ugnet_: U S BLED OUR CHILDREN TO DEATH

[Edward Mulindwa]

October 7th - When The US Bled Our Children To Death By Mohammed Daud Miraki, PhD, MA, MA Director Afghan DU & Recovery Fund www.afghandufund.org 10-7-3 Two years ago, October 7th, 2001, when Afghans bled to death on somebody else's order and for some body else's profits. Every poor Afghan killed was one more collateral damage. Each drop of their precious blood added to the bloodstained land, where death has become a daily occurrence. Every bomb added to one more orphan to the long list of wasted lives. Every warhead turned one more wife to a begging widow on Afghan streets. Every daisy-cutter [15,000-lb. bomb] incinerated a father from his family. Every bullet from the Americans' war machine made one more mother sonless. And, yes, every impact and loud blast made children distant and near scream for help, a precious commodity, nowhere to be found. Lucky were those children who had parents and relatives to comfort them. But, this was not the case for the thousands of orphans scared, painfully imagining that each bomb would be adding one more orphan to their ranks. The thousands of orphans scattered all over Kabul and other Afghan cities, inhabiting cemeteries and uninhabitable structures had no one to scream to. And, there was no one to share these orphans' pain. Yes, these beleaguered souls had no one to share their fear with except with their creator to whom they had their heads raised looking at the dark sky of the night, waiting for the miracle to happen. The miracle they wished for was both hopes of quick death and speedy arrival of that so feared inevitable demise. Yes, the death the thousands of orphans of Kabul, Kandahar, Herat, and Jala-Abad and of other areas wished for came true, engulfing their final breath. The scattered body parts of these poor orphans covering cemeteries and abandoned structures had either become food for stray dogs or were covered by windblown dust. In life, they were forgotten and in death disrespected. In fact, the hundreds that did not become statistics were not missed by anyone, and there was no one to mourn their loss except their creator awaiting them on the other side. Mothers, wives and sisters ran with their surviving children, hoping to find sanctuary in Pakistan, only to die from freezing weather before even reaching Pakistani border. Yet, those that reached the border with Pakistan became victims to the inhumanity of the Pakistani government. Thousands were not allowed to either enter Pakistan or Iran, only to be stranded in barren and dusty deserts and mountainous terrain. Thousands died from hunger, while those who were able to enter Pakistan, ended up dying in the infamous Jalozai Camp in Pakistan near the Afghan border. Every night, relatives would wake up soaked in rainwater, only to find their family members dead to the cold of the night or disease. Many thousands did not even possess burial cloths for their dead, forced to rap the dead children and adult alike in plastic sheets. On the one hand, they had to mourn their losses, and on the other hand, they had to endure the indignity their dead relatives faced in death. The women and children, who escaped the US bombing, wondered if their husbands and fathers survived American daisy-cutters and bunker-busters bombs and whether the thousands of POWs summarily executed by the US and her allies included their loved ones. These concerns and worries landed on deaf ears. There were no answers and there are no answers today. Should we call the surviving women and children lucky who undoubtedly suffered the anguish of slow death from hunger and disease, while the thousands not so lucky woke up to death by bombs landing on their homes. A handful that survived bombed houses and villages pulled out their dead family members a piece at a time. Fortunate were those people who could find pieces of their relatives while children soaked in their parents' blood were too disillusioned and terrified to mutter a word. Villages that were completely wiped out by US bombs are cemeteries today. Where used to be villages full of living people became shrines to the thousands massacred by US bombs. The few that survived, return occasionally to their former villages, now cemeteries, to pray for that dead buried there. As one of the survivors reminded the world: "All I had in this world was my family. American bombs took them away from me forever. I am a poor man and can not reach America to take my revenge, but I will fight against American forces, American allies and American interests until the last drop of my blood and the last breath I take." (Interview with Mohammad Alam, from Laghman province: 2002) Different survivors had different ways of expressing their angers. A survivor from Khoogyani in eastern Afghanistan made a very intriguing statement, when he said: "I used to hear bad things about Americans, but did not believe them. Now I do, when I saw my children's flesh and blood splashed all over the structures of my bombed house. Even if I can not take revenge, tell Americans that I hate them the way I hated the Russians. I will hate them as long as I live. But I know, they do not care because these [pointing to the flesh & blood of his children] are not their children." The other disaster Afghans faced at the onset of the war as they do today is the impact of uranium weapons. In the immediate aftermath of the bombing hundreds of people died with minor or no physical injuries. Only those victims of US' uranium weapons, who had gone to local hospitals, in particular in Kabul, were documented. The overwhelming majority took the silent trip of death from their bombed houses to their local cemeteries. A mother, who lost all of her children to US bombing, while laying on her death bed said: "I know I am dying. Tell everyone that with my death there is no one left of my immediate family", while breathing heavy, she continued, "I hate Americans may god" she did not finish her sentence because she took her last breath. It should not take too much of fertile of imagination to figure out what could have been the last part of her sentence. What a tragedy, not has only life ended for this poor woman, but also has her name vanished with her death because US-UK-allies bombs have also ended the lives of her children. Another woman crying while blood dripping down from her hand, when people rushed to help her, she raised her arm holding the severed arm of her husband, thanks to the liberation efforts of US bombs. She screamed so deep that one could feel the pain trapped in her heart, one witness said: "This is all I have of Hamidullah [referring to her husband]" After this painful cry of helplessness, she fainted. Everyone there, young and old, men and women cried with eyes full of tears wondering what have they done to have fallen victims to this tragedy. And, yes, have I forgotten to mention that the criminal elements of Bush's administration were fiercely engaged in public relation propaganda, envisaging this war to be the liberation of Afghan women. Liberating them from what? Off course, liberating them from life. Yes, they certainly have liberated thousands of Afghan women from their children, husbands and brothers by killing them. In fact, the overuse of such terms as "liberation", "freedom" and other similar deceptive engagements has corrupted the genuine decency associated with these words. Once again, imagine the thousands of orphans living in cemeteries and abandoned structures, on the night when US started bombing, that night and others they were longing for a quick death, a wish fulfilled for hundreds of these orphans when their body parts scattered streets, cemeteries, and abandoned buildings. I know you could never imagine that. In order to imagine something so heinous, you had to experience it, something you Samaritans could not in the comforts of your houses and joy of your children!! Mohammed Daud Miraki, PhD, MA, MA Director Afghan DU & Recovery Fund www.afghandufund.org  [EMAIL PROTECTED]  All Rights Reserved, 2003             The Mulindwas Communication Group "With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"             Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie"