Song of War

Abstract

The international community has re-discovered Afghanistan after ignoring the civil war that has raged there since 1992. The reason for this is yet another war, this time waged by the United States against the ruling Taliban and their guest Osama bin Laden. War fought in the name of peace is an unconvincing slogan to many, particularly those who reap the results of conflict generation after generation. Women and children in Afghanistan know better than anyone else what war has brought them, and their stories are cautionary tales to those who believe in the healing powers of more violence and forced displacement. When Hafeeza spoke to us about her experience of war and the Taliban from a refugee camp in Peshawar, it was in the year 2000, when the world's interest in Afghanistan had slipped to its lowest point ever. The un international appeal for humanitarian aid brought in so little money that it embarrassed them to announce the figures. Pakistan had officially declared that it too was tired of supporting millions of destitute refugees when two decades had gone by with no hope of improvement. It had sealed the border with Afghanistan, turning back the new waves of drought-cum-war refugees at the border and rounding up illegal entrants to send them home. Haifa million new refugees came into Pakistan that year. The Pakistan government refused them refugee status and asked the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (unhcr) to set up the new refugee camps inside Afghanistan instead. At that point the tale of Hafeeza proved that the condition of new refugees from Afghanistan was urgent and serious, meriting immediate international action and a more sympathetic consideration from the Pakistan government. While the latest Afghan war has certainly focussed international attention on the plight of war victims, nonetheless humanitarian assistance is still falling short of targets and the Pakistan government is still refusing to open its borders to accept the displaced. But