Sanjar’s reflections on coming back to Kabul are worth reading:
As the plane approaches the runway it comes out from the east. I saw the hydroelectric damn, very illuminated while surrounded by darkness. On Kabul – jalalabad road, there are NATO, UN and other foreign offices. Even for a new comer this is clear, the compounds are as light as the power damn. They are well generator-ed. It scared me a bit, for a moment I realised what it felt like to be taken to a concentration camp. The compounds have big searchlights and high watchtowers, so light and so high that you can tell from the plane. I don’t know why the realisation was connected with concentration camps, as an Afghan I have a rich repertoire of camps; it is not a strange idea to Afghanistan. Perhaps because in my head I associate concentration camps with the west and the compounds on the ground are owned by the westerners too. it feels like a cramp on the leg, except it is on both. I didn’t feel it but I realised what it feels for those who went to concentration camps. It feels hopeless, it is more like a leg cramp but there is no recovery.
This post was written by...
Joshua Foust – author of 1801 posts on Registan.net.
Joshua Foust is a Fellow at the American Security Project and the author of Afghanistan Journal: Selections from Registan.net. His research focuses primarily on Central and South Asia. Joshua is a correspondent for The Atlantic and a columnist for PBS Need to Know. Joshua appears regularly on the BBC World News, Aljazeera, and international public radio. Joshua is also a regular contributor to Foreign Policy’s AfPak Channel, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Reuters, and the Christian Science Monitor. Follow him on twitter: @joshuafoust
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