Living Under the Taleban

By IWPR trainees in Helmand (ARR No. 249, 4-Apr-07)
The reports are grim. Three men were hanged on April 1 in Helmand, executed as spies by the Taleban regime. The body of one hung for hours in Musa Qala, where the fundamentalists chased out village elders and ran up their flag in early February.

While the news sent shudders through the capital, Lashkar Gah, residents of Musa Qala were undaunted.

“I don’t care about those three men,” said shopkeeper Zia ul Haq. “They deserved to die. I am happy. We have no problems here, except the possibility of bombardment.”

Musa Qala formally fell to the Taleban in February, barely four months after a controversial agreement under which village elders promised to keep the fundamentalists out in return for a British withdrawal.

The deal brought peace to the town, which had seen months of heavy fighting, but it sent thousands of people fleeing to more secure areas, fearing that NATO bombs would soon come to unseat the Taleban.

Two months later, the Taleban are still in charge.

“I do not want to take Musa Qala by force,” said President Hamed Karzai, speaking to residents of Lashkar Gah on March 29. “I want to solve problems by negotiations with all sides.”

But just one day earlier, provincial officials were telling a different story.

“We will recapture Musa Qala,” Helmand military chief Abdul Wahid Faizi told IWPR. “We will move the Taleban out of the town. We are working on plans now, and I am sure we will do that soon.”

While the government tries to decide on its course, local residents have had to continue with their lives.

Many say they are happier now than they have been for years – and more than willing to trade a certain amount of freedom for some peace and security.

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