Confusion and anger over Balkh raid

"It was during evening prayers when five foreign helicopters landed in our village," recalled Mohammad Amin, a resident of Khanabad village in the Charbolak district of Balkh province. "American troops, accompanied by their Afghan interpreters, surrounded our houses. They searched the homes of Sufi Mohammad Gul, Shah Khan, Tela Mohammad, Juma Khan, Shahabuddin, Shir Jaan, as well as mine." According to multiple witnesses, the alleged foreign troops, who are said to have numbered over 50, broke down doors, struck local residents, and ripped the locks off storage boxes. More than one villager claims that valuables such as gold jewelry were pocketed by the soldiers' Afghan interpreters in the course of the operation, which reportedly occurred on October 10. But beyond Khanabad, there's a good deal of confusion surrounding the incident: the American military and the Kabul leadership say they have no knowledge of it; provincial officials believe there was a raid, but aren't sure of the nationality of the foreign troops said to involved; while NATO has spoken of a counter-narcotics operation by Afghan troops with logistical help from foreign forces. "We were sitting at home when they broke in," said Amin. "They were smashing everything. They even broke into our women's storage boxes. The Americans broke the boxes and their Afghan interpreters were stealing the jewelry." Asked how he was sure that the troops were from the United States, Amin replied, "They were all masked and dressed in military uniforms, but we recognised the Americans from the little flags on their arms. Everyone knows American flags today." Mohammad Gul, another Khanabad resident, confirmed the account. "When the Americans broke into my house, they handcuffed me first and then attacked my wife's storage boxes," he told IWPR. "They scattered everything on the floor. Then one of their Afghan interpreters, who called me a 'smuggler', took away two sets of my wife's gold jewelry, which was made in Bahrain. Each set cost more than 5,000 US dollars." Charbolak, which sits approximately 30 kilometres east of the capital, Mazar-e-Sharif, was until recently a major centre for the production and trafficking of opium poppy. But Balkh has made progress in stamping out the illegal crop, and in 2007 was certified "poppy-free" by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, UNODC. The majority of the population of Charbolak is Pashtun, and the district is one of the less stable areas in what is generally thought to be a secure province. Mohammad Mihdi, spokesperson for the International Security Assistance Force, ISAF, in Mazar-e-Sharif, confirmed that a security operation had taken place in Khanabad. "The special counter-narcotics forces of the Afghan interior ministry conducted the operation to discover drugs," he said. "ISAF forces in Mazar-e-Sharif supplied fuel for their helicopters." But Lieutenant Commander Walter Matthews, spokesperson for US forces in Afghanistan, said that his office had no knowledge of the incident. American troops in Afghanistan fall under one of at least two command structures, making it difficult at times to determine which units are responsible for a certain operation. The 32,000 American soldiers in Afghanistan are split between ISAF–which answers to NATO–and the mainly US Coalition force–controlled by US central command. There are also American special forces operating in Afghanistan. Provincial officials insist there was a security operation in which locals were harmed, but weren't able to reveal the nationality of the foreign troops reported to have taken part. Balkh governor Atta Mohammad Noor called the raid "a reckless operation". "If such actions are repeated I will advise the people to attack the foreign troops with sticks and stones," he said, although he said "it is still not clear which foreign military unit was involved in the operation". Balkh police chief Sardar Mohammad Sultani told IWPR that his office, too, had few details. The police should be kept abreast of military operations, he said, since they have the local knowledge necessary to make such actions a success. "We learned about the [Khanabad] operation only when the helicopters landed," he told IWPR. "We immediately dispatched police units to the area, but the foreigners had surrounded the village and did not allow us to approach. We had to wait for about three hours for the operation to end." Once the foreign troops departed and the police were able to get into the area, they rushed a wounded villager to a nearby hospital, said Sultani. Meanwhile, the Kabul leadership pleads ignorance about the whole affair. Noor told journalists that he had spoken to President Hamed Karzai about the incident, and he told him that he was in the dark about it. So, it seems, is interior ministry spokesman Zmerai Bashiri. "The Afghan interior ministry does not have any helicopters, so I know nothing about this," he said. Afghan security officials in Mazar-e-Sharif say they have formed a commission to investigate the raid. But Mohammad Naser Amini, a professor in the department of law and political science at Maulana Jalaluddin Balkhi University in Mazar-e-Sharif, expressed doubt that a commission would get to the bottom of the matter. "The government forms commissions after every incident but we never learn of the results," he said. "Conducting such operations has undermined the legitimacy of the presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan. It makes people furious." The incident in Charbolak may seem fairly minor when compared with bombing raids such as those this summer in Shindand and Jalalabad, which left dozens of civilians dead. But last month's operation has caused anger and resentment in Balkh. "It is shameful that neither our president nor any other government officials know anything about military operations conducted in our country," complained Noorullah, a Mazar-e-Sharif resident. "They should not remain in their posts any longer. These incidents involving foreigners are just producing more Taleban." The alleged Khanabad victims are demanding an apology and compensation for their losses. "They beat my father and broke his hand," said Atta Mohammad, a Khanabad resident. "They dishonoured our household and took away everything. I do not care what commissions they establish. The Americans must pay for my mother's gold jewelry. They must also apologise to my father."