The “new order” for Afghanistan’s children

I received a horribly disturbing email feed today from the IWPR, which has been doing some great reporting from Afghanistan. This report is titled, LIVES SHATTERED BY SEXUAL ABUSE; Authorities say that incidents of young boys being kidnapped and abused by commanders may actually be increasing, and it was reported by Wahidullah Noori from Mazar-e-Sharif.
I’ll copy the whole text in beneath this, because it deserves very wide exposure.
After reading the email I went over to the Afghanistan section of the IWPR website to find a URL for this story, but it’s not there yet– (Ooops, it just went up there. Look here.) What I found there as well, from last week, was this story, on a disturbingly similar theme:

Daughters Sold to Settle Debts
Poppy growers say the government’s anti-drug program is forcing them to surrender their children to drug dealers.
By Haytullah Gaheez in Jalalabad

I am almost beyond words.
Both pieces are very solidly reported and include some heart-rending interviews with some of the youngsters involved. In both cases, the reporters tried to get some reaction to their reporting, and some generally relevant policy statements, from local authorities and other opinion-makers in the cities they were reporting from.
Gaheez’s story begins like this:

Zeva’s eyes filled with tears as the 10-year-old’s father took her by the arm and handed her over to the man from whom he had borrowed 50,000 afghanis, or about 1,000 US dollars.
“I cannot pay you in any other way. Take my daughter,” said Gul Miran, 42, a farmer in Nangarhar province.
Like many other farmers in Afghanistan, Gul Miran had planned to pay back the loan with the proceeds from his crop of poppies… But as part of its stepped up effort to combat the drug trade in the country, the government had ploughed under his fields and Gul Miran was left with nothing.
“I accepted the girl in return for my loan,” said Haji Naqibullah, who had advanced Gul Miran the money. “We had an agreement. He would [pay me back] regardless of whether his crops were wiped out by the weather or by the government.
“In a year or 18 months I will marry her off to my youngest son,” he said.

Before I cut and paste the whole of Noori’s story in here, I’ll just note that IWPR does try to present a “balanced” offering of good-news and bad-news stories in the three-story collection it sends out each week. But honestly, I don’t believe that a fluffy little piece about a 14-year-old Afghan girl who has made a new career as a film star can go anywhere near “balancing” the horrors reported in Noori’s and Gaheez’s stories.
For me, both stories raise immediate questions about the justifiability of a US-installed political situation there in Afghanistan that allows such things not only to happen but also– as these reports clearly indicate– to have gotten worse in recent months.
The idea of a government simply going in and plowing under the fields of poppy farmers without having made anything like appropriate provision for alternative livelihoods is almost unbelievable.
Okay, so here’s the whole of the other story, the one on the abuse of young boys:

LIVES SHATTERED BY SEXUAL ABUSE
Authorities say that incidents of young boys being kidnapped and abused by
commanders may actually be increasing.
By Wahidullah Noori in Mazar-e-Sharif
The troubling practice of powerful commanders kidnapping and sexual abusing
young boys appears to be continuing in Afghanistan, despite efforts to build
a civil society.
And according to at least one expert in the field, the problem may be
getting worse.
Abdullah, 13, who lives at the Child Correction Centre, a facility run by
the justice ministry, told IWPR what it was like to be subjected to such
abuse.
“I was abducted about three months ago in Baghlan city,” the youth said,
holding back tears.
“First I was held at command headquarters and later at the commander’s
house. The conditions were barbaric.
“The first time he wanted to take me I fought back. But he was a giant with
great strong hands and tied my hands and feet before throwing himself at
me.”
Abdullah says that, during the next few weeks, he was raped by 10 to 15 of
the commander’s male relatives.
“I was tired and disgusted with my life and would have preferred death,” he
said.
“One day when we were alone in the house I discovered his rifle. I shot him
dead and fled and took shelter with the older boys of the region,” he said.
“They took me to the police and I have been [at the shelter] for one month.”
There are currently 12 residents at the centre, all under 18, who have
either been abused or accused to crimes similar to Abdullah’s.
Shafiqa, 17, is another resident at the facility.
“My brother was being kept for sex at the home of a commander in Baghlan
province,” she said. “In order to win more favour with the commander, my
brother asked me to attend a party at the house.
“When I was there, I was raped by the commander’s brother and now my family
doesn’t want me at home.”
Abdul Ghafoor Baseem, chief of Baghlan’s human rights department, fears the
problem may be getting worse.
He said that in November he received 12 reports of child rape in the
province, a number he described as “unprecedented”.
“This phenomenon, especially with gunmen being involved, is a very serious
threat to children,” he said. “And the number of cases that go unreported
is unthinkable. We pass on some of these reports to the police but they
don’t appear to be taking much action.”
Baseem disagrees with the practice of placing abused children in amendment
centres.
“I feel that they could easily fall victims in the very places where they
should feel safe,” he said. “The best way is for them to reunited with their
families and if their families are not prepared to take them back, then the
government must take care of them.”
General General Faziluddin Alyar, security commander of Baghlan, confirmed
he had received reports about these crimes, and said he would undertake
investigations into the cases.
—
Wahidullah Noori is a freelance reporter based in Mazar-e-Sharif.

My thanks to Noori, Gaheez, and all their colleagues for their work.