Forgetting Afghanistan...Again
By Sonali Kolhatcar
29 March, 2005
Counterpunch
In
the past two years the US media have drastically reduced their coverage
of Afghanistan. According to the American Journalism Review only three
news organizations--Newsweek, Associated Press and the Washington Post--have
full-time reporters stationed in Kabul. What little is published focuses
mostly on feel-good stories, superficial change and unopposed reportage
of the Bush administration's claims. There is little to no critical
coverage of the effects of the on-going US military and political presence.
For example, on March 18th, the New York Times' Joel Brinkley and Carlotta
Gall reported Condoleezza Rice's visit to Afghanistan and her claim
that "there could be no better story than Afghanistan's democratic
development". Brinkley and Gall apparently agreed with Rice
they made no mention of how the central government is legitimizing US-backed
warlords who are stifling democracy.
This is not new.
In the early 1990s, the worst atrocities by Mujahadeen fighters (including
some members of the current government) resulted in tens of thousands
of civilian deaths and hundreds of thousands of refugees in a four year
period in Kabul alone. During that time, media coverage dropped drastically.
In the late 1990s, when the Taliban were implementing their oppressive
laws, the media largely ignored it. In 2000, when tens of thousands
of Afghan refugees were trapped in horrific conditions in refugee camps
in the Pakistani side of the border, the same pattern of silence continued.
Only when the Buddha statues of Bamiyan were blown up, or the attacks
of 9-11 took place was Afghanistan worth focusing on.
Why don't the media
today examine Afghanistan and Bush's claims of "freedom and democracy"?
True, most Afghans have embraced wholeheartedly the promise of choosing
their own leaders through an electoral system, despite having certain
aspects of democracy imposed on them by a foreign country. But the power
of undemocratic warlords has stifled the aspirations of Afghan people.
When I visited Afghanistan a month ago, I spoke with independent pro-democracy
political activists like Malalai Joya, who is forced to conduct her
work underground. Fearing attacks by warlords, they use false names
and travel in disguise or with bodyguards. I met journalists who are
risking their lives to report the crimes of the warlords in the face
of government threats.
A majority of Afghans
voted for Hamid Karzai, even though he is clearly a US puppet. They
did so because he promised never to compromise with warlords. But after
his election, Karzai appointed the former governor of Herat, Ismail
Khan, a fundamentalist misogynist warlord, as Minister of Energy. Karzai
recently appointed a known war criminal, Abdul Rashid Dostum, as the
National Army Chief of Staff. These moves were praised by US ambassador
Zalmay Khalilzad as "wise", even though the Afghanistan Independent
Human Rights Commission's recent survey revealed a deep desire among
Afghans across the country for justice for past war crimes committed
by the likes of Khan and Dostum. The Afghans I met were eager to see
the warlords disarmed, and prosecuted, not rewarded with government
positions.
Aside from its "democratic
development", the Bush administration refuses to mention serious
life-and-death issues plaguing Afghanistan. Obediently following suit,
the US media do not cover the struggle for survival. In the 2004 National
Human Development Report for Afghanistan, conducted by the United Nations,
the country ranked 173 out of 178 countries in terms of human development.
Only five countries, all in sub-Saharan Africa, were worse off: Burundi,
Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Sierra Leone. Refugees, whose (sometimes
forced) return was loudly praised by the Bush administration as evidence
of Afghan freedom, are now homeless in their own country and have turned
parts of Kabul into squatters' camps. They have no homes and little
to no training, employment opportunities, or health care. Maternal mortality,
especially in the provinces where the majority of Afghans live, is among
the highest in the world, just as it was before 9-11 when the media
were ignoring Afghanistan. Education - most vocally cited by the Bush
administration as a measure of the success of US policy in Afghanistan
- is deemed the "worst in the world" by the UN. Outside Kabul
there are dismally few educational opportunities for Afghan girls and
women. In the cities, I was told that most schools have a curriculum
limited to Islamic studies.
Most women are still
wearing the burqa (veil), or hijab, in Afghanistan. This is admittedly
far too simplistic a measure of women's oppression, but it was exploited
by the Bush administration and the media after 9-11 to visualize the
brutality of the Taliban against women. Likewise, the discarding of
the burqa after the fall of the Taliban was widely used by the media
to showcase women's "liberation". Today in the cities and
provinces outside Kabul, most women dress exactly as they did under
the Taliban's rule. Nasreen, an 18 year old returned refugee living
in Heart, told me she does not want to wear her hijab, but is afraid
of attracting too much attention in an atmosphere that is still hostile
to women.
There is an obvious
pattern here: before 9-11 the media did not deem Afghanistan and its
myriad problems (most of which were initiated by US policies in the
80s and 90s) worth covering. After 9-11, when it was convenient for
the Bush administration to highlight mass oppression and poverty as
justifications for war, the media complied. Now, despite continued mass
oppression and poverty, Bush and Rice have informed us that Afghanistan
has been "saved" by our military intervention and installation
of "democracy" and so it no longer needs our attention. The
media continue to comply with government wishes.
The very people
that Americans compassionately and generously supported after 9-11 are
suffering once more because of a lack of attention and interest. Donations
toward life-saving projects like hospitals, clinics, schools and training
centers, have plummeted. Armed militias led by US-backed warlords have
replaced the Taliban, financing their armies through heroin sales. In
the short term, this compliance has had tangible consequences for the
people of Afghanistan. In the long term, the lack of media coverage
of the rise of these armed groups could once again have horrible and
shocking consequences, like the attacks of 9-11.
Sonali Kolhatkar
is co-producer and host of Uprising, a morning drive-time radio program
on KPFK Pacifica Radio in Los Angeles.
You can contact
the major media using an easy tool on our website, www.afghanwomensmission.org,
and urge them to increase and improve their coverage of Afghanistan
(sample letter provided).