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The
Taliban Are Well Liked
By MUTSUKO MURAKAMI |
A
Japanese doctor's up-close observations contradict overseas reports
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Wednesday, November 28, 2001 |
Web posted at 03:45 p.m. Hong Kong time, 03:45 a.m. GMT
Japanese
doctor Tetsu Nakamura works with leprosy patients and refugees in Afghanistan
and Pakistan. It's a job that keeps him in touch with the raw reality of life
in that troubled country. And he says that from what he has seen, the Taliban
are being wrongly portrayed internationally. "There's something wrong
with the media reports," he says. "This talk of the Taliban being
vicious and disliked doesn't fit with reality." Nakamura says the
fundamentalists have wide support from the population, particularly in rural
areas. "Otherwise, how can they rule 95% of the country with only 15,000
soldiers?"
Villagers around Nakamura's Peshawar base hospital and 10 clinics in both
northwestern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan were pleased to see peace
established under Taliban rule, he says. The Pushtun people, who make up
two-thirds of the Afghan population, can accept strict Muslim codes because
they have lived by them all their lives, he says. Women are not deprived of
education or jobs, as far as he can see. In fact, half the local doctors at
his clinics are women.
So why are the people of the capital, Kabul, reportedly hoping to see the
Taliban overthrown? "The Taliban may act differently there," he told
me when we met recently in Tokyo. "They're obliged to fix the corrupt
urban life. The people most vocal in criticizing the Taliban are upper-class
Afghans who have been deprived of their privileges." Nakamura's words
reminded me of news footage I have seen several times since the attacks on New
York and Washington. Shot by French journalists in Afghanistan, it showed
Afghan women speaking critically of the Taliban. Significantly, they are
dressed in shiny silk-like costumes, with large rings on their fingers.
Nakamura, 55, says the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance are not the freedom
fighters some journalists describe them as. Villagers are frightened of them
because they are more violent and cruel than the Taliban, he says. They
execute innocent people in horrific ways, though not in public as the Taliban
do as a warning to others.
Nakamura works for Peshawar – kai Medical Services, a Japanese aid agency
based in Fukuoka City that has been operating in the Peshawar district for 17
years. He first visited the area as an alpinist when he was still a medical
school student in Fukuoka. Shocked by the lack of medical care in the area,
particularly for leprosy patients, he volunteered to work at a local hospital
in l984. He says: "I spent most of my time not in straight medical work
but in trying to understand my patients, their lifestyles and values -- what
makes them weep or what matters most for them. "Luckily, I can eat
anything and sleep anywhere," he grins.
Nakamura has seen foreigners visiting Afghanistan and returning home to
criticize the Muslim culture -- from a Western perspective. These people may
be "heroes or heroines in London or New York," he says, "but
they contribute nothing to the welfare of Afghans." As for suggestions
the Taliban have cut the country off from the world, Nakamura says the Afghans
are perhaps better informed than the Japanese, as they listen daily to BBC
radio in their own language.
The doctor's greatest concern is the fate of millions of starving refugees in
and around Afghanistan. Over one million of them are suffering from hunger, he
says, while up to 40% are bordering on starvation. He thinks 10% could die
during the winter. Nakamura and his staff stopped focusing exclusively on
leprosy in the l980s as they had so many refugees to deal with, many suffering
from malaria, diarrhea, infections and fever. Severe draught in recent years
created hundreds of thousands of refugees. And now the American bombing and
the fear of an invasion has brought more. His aid agency helps to dig wells
not only to provide water but also for irrigation for farms, so that the
refugees can return to their villages.
Back home in Japan temporarily and thinking of his base area in Pakistan and
Afghanistan, Nakamura says: "It's all like a mirage far off in the
desert." He fondly recalls the red-brown soil of Afghanistan fields, the
villagers sharing their joy about water from newly dug wells, and the friendly
faces of Taliban soldiers helping villagers. "I have one simple
question," he says. "What are the big powers trying to defend by
attacking this ailing, tiny country?" It's a good question.
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