Dent in Afghanistan war strategy: Why Kandahar locals turn to Taliban
The key to success in the Afghanistan war, Sen. John McCain said yesterday, is Kandahar. But despite efforts under way to improve governance, locals say they prefer the Taliban's quick justice to corrupt local courts.
An Afghan policeman searches a man at a checkpoint in Kandahar city, south of Kabul, Afghanistan, on July 2. New police checkpoints ringing Kandahar are the first visible signs of an operation under way to break the Taliban's grip on their birthplace and bolster the Afghan government's control in the nation's largest city in the south.
Rahmat Gul/AP
Kandahar, Afghanistan
As he took command of the Afghanistan war this weekend, Gen. David Petraeus wrote to NATO troops of building 鈥渁 brighter future for a new country in an ancient land.鈥�
But around Kandahar, the Taliban's heartland and what Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona called Monday the "key to success or failure" in the war, growing numbers of citizens are turning away from the new Afghanistan鈥檚 corruption-plagued justice system to an ancient means of resolving disputes that is overseen by the Taliban.
Some go because they鈥檙e Taliban partisans, most others because the Taliban have something to offer that the government of Afghanistan so far does not: Fast, generally impartial justice from a court that doesn鈥檛 demand bribes for its services.
The phenomenon is part tradition 鈥� local mullahs have been adjudicating disputes between farmers and small businessmen for centuries.
But it鈥檚 also evidence of a government that has so far failed to deliver the governance that is crucial to success of America's strategy in Afghanistan, according to its advocates. They are well aware that it was the predatory behavior and corruption of local warlords in the early 1990s that drove many Afghans, seeking honesty and an end to anarchy, into the arms of the Taliban.
Why Rahmatullah recommends Taliban courts
Kandahar 鈥� and Afghanistan more generally 鈥� is far from the state of collapse that prevailed then. But the fact that citizens are turning voluntarily to the Taliban鈥檚 parallel government in a city and province that is now the focus of a massive US and Afghan military buildup is a reminder of the limits of arms alone in defeating the insurgency.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 like our current government at all, and I don鈥檛 really like the Taliban, either. But I can either spend months in the government court and pay bribes, or I can go to the Taliban and have the matter settled in one day,鈥� says Rahmatullah, who helps manage a construction site on the plains outside Kandahar where Al Qaeda once maintained training camps. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an easy choice to make.鈥�
He says he returned home in 2004, after almost 20 years in Pakistan, with optimism about the government of President Hamid Karzai. But he says he鈥檚 lost faith. 鈥淚n the government areas, there are warlords everywhere and all the police have their hands out.鈥�
An official working with the Canadian-led Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar says they鈥檙e well aware of the issue, and that part of the problem is the lack of competent judges. He says they鈥檙e running a crash program to give basic training and hope to add 15 to 20 new judges to the Kandahar court system in the coming months.
Qaseem Ludin, the deputy director of Afghanistan鈥檚 anticorruption agency, says most judges across the country don鈥檛 have a degree beyond high school. He acknowledges that some judges take bribes, while others are intimidated by whichever of two disputants is more powerful. 鈥淲e have a plan to build the judicial system's capacity, but it鈥檚 going to take time," he says.
How the mullahs get quick results
Rahmatullah, who asked that his full name not be used, contrasts his recent experience with the government court in Kandahar city with that of a property dispute that he took to the Taliban three months ago. Disputes over land in deeply rural Afghanistan are as common as summer sunshine after more than 30 years of war that have destroyed documents and encouraged land grabs from owners that fled the fighting.
The disputed land near the village of Marwais had led to fistfights among family members. The disagreement was threatening to turn even more violent, and the Taliban reached out to Rahmatullah and his cousin, the main parties, promising an impartial hearing.
He and his cousin agreed, and were invited to an ad hoc Taliban court in a ruined farmhouse, where a panel of five mullahs guarded by two gunmen reviewed their documents, consulted the stacks of books on Islamic jurisprudence at their elbows, and after about an hour found in Rahmatullah鈥檚 favor.
鈥淢y cousin wasn鈥檛 happy about it at first,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut the Taliban mullahs convinced him that to take my land was a sin, and that he鈥檇 go to hell for it. They eventually satisfied him.鈥�
There is an element of coercion for some participants in the Taliban court process. The Islamist group has sent threatening letters to men who have refused to participate. Locals say that most people comply since the group still carries out assassinations inside the city, particularly in its crowded bazaar.
After $1,400 in bribes, district court has yet to rule
Still, Rahmatullah says, in most cases it鈥檚 a matter of being practical. As evidence, he brings up an inheritance dispute over another piece of land with his brother that鈥檚 currently before the Kandahar district court.
He says he has paid about $1,400 in bribes so far to a clerk in the court that he suspects is also extracting cash from his brother, playing the two sides off one another.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been months and we still don鈥檛 have a result. It鈥檚 disgusting," he says. "I鈥檝e told all my friends and relatives to use the Taliban courts.鈥�
Scared of the Taliban, officials hand over documents
Mohammed, who also asked that his full name not be used, is a landowner and also has a business running minibuses between Kandahar city and some of the surrounding towns. He chuckles about how his case was handled.
After his first approach to the Taliban, they told him to go to the land registry office and get the documents for his case. 鈥淚 walked in and they asked me why 鈥� I told them I was taking a dispute to the Taliban. They were scared, and they gave me the documents without any hassles.鈥�
His case was presided over by three mullahs in the garden of a private home just outside town. The Taliban ruled that it should be equally divided. 鈥淭he key thing was that the dispute was ended. I have to live and work here. I choose what works.鈥�
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