" The unrest follows a recent report in the American magazine, Newsweek, that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had desecrated the Koran in order to put pressure on Muslim prisoners.Investigators probing reported abuses at Guantanamo Bay found that interrogators "had placed Korans on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet," Newsweek said.
Former Guantanamo inmates told the BBC Urdu service earlier this month that some Arab prisoners had still not spoken to their interrogators after three years to protest at the desecration of the Koran by guards at the camp. "
Why now? Why in May 2005?
" The American military is still trying to analyze whether the violence is politically driven, instigated by outsiders or a sign of general public frustration with the slow pace of reconstruction in the country, said a spokesman, Col. James Yonts. Students interviewed in Kabul pointed to the presence of American troops in the country as another source of resentment.Local governors might also be encouraging protests against the central government and its American backers to improve their own standing before parliamentary elections in September, said Jandad Spinghar, head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission in Jalalabad. "
Well-documented stories about the desecration of the Koran at Guantanamo have been available for months. Human Rights Watch released a report in October 2004 on living conditions at Guantanamo. They relied on a report from July 2004 by the Center for Constitutional Rights.1
The Newsweek article doesn't tell us anything new, but it clearly provided a trigger. No one is - or should be - taking "Newsweek as the cause of the riots" at face value. There are other reasons for riots right now. As reported in the article from the Times, upcoming elections are one.
Another - that we ignore at our peril - is the increasing pressure on the drug trade. Two surveys released in April suggest poppy cultivation is way down this year. Karzai's government, strongly supported by the UN, Britain, and the US, has led the reduction efforts, which have included both eradication and alternative economic incentives for farmers.2
The province of Nangarhar has been the focal point of these plans. The provincial capital is Jalalabad – the city where the riots began this week.
. . .
1 You can be sure that the Pentagon has followed to stories about what goes on in Guantanamo. You might even reasonably expect our military leaders to keep close track of the conditions at a very high – internationally renowned, even - profile prison. Stories about the desecration of the Koran began surfacing in 2003. Yet the investigation begins after there is violence half a world away. Further, the debunking of the story begins within days after it was used to promote riots – and far too soon for an investigation to be complete.
Why does our military always seem to be reacting and not anticipating? What a way to run a war.
2 CARE also released a report in April about counter-narcotics strategies. They emphasized the need for long-term and sufficient funding. One of CARE's offices was targeted in the rioting.
. . .
UPDATE: Newsweek has now backed off the story when barked at by the Pentagon. It seems the source Newsweek relied on was either misquoted, misunderstood, or recanted. Not that any of that matters in Afghanistan.
Posted by Martial