it has increased by 600 per cent in eastern Afghanistan, which indicates that they have used the classic guerrilla tactic of focusing on areas where ISAFs focus isn´t.




How are the UN figures calculated?





The only way forward in Afghanistan is a peace process with serious negotiations between the Government and its local backers (especially the groups who were a part of the Northern Alliance) and the insurgents. At the same time it is of vital importance that there are negotiations between the USA, India, Pakistan, Iran and other local countries. There can be no peace if Pakistan and India do not come to terms and agree that Afghanistan shouldn´t be used as a proxy state by either country. The rivalry between Pakistan and India has been a disaster for Afghanistan. Pakistan is afraid of Afghanistan becoming a pro-Indian state and leave them squeezed between two non-friendly neighbours. India on the other hand does not want Afghanistan to become a failed state like the days of the Taliban where it harboured groups and individuals who fought in Kashmir. The international community needs to step in and guarantee both countries that Afghanistan will remain neutral and at the same time demand a guarantee from Pakistan and India that they will not interfere in Afghanistan’s domestic politics.


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