Real tough guys:
Education Minister Mohammed Hanif Atmar says attacks have closed more than 208 schools -- including 144 burned down -- in the past year as militants changed tactics to hit soft targets. By some estimates, attacks have increased six-fold over 2005.
"Over the past couple of months, the enemy of this nation has been targeting our kids in schools, our schools and our teachers," Atmar says.
"They know that education is about the future of our people. They know that education is about democracy, about true Islam, and about prosperity in Afghanistan. The main reason is killing the future, the future of Afghanistan.
news.yahoo.com
Afghan schools burning as Taliban change tactics By Terry Friel
Fri Aug 18, 5:58 AM ET
KAMPERAKA, Afghanistan (Reuters) - They came at night and no one saw them, but by morning the brand new school in this dusty northern Afghan village was almost entirely gutted.
"I am afraid -- we can't do anything and we don't know when the insurgents will come back," says Mohammad Hashim, the 40-year-old caretaker at the Nawaqel Aria Primary School, an hour's drive outside the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
At least 41 teachers and students have been killed over the past 12 months in a wave of attacks on the country's schools.
Education Minister Mohammed Hanif Atmar says attacks have closed more than 208 schools -- including 144 burned down -- in the past year as militants changed tactics to hit soft targets. By some estimates, attacks have increased six-fold over 2005.
"Over the past couple of months, the enemy of this nation has been targeting our kids in schools, our schools and our teachers," Atmar says.
"They know that education is about the future of our people. They know that education is about democracy, about true Islam, and about prosperity in Afghanistan. The main reason is killing the future, the future of Afghanistan.
"Because they cannot now face our national army and national police ... there's been a significant change of tactics."
The government and the United Nations Children's Fund ( UNICEF) have set up a special taskforce to fight the problem, focusing on better surveillance, special monitoring teams and encouraging local communities and parents to pass on information and help reopen damaged or destroyed schools.
'PERFECT STORM' OF VIOLENCE
"We don't really need an awful lot of money to buy weapons, tanks, fighting. All we need is to increase our information and surveillance and increase our capacity for better coordination and increase our capacity to reach out to the people who are supposed to defend and protect their schools," says Atmar.
UNICEF estimates at least 100,000 children alone have been shut out of school in the four most volatile provinces in the south, the Taliban's heartland.
Most of the schools attacked are co-educational. The Taliban banned girls from school during its 5-year rule and has warned teachers against allowing girls. Suspected militants recently shot dead a lecturer in front of his pupils after he defied them.
In a report on school attacks in released last month, Human Rights Watch said in some districts, every single school has been closed and all the teachers driven out.
"The Taliban, local warlords and criminal groups now share the goal of weakening the central government, creating a perfect storm of violence that threatens Afghanistan's recovery and reconstruction," said Sam Zarifi, co-author of the report.
Fighting this year is at its worst across the country since a U.S.-led coalition forces ousted the Taliban in 2001.
The violence is a combination of Taliban and other militants fighting government and foreign forces, tribal wars, drug barons and crime -- sometimes all mixed together.
Human Rights Watch and analysts say the Taliban, other militants and warlords attack civilian targets such as schools and aid workers to convince Afghans the government can't protect them and can't control the country. In many areas, schools are the only symbol of government authority, they say.
"They want the people to be illiterate. They want to undermine society and cause conflict," says Hashim, standing outside the rebuilt, pale yellow Nawaqel Aria boys' school, where his 10-year-old son, Mohammad Nasir, is one of the 300 students.
At the village water pump a few metres away, students, who once learned under tents until the school opened a few months ago, are scared but defiant.
"I want to be a doctor. I don't care about anything else," says Baryalai Abdul Ghani, 14. "We will fight the warlords. I will use my pen, by writing a (job) application to the government."
Hashim says the village is grateful for the school and for an education for their children: "But we didn't know it would be so scary." |
