-- -Time flies like the wind. Fruit flies like a banana. Stranger things have - -happened but none stranger than this. Does your driver's license say Organ -Donor?Black holes are where God divided by zero. Listen to me! We are all- -individuals! What if this weren't a hypothetical question? [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: "Tougas, Steve" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/274/nation/For_refugees_a_narrow_escape+.shtml For refugees, a narrow escape Atrocities detailed as 'holy war' looms By Charles M. Sennott, Globe Staff, 10/1/2001 DASHTI QALA, Afghanistan - The Taliban fighters herded hundreds of frightened people into the center of the war-ravaged town of Taloqan and paraded out three dogs costumed in Western neckties and waistcoats. The Taliban had shaved the heads of the three dogs and painted names of the men the regime most despises - ''Bush'' for the US president, ''king'' for the long-deposed monarch whom some want to return to power, and ''Rabbani,'' referring to Burhanuddin Rabbani, a leader of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. The regional Taliban commander, Arif Khan, took out a can of gasoline, doused the animals, and then, according to eyewitnesses, lit a match, proclaiming, ''This is what we do to the dogs who oppose Islam!'' Those who did not cheer the immolation of the animals were beaten with sticks, the witnesses said. This scene from last week is just one of several horrifying images to emerge from Taliban-ruled areas of Afghanistan. Families who fled their homes and managed to escape to a displaced persons camp here in Northern Alliance-controlled territory describe what they left behind as a new reign of Taliban terror. In a march to prepare for war, the Taliban have been forcing at gunpoint all men ''old enough to grow a beard'' into the Taliban ranks to fight ''jihad,'' or holy war, against America, according to the displaced, who have been arriving in recent days to a dusty plain here controlled by the anti-Taliban forces. Those who resist are being killed, these families say, and those whose sons escape have had their homes burned to the ground. ''I was not going to let them take my son, and I was not going to let them kill us all. So we left together,'' said Abdel Kareem, 48, who had just arrived from the town of Arche after fleeing under cover of darkness and walking for two days with his wife and eight children. His 20-year-old son, Mohammed Hakeem, listened as his father told the story of the family's escape and the fears that many Afghans, especially the ethnic Tajik and Uzbek, have of the Taliban's preparations for an apocalyptic war. ''They want this to be the great jihad. The Uzbek and the Tajik will be used as sandbags on the frontline. If they retreat they will be shot by the Pashtuns, and if they go forward they will be killed by the Americans,'' said Kareem, sitting in a hut made of tree branches and river reeds. Kareem said the decision for his family to leave came after Friday's noon prayer. He was in the mosque when the heavily armed Taliban fighters surrounded it and a commander stood with the Muslim cleric and asked the frightened congregants, ''Who is going to volunteer to fight the jihad?'' The congregants looked at each other nervously and raised their hands, and then began whispering about how they would get out. Mohammed Qul, 55, who had fled with his wife and six children, said: ''They were forcing men into trucks. They said anyone who can grow a beard must fight. If they say `no,' right there they are shot.'' Those young men who tried to get away after the Friday prayer service were apprehended and taken away in trucks, presumably to be brought to front-line positions where the Taliban are bracing for a US invasion. Kareem's son had not attended the prayers. When he arrived home, Kareem immediately began plotting an escape. They left just before midnight on Friday - carrying nothing so that they could move quickly - and walked to the front line between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance at Khow Jahgar. >From there they walked to Dashti Qala, where a large camp was built last year to take in what are referred to in the parlance of international aid agencies as ''internally displaced people.'' The camp was built in the summer of 2000 when the Taliban pushed into the northern provinces and seized control over towns such as Arche, Taloqan, and other large pockets in predominantly Uzbek and Tajik areas. The Tajik and Uzbek Afghans are culturally affiliated with the Persians, speak Farsi, and practice a more moderate version of Islam. The Taliban, made up of ethnic Pashtuns, are more closely affiliated with Pakistan, speak Pashto, and have imposed a centuries-old interpretation of the strictures of Islam. Much of the tension in the North parallels this deep and bitter ethnic divide and the starkly different understandings of Islam. Since the Taliban invaded the areas of the north, the Northern Alliance has been fighting to try to recapture them. When the Taliban moved into their towns, these families said, life changed overnight. Anyone whose beard is deemed too short, or who is reported to be failing to attend prayers, has his face blackened with coal, and is paraded into the center of town and publicly beaten with a wire cable. Those who attend prayers but do not recite them loudly and clearly are ordered back to pray for hours more until the ruling Taliban clerics feel they have prayed properly, at least according to their puritanical strictures. Afghan women in the North, while living within a strictly traditional culture, often studied at school, and some worked in professional positions, including at hospitals. But when the Taliban arrived, that ended. Women are barred from education and jobs, as they are in the rest of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Nour Mohammed, 53, a baker who also fled the Arche district with his family, said he was at a family wedding in Taloqan last Monday when the Taliban arrived for their version of a war rally, and burned the dogs. ''They told all of us, `The old king and Mr. Rabbani are not Muslims. They fight with America and with George Bush. So we must make a jihad against them all,''' Mohammed said. ''The Taliban bring only terror,'' he said. ''Their rule is fear.'' When asked whether he thought the American forces would invade and whether the Taliban could be uprooted, Mohammed said, ''I don't know. We aren't thinking about that. ''We are thinking about finding bread for our families. We are thinking about whether we can survive a winter here,'' he added as night moved in and a dry wind blew across the plain where he huddled with his family. This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 10/1/2001. (c) Copyright </globe/search/copyright.htm> 2001 Globe Newspaper Company. [ To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with body "unsubscribe man-bytes-dog" (the subject is ignored).]
