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Kabul: Learning the hard
way
By Grant Podelco
KABUL -
Mohammad Wakil is a 27-year-old medical student at Kabul
University. He shares a small cinder-block room in the
campus dormitory with 15 other men. Eleven rickety beds
with dirty mattresses and blankets are wedged into the
room. The other students sleep on the floor - some on
filthy carpets, others on a small scrap of burlap spread
over the cold concrete. Unwashed plates and cups lie
scattered about the room. Flies buzz everywhere. There
is no heat or electricity, only a few small candles.
Wakil described his dormitory room, which is
typical for Kabul University. "There are 16 people
living in this room. We have an old carpet. There are
mattresses with their cotton stuffing coming out. The
beds have been here since the time of [former Afghan
president Burhanuddin] Rabbani. About US$300,000 was
spent on repairing the dorm, but still there is
nothing," Wakil said.
The 16 roommates, who have
traveled from a number of Afghan provinces to study in
Kabul, are among 5,000 students living in the
university's single dilapidated dormitory. They say that
they have been without electricity for up to three weeks
and only have access to water for three to four hours a
day. They bathe once a week by leaving the university
and finding facilities elsewhere. Food is in short
supply. The dormitory's communal toilet facilities are
squalid.
Amanullah, a 24-year-old education
student, said students have repeatedly talked to the
Ministry of Higher Education about conditions in the
dormitory but nothing has improved. That is why, he
said, students staged a protest on November 11, marching
toward the presidential palace in the city center to
make their voices heard.
He said he participated
in the march and that it was peaceful until police
intervened. "They [students] had to ask for their
rights. They went to the minister [of higher education]
several times, saying that he was not paying attention
to the students and asking him to solve the students'
problems. And that was why they staged a protest. And as
they were going [on the march], the police and other
security officers came and stopped them. The students
wanted to see [President Hamid] Karzai, and as they were
going toward the presidential palace, police opened fire
on them. So [the students] had to react and throw
stones," Amanullah said.
Amanullah said he saw
the bodies of two students who had been shot and killed
by police. Karzai called the shootings "deplorable" and
ordered an investigation into the actions of police.
University students attempted another
demonstration Tuesday to express anger at the deaths of
their colleagues, but police broke up the protest with
water cannons and by firing shots into the air. A
standoff that followed between police and a group of
students who were occupying a campus building ended
peacefully.
Students staged a third protest
Wednesday morning at the university, which also ended
without incident. By Thursday, tensions on campus appear
to have eased, although streets leading to the
university are still blocked by police, and soldiers
wielding Kalashnikovs are patrolling around the
dormitory.
General Qudus Khan is in charge of
security for the city's Third District, which includes
Kabul University. Despite the heavy police presence,
Qudus said life on campus is returning to normal today.
"We have very good and friendly relations with the
students, as you see. The students have condemned the
acts of some saboteurs and the ones who wanted to
disturb the public order and act against the people's
interest. And the condition [now] is completely normal,
and the students can continue with their lessons
peacefully," Qudus said.
In a Wednesday
interview, Mohammad Sharif Fayez, Afghanistan's minister
of higher education, said he is confident that this
week's demonstrations were instigated by extremist
groups who have infiltrated the campus. "I have to tell
you that this was not really a student demonstration.
This was the anniversary of the fall of the Taliban in
Kabul. The demonstration which started from the Kabul
University dormitory started with not more than 200
students. When the demonstration reached this area, near
Dehmazang, the number of demonstrators reached about
1,000. So you can see that a large number of those who
took part in the demonstration came from somewhere
else," Fayez said.
He said these fundamentalist
groups are opposed to the university's establishing
academic links with institutions outside Afghanistan. He
said the university should not be a place for politics
or ideology and that the student actions will jeopardize
international support for the university, thereby
achieving the goal, he said, of the extremist groups.
Fayez said he was told by security officials
that some of the student protesters on 11 November were
armed and that a bomb had exploded during the protest.
He criticized the students for demonstrating at night,
for not asking permission to march, and for not first
exhausting the option of negotiations with the
authorities over their grievances.
Fayez
acknowledged that the students are living under harsh
conditions, but he said life is difficult throughout the
capital. In the Kart-i-Sei area of Kabul, he said: "We
don't have electricity. I don't have electricity. For
the last week, there has not been electricity. We have
distributed several thousand blankets to the students.
In fact, President Karzai's adviser was at the ministry
[today], and I requested 4,000 blankets for the
students. We can provide them with electricity. And
today I asked the Transitional Administration to provide
us with $10,000 to buy generators for the dormitory,"
Fayez said.
Fayez said that the two students
killed were from the university's medical institute and
that they died when police opened fire during the
demonstration. He said arrangements are being made today
to deliver the bodies to their families in Paktia and
Takhar provinces.
Shah Mahmood is an internist
at the medical institute who said he is acting as a
representative to the government for the students'
concerns. Standing outside the dormitory next to General
Qudus and other heavily armed guards, he said the
situation on campus is calm today. "Now the students
want to resume their lessons and for everything to
return to normal. There is not any other goal, such as a
political one. Some students may have political
objectives, but in general, the students want to resume
their lessons," Mahmood said.
Later, a group of
university students said, on condition of anonymity,
that they do not trust Mahmood and don't believe he is
speaking in their best interests. A 23-year-old medical
student said he believes there will be no more
demonstrations because they reflect badly on the
students. At the same time, he said he has no confidence
the problems of the students will be addressed. He said
a government commission was set up earlier this year to
investigate student demands after similar protests at
Kabul's Polytechnic Institute, but that nothing ever
came of it. One student was killed in clashes with
police during that demonstration.
Copyright
(c) 2002, RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted with the permission of
Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington DC
20036
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