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Webfiles: "The Taliban Are Well Liked"
A Japanese doctor's up-close observations contradict
overseas reports
By MUTSUKO MURAKAMI
Thursday, October 18, 2001
Web posted at 03:20 p.m. Hong Kong time, 03:20 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.
Write to Asiaweek at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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