JURIST EXCLUSIVE – Law students in Afghanistan are filing reports with JURIST on the situation there after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. Here, a law student in Kabul offers his latest observations and perspective. For privacy and security reasons we are withholding his name and institutional affiliation. The text has been only lightly edited to respect the author’s voice.
Yesterday, 26 August 2021, two explosions occurred in Kabul Airport that took the lives of more than hundred people, 13 of whom were US troops and 90 or more were civilians. The blasts injured an unknown number. All this happened in the wake of the US government’s announcement that it was not able or willing to extend its evacuation efforts beyond August 31.
This news caused unease among Afghan citizens that was worsened by the Taliban’s annoucement of their reluctance to let Afghan civilians leave the country. Hence, a great many approached the airport gates yesterday in hope of being evacuated sooner than 31 Aug., recognizing that the actual end-date for evacuation could come much sooner for the people of Afghanistan, as US military personnel and 01 Battalion of Afghan Army (who have not surrendered and now work for the US military), would need close to 48 hours to evacuate themselves. All this paved a way for terrorist groups to use this opportunity and attack Afghan civilians and US troops at the airport.
There are decades when nothing happens and there are weeks when decades happen. In barely more than a week in Afghanistan, we have gone from losing a proxy war, through betrayals, economics collapse and so on to the emergence of another group of extremist psychopaths who will kill for pleasure and mythical gains. The Afghan currency is not the only thing that took a value dive against the USD since 15 Aug. The value of Afghan lives has dropped significantly too, with more than 25 people shot and killed around the Airport by random shots of both the US military and Taliban during this evacuation, and now more than 100 people are dead in bombings.
The worst part of fearing for your life – fearing you may get blown into pieces – is watching other people get obliterated from the face of the earth time and again. When that happens you are drained of sympathy. It reminds me of the stories told by Auschwitz survivors. In his famous book “Man’s Search for Meaning”, Victor Frankl explained how watching people die daily in the concentration camp took away their ability to feel for others. The same is happening here in Afghanistan now. Seeing so many of our fellow human beings die is taking our ability to sympathize, and present numbers may increase once the fog clears since the health care system is not working to even a third of its potential, and the number of severely injured people may yet cause the death toll to rise. Watching rivers of blood flow in front of you and not having a single cell of your body feel empathy – that marks the gradual death of morality, meaning and love.
One final economic point: someone should really tell the coffin makers and the undertakers that there will be business this week.
