Stories from Kabul Riots
Paul | 10.06.2006 15:18 | Anti-militarism | Repression | Oxford | World
The riots in Kabul recently were more widespread than the news suggested. I think at least 12 international guest houses and offices weere looted.
Personal Stories from the Kabul Riots
There has been a lot of publicity about the CARE office being burnt and looted and it was probably the most damaged but I estimate about 12 international organization offices and guest houses were attacked, burnt to some extent and looted. This has left a lot of people with only the clothes they stand up in having lost everything including passports. The main therapy seems to be discussing and comparing experiences.
The bubble of Kabul has been burst. No longer do internationals feel safe in Kabul. The UN employees especially are forced to follow strict security regulations. This involves daily radio checks and radio checks when leaving and arriving at destinations even if less than a kilometer. No walking on the street and houses with a guard box outside containing 6 armed guards. Neither the UN security, ISAF, coalition forces nor national police protected the international aid workers. ISAF and coalition forces did not want to inflame the crowd so stayed out of it and some of the national police even joined the riot. The blue guard boxes outside UN offices and guest houses just identified them as targets. The armed guards disappeared and some were told to hide their guns incase they were taken off them by the crowd.
A mob came up my street but as there are no guard boxes did not identify the houses of internationals and targeted houses elsewhere. IOM (international organization of migration had three guest houses and their offices targeted, burnt and looted. People tell me of having to be evacuated from one office to another as the crowd moved towards them. Eventually they got in the back door of a large UN guest house and had to stand in the garden listening to the shouts and gun fire outside the gates and seeing the smoke of the guard box being burnt. The national police acted extremely well in this situation and blocked the street getting them out to the police station. Occupants of one guest house had a neighbour offer to sell their dog back to them and another had a neighbour offer to sell them a video of the looting. One man said that photos of his son were torn up. Apparently a number of the rioters were secondary school boys. A Spanish girl told me how the crowd threw monitof cocktails over the house garden wall (3.8 metres high) and tried to climb up and through the barbed wire. An Afghan girl was going to be thrown into a fire until it was realized she was not western.
It is surprising no international was killed. More problems are expected. There needs to be a full investigation into the crash and compensation paid to the victims families as a gesture of good will even if the driver is found to be not guilty. Even then now everyone understands that Kabul is not secure and they can organize riots with impunity.
There has been a lot of publicity about the CARE office being burnt and looted and it was probably the most damaged but I estimate about 12 international organization offices and guest houses were attacked, burnt to some extent and looted. This has left a lot of people with only the clothes they stand up in having lost everything including passports. The main therapy seems to be discussing and comparing experiences.
The bubble of Kabul has been burst. No longer do internationals feel safe in Kabul. The UN employees especially are forced to follow strict security regulations. This involves daily radio checks and radio checks when leaving and arriving at destinations even if less than a kilometer. No walking on the street and houses with a guard box outside containing 6 armed guards. Neither the UN security, ISAF, coalition forces nor national police protected the international aid workers. ISAF and coalition forces did not want to inflame the crowd so stayed out of it and some of the national police even joined the riot. The blue guard boxes outside UN offices and guest houses just identified them as targets. The armed guards disappeared and some were told to hide their guns incase they were taken off them by the crowd.
A mob came up my street but as there are no guard boxes did not identify the houses of internationals and targeted houses elsewhere. IOM (international organization of migration had three guest houses and their offices targeted, burnt and looted. People tell me of having to be evacuated from one office to another as the crowd moved towards them. Eventually they got in the back door of a large UN guest house and had to stand in the garden listening to the shouts and gun fire outside the gates and seeing the smoke of the guard box being burnt. The national police acted extremely well in this situation and blocked the street getting them out to the police station. Occupants of one guest house had a neighbour offer to sell their dog back to them and another had a neighbour offer to sell them a video of the looting. One man said that photos of his son were torn up. Apparently a number of the rioters were secondary school boys. A Spanish girl told me how the crowd threw monitof cocktails over the house garden wall (3.8 metres high) and tried to climb up and through the barbed wire. An Afghan girl was going to be thrown into a fire until it was realized she was not western.
It is surprising no international was killed. More problems are expected. There needs to be a full investigation into the crash and compensation paid to the victims families as a gesture of good will even if the driver is found to be not guilty. Even then now everyone understands that Kabul is not secure and they can organize riots with impunity.
Paul
Comments
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Kabul not that bad?
12.06.2006 11:37
Frankly I have been in worse riots after a footbal game in Africa than the riot in Kabul, at least there was no tear gas. The fact is that most of the violence in the city centre was looting rather than protesting, most of the rioters being unemployed youth and most of the looting was of small Afghan busniesses, with only a handfull (no clear number but I have heard of only four) of properties being looted and burned.
The US Military have been low profile since the incident, which is good, although to blame them for the accident is a bit difficult, as anyone who has actually been subjected to Kabul driving will confirm.
Tim
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pshaw@neda.af
Reply to Tim
14.06.2006 08:18
I have heard more and more stories. Some friends spent 3 hours in a cupboard hiding as they listened to the crowd and gun shots outside their house as people tried to get in. Soem guards actually gave their guns to the mob. UN or embassy security with perhaps the exception of the French did nothing to help. Phone lines were blocked and those trapped in houses just had to wait and hope. This is a bit more serious than yobs after a football match.
Paul