(Photograph) - It is often said in times of conflict that truth is the first casualty of war. But when war continues in a place for 22 years, it could also be said to have claimed the childhoods of a generation.
In Afghanistan, war was the way of things long before the events of September 11 made it a target for reprisals and daily bombing by American B52s. Since the Russian invasion of 1979, conflict has ebbed and flowed across its hostile terrain, claiming an estimated 1.5 million lives, 400,000 of them under 16.
Like these children playing on a Russian tank in a refugee camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs), they lived and died knowing little else. Rates of child mortality in Afghanistan are among the worst in the world - one in four children dies before the age of five, mainly from preventable diseases or malnourishment. In IDP camps, the rate is higher, nearer one in three.
Last winter, 110 children froze to death in an IDP camp near Herat as temperatures dropped to - 26C. “A mother waking in the morning with her child dead in her arms was not uncommon,” an aid worker recalled. The approaching winter looks worse. Many aid agencies withdrew when the bombing started, leaving orphanages and hospitals unstaffed.
Under the Taliban, only half of all boys - and one in 20 girls - were enrolled in primary school. Women, who had previously made up 70 per cent of the nation’s teachers, were prevented from working. Picture books and pastimes such as kite flying were banned, but the child’s instinct for play is undimmed.
In the circumstances, the shell of an abandoned, rusty tank is about as much fun as life can offer. Landmines litter vast areas of the country and playgrounds are unheard of. When Unicef, the United Nations children’s fund, built swings and slides on land cleared of mines in Kabul last year, grown-ups had to show children how to use them.
But what future awaits those who survive? In surroundings where father figures carry guns, and the Northern Alliance are reported to have recruited boys as young as 11, career options are severely limited.
As the facts of this war become obscured amid the exchanges of blame and counterclaim between sides, another adage comes to mind. In war there are no winners, only victims. For these children that is truer than ever.
In September, a group of Afghan children planned to make this plea to a special session of the United Nations urging us not to forget them again when they went home: “Our childhood is passing. There has been war and drought in our country for so long now. Many of us have had to leave our homes and many have died. Each year there is more sickness and poverty. Though you have come and heard our stories many times, we do not see anything changing for us, and we do not know what you are doing with them.” The conference was postponed - because of the attack on New York.
WeblinksAfghan children’s submission to United Nations: www.savethechildren.org.ukpressrelsPdfsafghanistan.pdf Unicef aid efforts: www.unicef.orgnoteworthyafghanistanindex.html What it’s like to be a child in Afghanistan: www.savethechildren.orgafghanistanafghan_child.htm UN reports and photos: www.un.orgNewsdhlatestafghanafghan2.htm
