The Anthropological Outlook of Internally Displaced People from Afghanistan - Essay Example

Anthropological Outlook of Internally Displaced People from Afghanistan number Publish Internally displaced people (IDP) are often wrongly labeled as refugees though such people do not cross international borders in order to find sanctuary. A number of reasons may contribute singularly or collectively in order to displace the population of a region or a geographical entity. IDPs originate most commonly due to acts of war, weather based disturbances such as cyclones, floods etc. as well as due to earthquakes, droughts and other such disturbances. IDPs are forced to emigrate from their native dwellings into other parts of the same geographical entity which is more or less commonly a nation state. This paper will concentrate on IDPs originating from Afghanistan who have been forced to relocate within the territorial boundaries of their own nation. A number of different disturbances have forced millions inside Afghanistan to relocate within the country. Causes for relocation inside Afghanistan include war, ethnic cleansing, genocides, droughts, lack of work opportunities and the rising specter of terrorism. This paper will trace out various such reasons and will link them together to form a comprehensive picture of the state of IDPs in Afghanistan. Afghan culture and history is rife with conflict and strife. Throughout the centuries, Afghanistan has served as the common connection between South Asia and Central Asia as well as China. The geostrategic location of Afghanistan and its population’s ethnic composition has contributed to numerous challenges for Afghans over the centuries. Historically Afghanistan has served as the crossing grounds for marauding armies that were looking to conquer South Asia. This has remained true for conquerors such as Alexander the Great to the more recent Mongols who created the last empire in South Asia. These disturbances have historically forced the Afghans into disparate corners of the world and Afghans can be traced as far as modern Bangladesh due to the influx of marching armies. In addition to these refugees, the incoming armies had the unwanted consequence of internally displacing various Afghan tribes into each other’s territories. Culturally, the Afghan society is composed of various tribes that were forced to take and forsake each other’s territories in the face of large armies moving through Afghanistan. Moreover, these armies also brought in new settlers such as the Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras. In terms of modern Afghanistan, the Tajiks and Uzbeks form major parts of the population in the north eastern provinces of Afghanistan. In contrast, the Hazara are spread all over Afghanistan though the greatest concentration stems near Iran. Other than these tribes, the dominant clan in Afghanistan is the Pasthuns that are further categorized into hundreds of large and small tribes (Gates, 2007). The spotted distribution of these opposed cultural and religious groups meant that Afghanistan required a strong federation to keep the country together. After centuries of infighting, the Afghans were united under the leadership of King Zahir Shah who maintained a fragile peace between these factions. However, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan changed the scenario altogether. The Soviets moved into Afghanistan at the behest of a communist government in Kabul headed by Najibullah. The ethnic and cultural dilemma in Afghanistan was now being transformed into a political dilemma. Once Soviet troops had moved into Afghanistan, the conflict assumed the political dimensions of capitalism versus communism. During the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviets, the ethnic Pashtun groups were armed to the teeth to serve as the bulwark against the Soviets. Ethnic divides became increasingly clear during the early years of the war. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Internal Services Intelligence (ISI) relied in large part on the war skills of Pashtuns such as Gulbadin Hekmatyar, Abdur Rassul Rab Sayyaf and other smaller Pashtun warlords. In contrast, the Tajik warlords such as Ahmed Shah Massoud and Professer Burhanudin Rabbani were largely ignored in terms of armed support (Grad, 2009). After the removal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1988, heavy infighting broke out between Pashtun warlords and other ethnic alliances. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan had the unwanted consequence of forcing millions of Afghans from their homes into neighboring nations as well as into the more remote parts of Afghanistan such as the Panjshir Valley. Effectively millions of Afghans were internally displaced at the hands of the invading Soviet forces (UNHCR, 2012). After the Soviets withdrew, people begun returning to Afghanistan from other nations especially Pakistan as well as from other parts of Afghanistan. However, a stalemate remained in place for four years as the communist led government of Najibullah failed to yield to the attacks by the Pashtun warlords. However, Kabul fell in 1992 to the invading forces of a Tajik leader Ahmed Shah Massoud. This effectively alienated the majority Pashtun population of the country and heavy infighting between the Pashtun warlords and the new government forced another wave of IDPs to take root. Since the new fighting had been initiated by native Afghans, the war was able to reach places that the Soviets had been unable to access. Consequently, over the years a new pattern of IDPs from the remote regions of Afghanistan began to emerge. Other than the fighting, people were forced immigrate into other areas in Afghanistan in order to find better work opportunities. Around a decade of war under the Soviet occupation meant that Afghanistan had no industry or agriculture to support its people. The government of Massoud managed to forge peace with Gulbadin Hekmatyar in 1994 and both factions dedicated themselves to establishing law and order around the country. The newly created opportunities invited yet more people to move into the newly emerging urban centers such as Kabul, Kandahar, Jalalabad and Mazar-i-Sharif (Saikal, 2004). The peace in Afghanistan was short lived as decades of conflict took on a religious tinge after taking on ethnic and political colors. The Taliban emerged as a force to be reckoned with in 1994. By 1996, the Taliban had taken over Kabul and its government while the older warlords were pushed into the shadows. From their very emergence, the Taliban had a radical religious ideology that they pursued without regard to any human values. The Pashtuns and other parts of the Afghan population are Sunni Muslims but Afghanistan is also dotted by the Shiite Muslims such as the Hazara and the Bangash. After removing political opposition, the Taliban began to remove religious opposition with comparable brutality (Hopkins, 2008). The Hazaras became the rallying point for religious opposition and political opposition. The problems were exacerbated by the interference of Iran, which being a Shiite Muslim country, supported the Hazaras to pursue armed insurgency. Thousands of Hazaras were ethnically cleansed throughout Afghanistan particularly around Mazar-i-Sharif (Johnson, 2011). The Hazaras were forced out of their homes around Afghanistan and into the north eastern corners of Afghanistan that were more hospitable due to the presence of the Tajik and Uzbek ethnic minorities. It is interesting to note that the Tajik and Uzbek are also Sunni Muslims but they did not prosecute the IDP Hazaras who reinforced the core fighting militias of the Uzbeks and the Tajiks. The status quo changed in Afghanistan radically following September 11, 2001 as coalition forces swept around Afghanistan and cleared out Taliban strongholds. The immediate battles between the Afghans and the coalition forces forced thousands of Afghans to relocate especially from the remote hills of Torra Borra that became a hunting ground for Osama Bin Laden. Following the uneasy peace in most parts of Afghanistan under the coalition forces, millions have begun to return although they are not choosing to resettle in areas where they migrated from. Instead, returning Afghans can be seen as populating the nascent urban centers such as Kabul, Jalalabad and Kandahar. This has given rise to another wave of IDPs in Afghanistan. Overall it can be seen that Afghanistan has undergone major turmoil over the decades due to war and the resulting instability has produced a large number of refugees and IDPs. The war in Afghanistan has seen political, cultural, ethnic and religious tinges over time that have contributed to consecutive waves of IDPs. The state of affairs inside Afghanistan indicates that IDPs are and will remain a large problem for the Afghan nation largely due to conflict. References Gates, R. M. (2007). From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insiders Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War. New York: Simon & Schuster. Grad, M. (2009). Massoud: An Intimate Portrait of the Legendary Afghan Leader . Webster University Press. Hopkins, B. (2008). The Makings of Modern Afghanistan. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Johnson, R. (2011). The Afghan Way of War: How and Why They Fight. New York: Oxford University Press. Saikal, A. (2004). Modern Afghanistan. A History of Struggle and Survival. London: I. B. Tauris and Co. Ltd. UNHCR. (2012, May 31). Afghanistan. Retrieved November 18, 2012, from Humanitarian Response: http://afg.humanitarianresponse.info/sites/default/files/UNHCR%20IDP%20Report%202012.pdf Read More