In 'safe' Afghan province, few want NATO forces to depart

[unhappycamper]

A Soviet-era tank on the road to Bamiyan, Afghanistan, is a reminder of past conflicts in this now largely peaceful province.


In 'safe' Afghan province, few want NATO forces to depart
By Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Wednesday, November 17, 2010

BAMIYAN, Afghanistan — Poverty is endemic in Bamiyan and the infrastructure barely past medieval, but this peaceful province is about as good as it gets in Afghanistan today.

The road to the pristine Band-e-Amir lakes is being paved. September's parliamentary elections were violence-free here, and business isn't bad at Hassan Ali's craft shop on Bamiyan's single, bustling thoroughfare.

Yet word that the province could be among the first to be "transitioned" away from NATO's security blanket and turned over to Afghan forces has sent tremors of unease through Afghanistan's central highlands.

"As soon as they leave, these different ethnic groups will start fighting each other," said Ali, whose one-room shop stocks scarves, rugs and carpets made by a women's cooperative. "We're Afghans, and we know our people very well. We cannot coexist with each other."

Bamiyan, a land of majestic, snow-capped mountains and potato fields whose harvest has just been picked, is no stranger to bloodshed. Ethnic Hazaras, who are Shiite Muslims and in the majority here, have been long marginalized and oppressed. From 1996 to 2001, they suffered grievously at the hands of the Taliban, ethnic Pashtuns who are conservative Sunni Muslims and are now fighting U.S. and allied forces to regain sway over Afghanistan.