Kabul

Kabul – Another Kidnap Attempt

The roads of Kabul look normal today. But with the Korean hostage krisis is still in the air, and also some other foreigner kidnappings, no foreigners are supposed to travel freely on the streets. After the German woman hostage case which already brought earthquake to international media, today there is another similar case, but much more quieter. I received an SMS from a friend: “There has been a shooting within the last 30 minutes in the Qala E Fatullah area in an attempt to kidnap a local businessman. The attempt was believed to have been unsuccessful. However all personnel should be extra vigilant.” 19:51:12 23/08/2007 A local businesswomen interviewed by the TIME said, security in Kabul was merely a joke. In fact, kidnapping is not only towards foreigners. The Christina Meier case went to the news because it was a foreign woman kidnapped. But for local nationals, it’s just a routine occurrence, and this never goes to the news. In recent days, Kabul probably is not anymore a nice place to wander around [...]

August 23, 2007 // 0 Comments

Kabul – School Inauguration

The President himself innaugurates the school A school inauguration in Kabul is attended by the President Hamid Karzai. In the situation when suicide bombing is rampant in the capital, violent attacks are getting common on Kabul streets, and foreigners are kidnapped, there should be something special that the Afghan President decide to inaugurate construction of a high school building. The Ghazi High School was among the oldest, famous, and historical schools in Kabul in its time. The school was originally built in 1923, just 4 years after the independence of Afghanistan from the British control. The civil wars in Afghanistan destroyed the school. In 1994 the school turned to be ruins with empty hollows and walls scattered by bullet holes. The school, the alma mater of current Minister of Higher Education Dr. Dadfar, hibernated. Today, American strip and stars flies proudly next to Afghan flag over a tablet written: “Ghazi High School – The foundation stone of Ghazi High School was laid by H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on 21st August 2007. The school was constructed through the financial assistance of USAID.” The costs of the reconstruction of the Ghazi School is millions of dollars [...]

August 21, 2007 // 0 Comments

Kabul – The Afghan Independence Day

The happy parade inside the stadium When an independence day is celebrated with fading pride as an independent country… If Indonesia is still in splendor of the 62nd anniversary of its independence day, Afghanistan is celebrating its 88th today. The British Treaty of Rawalpindi on August 8, 1919 admitted the self-determination of Afghanistan, of which foreign affairs formerly under British subject. Afghanistan had been arena of power struggle between nations since the beginning of its history, and at the end of the 19th century it became arena of the Great Game between Russian and British imperials. As both imperial powers were almost equally strong, Afghanistan was used as buffer to delimit Russian empire from the British India. Under British and Russian influence, the northern border with Russia (Amu-Darya River), the eastern border with British India (Durand Line) and the border with Persia were drawn. Afghanistan, under subject of Russian-British agreement, was given independence but not in its foreign affairs, which is under the British control. The king Amanullah Khan succeeded to force British to admit Afghanistan as fully independent country, by his invasion to India in 1919 and resulted the Treaty of Rawalpindi. The full independence of Afghanistan was proclaimed [...]

August 19, 2007 // 0 Comments

Kabul – One Year Older

Chinese Food in Kabul Happy Birthday to….. me Today is my birthday. Well… it’s not something special. I have birthday once in a year anyway. One year pass, and I get one year older. I am used not to make my birthday as a special day. I am used to spend birthday lonely, on road, on mountain, in the middle of nowhere, with absence of family and close friends. I am used to it, and I am prepared to it. I was conditioned to live alone. My family sent me to study in China when I was 19. I remembered my last birthday celebrated, when I was 18, was just few days before being enrolled to a university in Surabaya. High school friends came and congratulated me. It was simple, but there were at least 20 friends coming to my little house. That was the birthday party with the biggest numbers of guests. The most terrific in my history, I think. The yellow rice ‘tumpeng’ replaced my birthday cake, and laughter of newly graduated high school students filled the air. That night I remembered as the last moment of mine being a happy high school students, had no other pressure [...]

August 8, 2007 // 1 Comment

Kabul – The Indonesian Family

The only place to taste genuine Indonesian food in Afghanistan ‘If you are abroad, remember, embassy is your home,’ said my elementary school teacher, explaining the function of embassy in a moral education class. This, at least in Afghanistan, is proven true. Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Shahr-e-Nao Kabul is indeed warm shelters for small Indonesian community in this Islamic Republic. There are not too many Indonesians in Afghanistan, and for sure less in Kabul. Not more than 30 Indonesians seen regularly in the embassy in the capital, and that already includes the embassy staff. People come and go. This small community always welcomes newcomers with smiles and prepares farewell party (sometimes almost rained by tears) for those who leave. In the last three months of my stay here, already two long-term Indonesians leave the country. For small family like this, the feeling of losing a member always hurts. The embassy people dominate this little community. Not before December 2006 the Indonesian embassy in Kabul is led by an Ambassador (Duta Besar Luar Biasa dan Berkuasa Penuh – Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary…what a title). As anywhere else, the ambassador comes with his wife, head of domestic affairs (Kepala [...]

July 30, 2007 // 1 Comment

Kabul – Warning: Travel Ban in Afghanistan

No foreigners are allowed to take this road to leave Kabul overland, due to the Korean hostage crisis Following the worsening of the 23 Korean hostages’ crisis, Afghanistan government has instituted new strict security measures in order to protect foreign citizens in the country. Foreigners, de facto, are banned to travel outside Kabul overland. Any foreigners wishing to travel by land must submit first an application to police two days in advance of the trip. To enforce the travel ban, new checkpoints had been instituted at all of Kabul’s main roads. The ban is given to an unlimited time, or will be announced later. I am sure the recent hostage crisis will cause various indirect effects. South Korean government has already included Afghanistan in travel-ban list, forbidding any citizens to get into the country without permission from the government and Afghanistan government was requested not to allow Korean citizens to enter the country. Lonely Planet independent travelers’ guide book is going to publish Afghanistan edition this summer and Aga Khan Foundation is to hold Wakhan Festival in Wakhan Corridor (Badakhshan province) to promote tourism in the isolated area, but it’s very likely that situation in Afghanistan is still not too [...]

July 26, 2007 // 0 Comments

Kabul – Women and Terror

The road of Ghazni, where the incident took place The most recent news brought from the southern part of the country, is the striking hijacking of a bus full of foreigners in Qarabagh district, southern part of Ghazni province, by the Taliban. 18 foreigners on board, all Korean nationals, are taken hostage by the hijackers on 19 July. Among the 18 hostages, 15 of them are females. Initially the people were reported as tourists traveling from Kandahar to go back to Kabul, but later confirmation from the news agency reveals that these Koreans are Christians working as volunteers for a Christian missionary group, Saemmul Community Church in Bundang south of Seoul. These people entered Afghanistan on July 13 and were supposed to return home right after they arrive in Kabul. But the incident on their way to Kabul not only delayed their return, but also put a big question mark on their live survival. This is the largest-scale abduction conducted by the Taliban after 2001. The spokesman of Taliban urged the South Korean government to pull out its 200 troops in the Islamic Republic; otherwise these hostages would be slaughtered. Today I saw from BBC News the Korean newspapers showing [...]

July 21, 2007 // 0 Comments

Kabul – Mengungsi di KBRI

I feel safe under the red and white Suatu pengalaman tak terduga yang membuat saya terpaksa mengungsi di ‘tanah air’ di tengah gelapnya malam Kabul. Seperti biasa, mobil yang mengantar para pegawai kantor kami ke rumah masing-masing berangkat pukul 7. Matahari mulai merunduk di Afghanistan. Senja mulai menjelang di Kabul. Perjalanan pada malam hari mulai mencekam di mana jalan-jalan gelap pekat tak diterangi lampu seakan menelan semua mobil yang berlalu. Saya tidak pernah ikut mobil jemputan, karena saya tinggal di kantor. KBRI juga sudah mulai menelepon, memberitahukan agar datang untuk mengikuti pertandingan olah raga menjelang Agustusan. Saya bilang masih ada sedikit urusan di kantor dan datang agak malaman. Tiba-tiba, teman yang tadi pergi dengan mobil kantor datang kembali. Pukul 8. Wajahnya yang hitam kini nampak pucat pasi. “Kita diikuti pelaku bom bunuh diri!” serunya dengan tergagap. Bom bunuh diri atau penculikan, tak seorang pun bisa memastikan. Namun memang benar, di halaman kantor nampak semua pegawai yang tadinya berangkat dengan mobil itu, datang kembali lagi ke kantor. Mereka tidak jadi berangkat karena mobil kantor diikuti oleh orang mencurigakan. Simpang siur saya mendengar ceritanya. Sejak pagi tadi, ada dua orang tak dikenal yang ‘nyanggong’ di depan pintu gerbang kantor. Pintu gerbang kami [...]

July 11, 2007 // 0 Comments

Kabul – The Americans and the Indonesians

Crushed Kalashnikov The US embassy has a very special program today, to celebrate the destructions of more than one million small arms or light weapons worldwide. That is to show to a bunch of Afghan journalists from selected media of how an AK-47 arm is being destroyed by their Ambassador. So important that the program is, a limited number of the selected media have to come an hour earlier and being scrutinized thoroughly before being able to cover the speech of the Ambassador (which last only for 6 minutes, compact and short, no Q&A session that a female reporter complained the program to be very bland), people from disarmament organization, followed by a demonstration of the Ambassador destroying a Kalashnikov being turned to pieces by an unforgiving drill machine box. Kalashnikov, the Russian branded automatic rifles, had been invented more than sixty years ago (1943), and the AK-47 has the reputation as one of the most reliable rifles. There were already 100 million of Kalashnikov weapons produced worldwide, said the ambassador. The crushing of an AK-47 by his highness American ambassador was in fact a symbolic ceremonial of U.S. government commitment to destroy excess small arms worldwide. From the press [...]

July 9, 2007 // 0 Comments

Kabul – (Another) Explosion in Kabul

The victims of the blast Morning, 8:10 a.m., we just started our daily work. Suddenly we heard a big blast. It was obviously a bomb blast. The sound was very loud, and it should not be very far from where I was. My instinct as a photographer threw me away to the source of the blast. The explosion happened in front of the Police Headquarters, just about 500 m away from my office. It was a mess. I saw a big bus was completely destroyed; police and medical workers were evacuating victims; and other police rushed civilians (including journalists) not to get near. There was no fire. When we arrived (one reporter and two photographers), there were no other journalists there yet. Our office was the closest to the location. But not long after we arrived, police started to beat civilians with sticks to empty the location. This was a big blast. The bus belonged to local Police Academy and was carrying academy attendants. At least this terrorist attack claimed 35 casualties and injured others. Most of the victims are police new recruits, but there were also some poor civilians. A coach carrying four foreigners (two Koreans and two Pakistanis) [...]

June 17, 2007 // 3 Comments

Kabul – A Short Walk at Kabul Underpass

Welcome to Kabul Underpass, or “subway” Today I want to take you to take a walk around the center of Kabul, just to see how the ordinary days pass through, and how the ordinary air fills the atmosphere. Let’s go down to ‘Kabul Subway’. I remembered this phrase when a man from Kandahar I met in 2003, in my first visit to Afghanistan, took me around the capital. It was no kind of underground metro station which I imagined. Kabul Subway, or underground passage to be exact, was the safest crossway for pedestrians from the wild traffic at the heart of the capital. A simple crossway it was not. The dark stairway and crowded underground passage brought me to a deep contemplation, about the live of a country named Afghanistan, a place that used to haunt my dreams, a place that remain in people’s fantasy, a place that turned to be rubbles after endless wars since the history began. It’s very crowded during peak hours, which last for most time of the day I couldn’t forget the shabby dark passage, filled by dozens of children offering plastic bags and shoe polishing service, as well as women bodies wrapped by dirty, [...]

June 12, 2007 // 0 Comments

Kabul – An Expatriate Restaurant Is Closed

Notice of the closure of L’Atmosphere, due to tax problem L’Atmosphere, a French restaurant hidden in a small dusty alley in Kabul, is forced to close by the government, due to a tax failure. I have a personal experience with this restaurant. In 2006, the first day of my arrival in Afghanistan, an Indonesian friend of mine took me to the restaurant to watch the opening match of the World Cup soccer championship. I was not interested to watch World Cup, but as he said that it was a public place with giant screen – which he supposed to make watching football much more interesting, I was thinking of a giant screen in the middle of an open field where a crowd of turbaned Afghan men cheered and supporting their favorite teams. I accepted the invitation. Located in unsigned property in a nondescript dusty alley of Kabul, here is one of the renowned expat heavens in Afghanistan This was the perfect hangout place for the expat. After the closure, many of the Kabul foreigners miss the atmosphere of L’Atmosphere But I was surprised to come to the place. No turbans, no burqas. In fact there is a huge notice in [...]

June 6, 2007 // 0 Comments

Kabul – Those who Survive on Afghan Streets

Ni’mat, the shoe polisher The decades of wars in Afghanistan have left scars on Afghan community. Victims of wars are still visible on busy Kabul streets. War widows and orphaned children beg for donations from the crowds, and poor children also have to work instead of getting access to proper education. The economy disparity causes many people are still not adsorbed into proper occupation. If a father does not make enough money to support his big family, which is very common in Afghanistan, then young children have to start to earn for living. Ni’mat is an 11 year old boy. His name in Arabic means mercy, but his life is not quite a mercy. At this early age, he has to work on streets as shoe polisher. He started this work a year ago, and now he has more responsibilities. His mother does not work, as most women in Afghanistan. His father used to be street worker, hanging around on the street to offer his muscle power. But then, last month, his father got accident because stepped on landmines and stay at home just like his mother. Ni’mat, a cheerful boy, said that he also goes to school in the [...]

May 22, 2007 // 6 Comments

Kabul – Life from the Stinky Mountains

Searching for possible “treasures” in the garbage dump of northern Kabul North of Kabul, on the top of barren hills, is located the garbage dump of all waste of the capital. The complete waste, after passes the selection of waste pickers from all around the capital, ends its journey here. Waste pickers, those who try to find treasures from dumps of waste, can be recognized easily. They are people in dirty clothes, with a sack on their backs, and dwindle around Kabul streets or garbage dumps searching for something. Most of the waste pickers in Kabul are children, besides adult men and women. Garbage from the streets is then dumped here, on a hill north of Kabul, as the final dumping point of all garbage in the whole capital. Garbage which makes its way here can be assumed as the most unusable kind of garbage, or we can say the garbage of all garbage. But still, this kind of place may provide life for some people. Lunch, everybody? Waris, 12 year old boy, spends his full day picking garbage at this central dumping point. Actually not much valuable thing he can find here, but plastic bottles and Coca Cola tins. [...]

May 8, 2007 // 4 Comments

Kabul – Some Broken Eggs from Kabul to Share

“My eggs are broken… my parents will punish me … keen to help?” Broken Eggs A boy is crying as his eggs are broken on a pedestrian street in Kabul. I was among sympathetic passers-by who donated some coins to this poor boy. Later I found out this is a common scam in the capital, as you may find this trick: a boy crying in Kabul’s many busy streetsnext to broken eggs to gather some symphathy from unsespecting people. Telur-telur yang Pecah Seorang bocah kecil yang menangisi telur-telurnya yang pecah di sebuah trotoar di Kabul. Entah apa yang dipikirkannya. Apakah sang ayah akan menghajarnya karena ia telah menyia-nyiakan uang belanjaan hari itu. Apakah sang ibu akan mencacimakinya karena kecerobohannya. Yang jelas, saya bersimpati dan menyumbangkan beberapa keping uang receh yang disambut dengan tangan yang terjulur dari balik wajah yang tersembunyi itu. Kemudian baru saya mengetahui, bahwa ini adalah salah satu teknik mengemis yang mutahir di ibu kota ini: bocah-bocah kecil yang menangis di samping tumpukan telur-telur pecah, menangisi jalan-jalan ramai di kota Kabul, sambil menanti gemericik uang receh dari para pejalan kaki. Scars of war on the streets of Kabul Scars of Wars Three decades of wars have left grey [...]

April 26, 2007 // 3 Comments

Kabul – Brother Ambassador

The Indonesian Embassy in Kabul Today there is opening of a photo exhibition in the newly renovated Kabul Museum, just across the Darulaman Palace. The exhibition shows some old photos of Afghanistan, taken in the 1970s, about the glorious era of the covered bazaar of Tashkurgan. The covered bazaar now is gone. And European historical site preservation mission is trying hard to return the legendary bazaar back to its golden time. As photographers we were invited to attend the opening ceremony. There were long, long speeches from authorities and historians about the importance of preserving historical sites, the mission of photo exhibition, and about the destroyed bazaar of Tashkurgan. Many of the invited guests are foreigners. I feel a strange feeling surrounded by high class Afghan expats accompanied by their super muscular bodyguards. I am just a little photographer assigned by a local office here. During the speech I noticed a man standing next to me. He also looked at me. I was not sure whether he was Indonesian or not, but he seems so. As many Indonesians, I also have a strange hobby of guessing about other people’s identity. Hmm…, this man looks like Indonesian. But I have never [...]

April 25, 2007 // 1 Comment

Kabul – Demonstration against Tolo TV

“Go down with Tolo!!!” scream the protesters There is a demonstration in front of the headquarters of the biggest Afghan private TV station, Tolo TV in Kabul, following urge of the Afghan Attorney General on closure of the TV station. According to Abdul Jabar Sabet the Attorney General, the TV Station had made false report on his comment. He claimed that he was saying that the judicial system was not good, but then reported by the TV he was saying it is the country’s system which is not good. Sabet is very unhappy by this report, as this left impression that he was speaking against the government, not the judicial system. The protesters—the supporters of Sabet—also brought the name of religion and Prophet in their action. The scale of the protest is not really huge—some media reports there are 200 protesters, but I just saw only some dozens. Anyway, the protesters claim there would be 500 people joining their action, a number supposed to be alarming for the capital’s security. By noon, arrive some vehicles bringing more protesters in front of the TV station. Tolo TV’s directors denied Sabet’s accusation, insisted that they did not distort Sabet’s contentions. According to [...]

April 19, 2007 // 1 Comment

Cosmopolitan Men (2006): Menapaki Sejarah Panjang Negeri Afghan

December 2006 COSMOPOLITAN MEN 2006 ADVENTURE Lintas Tengah Afghanistan: Menapaki Sejarah Panjang Negeri Afghan Sebuah jalan membentang sepanjang 1000 km antara Herat dan Kabul. Jalan ini sepi. Jalan ini bisu. Tapi dia menyimpan lebih banyak cerita dari pendongeng terbaik di dunia. Mari kita berjalan dan mendengar ceritanya. Ada sebuah jalan di Afghanistan. Jalan yang sepi, berteman debu, panas dan matahari. Tanpa aspal, berbukit tandus, bergunung tinggi, tanpa peradaban dan tanpa hidup. Kontras dengan kenyataan bahwa jalan ini menyimpan 800 tahun cerita. Cerita tentang Hulagu Khan yang membawa 120 ribu pasukan dalam perang. Yang bertanggung jawab atas pembunuhan peradaban Islam di Irak. Atau legenda tentang si Pincang Timur Lenk, keturunan marga Khan yang mencoba ulangi kejayaan leluhurnya. Herat, Angin Sejarah yang Berlalu Kota Herat di bagian barat Afghanistan dulunya adalah ibukota kerajaan Timur Lenk. Di kota ini kebudayaan Persia berharmoni dengan indahnya dengan kebudayaan Afghan. Arsitektur Masjid Jum’at-nya, kolosal. Benteng lkhtiyaruddin berdiri dengan angkuhnya di atas pasar-pasar tradisional yang sibuk, yang hampir semua orangnya mengenakan surban. Dinasti-dinasti yang dulu berkuasa di sini banyak membangun menara-menara megah atau kompleks bangunan religius seperti masjid dan madrasah. Namun sayang, perang berkepanjangan sejak zaman Inggris hingga era Taliban telah menghancurkan hampir semua kekayaan Herat. Yang [...]

December 20, 2006 // 0 Comments

Khorog – The Journey to GBAO

One of the two brothers, fellow passengers on the journey to Khorog, GBAO, Tajikistan GBAO, the Gorno Badakhshanskaya Avtonomnaya Oblast (Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast) is my main reason to come to Tajikistan. It is dominated by the minority Ismaili Badakhshani Tajiks and Sunni Kyrgyz. It has majestic mountain architectures. But the main reason I want to go to this restricted area was its history. The province was supporting rebel side in the civil war of Tajikistan. The province suffered a lot from the blockade of the central government. Going to Tajikistan is already something strange for my Indonesian friends in Kabul. “Why going to Tajikistan? It is a poor country.” Going to GBAO is another thing to be objected by my Tajik friends in Dushanbe. “Why going to GBAO? It is so far and poor…” Even the Tajik diplomat in Kabul raised his eyebrows when my embassy staff insisted to get a Tajik visa together with GBAO permit. “Is he really a tourist???” For the ‘GBAO’ four letters to be added on my visa I had to pay a painful 100 dollar fee. It is a bureaucratic country, and my embassy told me to follow the rules, as for this [...]

October 18, 2006 // 0 Comments

Kabul – Life of Afghan Police

Two Afghan police (or soldiers) guarding the ex-palace in Kabul My experience yesterday, being beaten by police, is actually nothing new in life in Afghanistan, and especially for journalists. Rights of journalists, as any other civilians, are not yet observed by the police, the guardian of the people, in Afghanistan. Najeebullah, a Pajhwok journalist, was kicked on his chest by a police when he made the coverage about the bomb happening last Saturday. Violence like this is not news anymore. “Why dont you write about the police atittude,” I asked him. They have written so many times, but the police never care, nor change their behaviour. “They are uneducated. They have low salary,” said Wais, telling me the reason for the bad behavior of Afghan police and soldiers. Inspired by this, I would like to learn more about the life of Afghan police. I traveled to Darulaman Palace, at the western part of Kabul. This is a palace built by Amanullah King and now resembled a building after earthquake. The building, and the whole area, suffered a lot from the wars since Mujaheddin time. I met two young police guys there, Manzur, a 20 year old Tajik and Noor Ahmad, [...]

October 3, 2006 // 3 Comments

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