Afghan nomads hold out in
Kabul By Frud Bezhan, RFE/RL
Hundreds of Afghan nomads, armed with
pitchforks and sticks, were holding off attempts
by authorities to evict them from their makeshift
settlement in Kabul's outskirts.
The
Kuchis have been staging protests daily since
December 10, when members of the traditionally
nomadic tribal grouping claimed three Kuchis were
killed and several others injured as bulldozers
accompanied by policemen tried to raze their
dwellings in the capital's Qasaba district. Kabul
police have acknowledged only that several people
were injured on December 10.
The Qasaba
clashes are just the latest incidents involving
Kuchis, a predominantly Pashtun people who have
increasingly been
forced to abandon their
nomadic lifestyle and relocate to settled areas.
In their search for permanent residence, the
Kuchis have come into conflict with local
authorities and rival ethnic groups who say the
newcomers are encroaching on their lands.
Gul, a 40-year-old woman, is one of the
Kuchis who has defied the eviction. She, like many
others in the area, says she has permission from
the Afghan Ministry of Urban Development Affairs
and Housing to live in Qasaba.
"We haven't
slept because we're scared that they will come
back," she says. "They have brought these tractors
here to destroy our homes."
'Playing
games' Meanwhile, Agha Khan, a Kuchi
tribesman, has condemned the government for not
dealing in good faith with his people. Under the
Afghan Constitution, the government is required to
allocate permanent land for the Kuchis and help
integrate them into settled areas. But Khan
maintains that officials are chasing them from the
very property they were given.
"The
president, the mayor of Kabul, and the government
shouldn't play games with us," Khan says. "We will
accept even the worst land in Afghanistan. They
should give us land-ownership documents and not
deceive us."
Hassan Abdullahi, the
minister for urban development affairs and
housing, says the nomads were given temporary
residence in the area but have been ordered to
leave. He says the ministry originally allowed 30
families to set up living quarters in Qasaba but
that hundreds more relocated to the area
illegally.
Habib Afghan, a Kuchi
representative in the lower house of parliament,
says the Kuchis are being forced out by Kabul
Mayor Mohammad Younas Nawandish, who has approved
plans for a housing-development project in Qasaba.
The project, which will include the construction
of luxury homes for lawmakers as well as ministry
buildings, was approved last month by parliament.
According to Afghan, Nawandish promised
the Kuchis plots of land in Pul-e Charkhi, on the
outskirts of Kabul. But the Kuchi representative
says that's not a viable option.
"How can
you expect people to move during these harsh
winter months?" Afghan says. "That's the first
reason. The second is that there is no land
available in Pul-e Charkhi for them to live on.
The government should choose another location for
the Kuchis to resettle to."
Tragic
tensions The incident in Qasaba is just the
latest land dispute to involve the Kuchis, who
after roaming Afghanistan's high plains with their
caravans of livestock for centuries have been
forced to relocate to settled areas because of
war, drought, and dwindling access to land. The
Kuchis number around 3 million, according to
government estimates, with only around one-third
still leading nomadic lives.
In 2010,
clashes broke out in the Dasht-e Barchi
neighborhood in western Kabul. A group of Kuchis,
contending their ancestors owned the land in the
neighborhood, clashed with ethnic Hazara residents
in the area. The fighting lasted several days and
caused dozens of casualties on each side. Newly
built Kuchi homes were reportedly burned to the
ground.
The government relocated the
nomads to the ruins of the Darul Aman palace, the
residence of former Afghan monarchs, where they
lived for months without electricity or adequate
water supplies before moving to the city's slums.
In the past decade, there has also been
growing violence between Kuchis and local farmers
over grazing rights. The Kuchi tribes are spread
across Afghanistan, traditionally moving with
their herds to mountain pastures in the warmer
seasons and to warmer lowlands during the winter.
Depleted natural resources, such as water,
and lingering ethnic tensions have led to fierce
clashes between Kuchi herders and members of the
Hazara ethnic group in the last few years. Scores
have been killed and wounded from both sides.
Hazara residents in the Wardak, Bamiyan,
and Dai Kundi provinces, home to some of the most
fertile land in the country, say Kuchi tribesmen
are invading their villages, damaging farmland,
and destroying their homes. Kuchis, however, say
the Hazaras are denying them their centuries-old
right to grazing lands across Afghanistan.
The escalating land disputes shed light on
the plight of the Kuchis, who human rights
organizations say are the poorest and most
marginalized group in Afghanistan. Many Kuchis say
local hospitals refuse to treat their sick, while
schools turn away their children. And although
some earn money from selling milk from their
animals, many have resorted to begging and living
in urban slums.
Even so, the Kuchis have
made important strides in the past decade. Ten of
the 249 seats in the Wolesi Jirga, the lower house
of the Afghan national parliament, have been
allocated to Kuchis. The government also has a
department, the Independent Directorate of Kuchi
Affairs, to handle Kuchi issues.
RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan
contributed to this report.
Copyright
(c) 2012, RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted with the
permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,
1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington DC 20036.
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