Afghan refugees live peacefully in Pakistan city
Just a road divides supporters of Taliban, Alliance
Michael Hedges, Houston Chronicle Sunday, November 11, 2001
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Quetta, Pakistan -- There is a place where Afghans who back the rebel Northern Alliance live in peace, if not exactly harmony, with countrymen who are ardent supporters of the Taliban regime.
But that place is not in Afghanistan, where fighting between the American- backed Northern Alliance and the Taliban has intensified in recent days.
It is along Barori Road in this city in southwest Pakistan, where hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees settled during the Soviet-Afghan conflict and in the years since. Pro-Taliban Afghans from the Pashtun tribe reside on the south side of the road while pro-alliance Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras live on the north side, with all enjoying relative tranquility.
Visitors who chat with the people in the mud-and-straw houses and garish shops along the road may appreciate the obstacles facing the diplomats trying to forge a broad-based, post-Taliban government. They also may catch a glimpse into the workings of Afghanistan's future.
Suleiman Khan, 50, formerly of Kabul, the capital, is Uzbek. "The Pashtuns are different from us," he said. "They do not think the same way we do. It would be impossible for us to live together with them in Afghanistan."
Several other Uzbek men nod in agreement. But none cite a specific complaint with their Pashtun neighbors on the other side of Barori Road.
"It is different here because we have a government in Pakistan that will protect us," said Abdul Qhadar, 27, a Hazara and Northern Alliance supporter. He left the Afghan city of Ghazany six months ago to escape what he says was Taliban brutality. "There was no one in Afghanistan who could protect us."
The pro-Taliban Pashtuns who live a long rock's throw from where Qhadar spoke seemed much more amenable to living with their neighbors from other clans.
"I am happy with them; there are no problems," said Faisal Mohammed, 30, who is originally from the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar. "We have friends in that area. They go to our market; we go to their market. Our children are close to them. They go to the same school."
The point about children getting along may be significant. Along the neighborhood's streets, children from the various ethnic groups were seen milling around together. In one area, some were playing a street form of cricket.
But it doesn't take much to divide their parents. Just mention the war in the country they used to share.
Hussein Dah, an ethnic Tajik who supports the Northern Alliance, said he came from Kabul just a few months ago. "The old people and the children are terrified of the Taliban," he said. "They came at night to our homes and killed many, many people."
Asked why he settled near Pashtun families who have an unabashed love for the Taliban, he said, "Here in Pakistan they are just Pashtun and not Taliban. We are only against the Taliban."
Sardar Mohammed, a 65-year-old Pashtun and Taliban supporter, said, "We are very angry with the Northern Alliance, and with the Americans. They are killing our people every day. But here it is better just to work with them and be at peace."
An estimated 500,000 to 600,000 Afghan refugees live in and around Quetta. Most fled here during the decade-long Soviet-Afghan war that ended in 1989, but some arrived in a steady stream in the years since. That stream became a river once the U.S.-led bombing campaign began Oct. 7. Despite Pakistani efforts to restrict the number of Afghan refugees entering the country, busloads arrive here every day, local journalists said.
The new refugees are not hard to find.
Khan Mohammed, 60, said he brought his extended family here from the Afghan city of Rozglen in Taliban-held territory just two days ago. "There was bombing every day, so we came here to be safe," he said. "There were four families with us, 15 people. Things are bad in Afghanistan. No one has any food to eat."
Taj Mohammed, an ethnic Uzbek, arrived in Pakistan shortly before the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. "I felt like there would never be peace under the Taliban, and I wanted to live in a peaceful country," he said.
In broad, general terms, it is possible to distinguish between the Afghans here who belong to the clans backing the Northern Alliance on the one hand, and the Pashtuns on the other. The Tajiks and Uzbeks resemble Mongols and other east Asians, while the Pashtuns have more Middle Eastern features.
Adding a layer of complexity to the mix are religious differences. Some Northern Alliance supporters are members of Shiite Muslims, while the pro- Taliban Pashtuns are Sunni Muslims, Islam's larger group.
To Sardar Mohammed, the Sunni Northern Alliance people here are palatable, but not the Shiite Hazaras. "This war in Afghanistan is a religious war between the Sunni and Shiite," he said.
Zahoor Ahmed, a journalist whose parents immigrated to Pakistan from Afghanistan 30 years ago, said the biggest difference between pro-Taliban Pashtuns and Northern Alliance tribes is one of relative sophistication.
"The Northern Alliance people who came to Pakistan were from the Kabul area,
and they were educated better and were city people," said Ahmed, whose family is Pashtun. "The Taliban were from rural areas and didn't like new ideas."
Social differences carry over here, Ahmed said. Northern Alliance families are far more likely to allow their daughters to receive a full education, he said, They own many of the small businesses here in the Afghan area of the city, which is known as "Little Kandahar."
But one hopeful sign at least for Afghans in Pakistan is the growing likelihood that different tribes will send their children to the same schools, where they make friends across ethnic barriers, said parents from both sides.
"In the schools there is no difference between Pashtun and Uzbek or Tajik," said Faisal Mohammed. In a future Afghanistan, he said, mixed schools would be a key element.
Another thread might bind Afghans together in a post-Taliban world -- common interest.
Mohammed Amin, 35, said he was skeptical of a broad-based government in Afghanistan in which members of all tribes would work together to govern the country.
"We have tried that so many times, but all that ever comes (of it) is war," he said.
Asked why he can get along so well with his Northern Alliance neighbors along Barori Road, Amin said, "They have shops, and I sell my labor to them. I am angry at what they are doing to my country, but I am a poor man, and I have to get along to make a living."
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