Focus on Hazara returnees to Bamian

Nurollah lives at one of the most well-known spots in the world. His home is a dark and dusty cave next to where the famous ancient Buddha statues in central Afghanistan stood for centuries. Last year, in a senseless act of rage, the hardline Taliban blew them up. Nurollah's family, is one of some 100 dwelling in the dismal caves - once used for meditation by Buddhist monks - huddled together, fighting the dry, biting cold, and waiting for international aid to reach them. He told IRIN that he and his family of eight were happy to be home once again. There are no official statistics of how many have returned, but he is one of hundreds of members of the Hazara ethnic group who have returned to Bamian Province to live in deplorable conditions. They had fled the area some years ago in fear of ethnic persecution by the Taliban after the orthodox Islamic movement gained control of the region in 1998. The militant Sunni Taliban undermined the Shi'ite ethnic minority, saying its members were not true Muslims. Their hatred for the minority group was brought to realisation in 1998, when Taliban forces in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif killed at least 2,000 civilians - most of them Hazaras. The killings were partly in reprisal for executions in 1997 of some 2,000 Taliban prisoners by ethnic Hazara and Uzbek forces. However, human rights campaigners believe there were also sectarian reasons behind the Taliban's actions. Following Taliban occupation, the newly appointed governor, Mullah Manon Niazi, declared Hazaras to be "infidels", and threatened them with death if they did not convert to Sunni Islam or leave the country. Now that the Taliban are gone, the Hazara community face another uphill struggle: building a new life in an area where food and resources are scarce. "I have no job. I can only get work for a few days a month and we are surviving on potatoes," Nurollah said, having arrived back in Bamian some 20 days earlier. He had fled to Kabul four years earlier in fear of the Taliban. The cave dweller spoke of times when Taliban would harass him, and, on one occasion, hit him in the mouth with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, breaking one of his teeth. "I did nothing wrong, they just beat me because I am a Hazara," he said, adding that although life would be more peaceful now, the Hazara community was in desperate need of help. "I hope we can survive, but we will need help," he stressed. Other families had a similar story to tell. Peeling potatoes outside her makeshift cave home, some 20 metres up the rock face next to the giant Buddhas, Marzia, a mother of four, said her family was surviving on a daily diet of root vegetables and bread. Although she had received some wheat earlier, she and her family were now in desperate need of food. Marzia had also recently returned to Bamian, having fled the area earlier fearing persecution by the Taliban. She had been living in the caves for several years before being forced to move out. Commenting on the destruction of the Buddha statues, next door to her home, Marzia said the noise of the explosions had been audible in the village to which she had escaped. "We saw the dust rising. It was our biggest and most famous attraction, and now it has been reduced to rubble by these stupid people." Other families also said they were happy to be back in Bamian, but many said they were forced to live in these caves and, given a choice, they would prefer to move. Stories of Taliban persecution are widespread across Bamian and the Central Highlands region. In the village of Kazan, some 12 km from Bamian, and home to some 5,000 families, Qorban, aged 35, told IRIN that his father had been killed by the Taliban, who had then burned his house to the ground. "We left our village two years ago, fearing for our lives, he said. In total, Qorban said, the Taliban visited his village three times during their rule, killing many people. Others expressed relief. Golbach, a mother of five, said she and her three sisters could not believe it when they heard that the Taliban had been pushed out. "We are so happy now that we are free," she said, having returned from Kabul, to which her family had fled during the Taliban era. While aid agencies are working fast to establish the needs of the local population, having had poor access to the region while the Taliban were still in control, some food is reaching the destitute. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), along with the French NGO Solidarites and the World Food Programme (WFP), has been distributing food in Bamian, but has described access as being difficult. "The last food distribution to 11,000 families in Bamian, including to those in the caves, was on 24 January," the spokesman for ICRC in Kabul, Michael Kleiner, told IRIN. He added that conditions across Bamian were very basic and that up to 80 percent of houses had been partially destroyed. In January, Solidarites distributed 300 kg of wheat, plus blankets and plastic sheets to the entire population of Bamian Province, which would last them until March, according to the NGO's programme manager in Hazarajat, Philippe Branchat. "The relief has come late as it was supposed to cover them for the whole of the winter. These people should have received aid in November. However, due to the security situation, aid was not distributed," he added. Although there had been no reports of deaths, the NGO was now in the process of conducting a survey to find out how people had coped during the months when they were not assisted, as many had exhausted their coping mechanisms. Branchat said that with temperatures dropping to between minus 10 and 15, there was great concern over the availability of firewood in the market. "There will be many consequences on deforestation, so we have sent a truck to Kabul to get some wood," he said. Nurollah was lucky enough to have been given a stove to heat the dark cave, but other cave dwellers complained of the bitter weather conditions they were having to endure at night. "We have also had news of people eating grass in some of the more remote areas that we cannot reach due to the minefields," Branchat said. He went on to note that their main focus at the moment was free food distribution to ensure that people would stay in their homes and thus prevent them from becoming displaced to locations where they would face even worse conditions. "The region is extremely isolated compared to other areas, and the whole service structure here needs to be rebuilt involving the local community," Peter Maxwell, the regional coordination officer for Hazarajat/Central Highlands for Office of the UN Coordinator for Afghanistan, told IRIN. He added that mine clearance was crucial so as to make it possible to serve the most vulnerable people. "Our first priority is to get coordination moving effectively so that needs are also assessed in the more inaccessible places, and to ensure that information is getting to agencies about who is doing what," he said. "A cave is the cheapest place to live. But we know the conditions are not sufficient," Oxfam's programme coordinator for northern Afghanistan, Martin Ocaga Ekallam, told IRIN in Bamian. He added that one solution would be to start a food-for-shelter programme for the cave dwellers. "We need to give them provisional shelter to ensure that they are not totally dependent on the aid agencies, because this is not sustainable," he said. Commenting on food security in the province, he said local production was minimal, and although aid agencies were to a certain extent covering the consequent gap, it had been difficult to distribute food in war-affected areas such as Yakolang. "We have tried to get as much food in as possible, but people are living in very harsh conditions, especially during the winter," he added.