News
The AfghansSpeak (Part 1 - The Interview)
"...ithas become really worse... since the appearance of Taliban."
Three men who authorities say are Afghan nationals have been thecenter of attention in the Cayman Islands since the 11 Septemberterrorist attacks on the United States which that country blameson groups operating out of Afghanistan. The reason for them comingunder the limelight here was a combination of their nationalityand a letter written by a Caymanian and sent to a local radiostation since August forecasting the disastrous events in Americaand implicating these men.
Authorities subsequently detained them and they were freed bya court last week. This is the second time the men, Nek NazarNekary; Mohammad Raza Hussani; and Ali Sha Yusufi, have held thespotlight here.
They became the focus of attention 14 months ago, having appearedon the Cayman Islands with no personal or immigration documentation.After 10 months of detention they were determined to be Afghansapplying for political asylum and set free until the events of11 September.
Below is the first in a three-part series of a Cayman Net Newsinterview with the men, following our publication of an overallreport on them in the last edition.
This is the first time the men have spoken to any media organisation.
Nek is the most fluent in English and he fielded questions onbehalf of the trio.
His answers are published almost verbatim, except for some repetition,as we seek to allow readers to get for themselves the story astold by these men.
Cayman Net News: It's very good of you to agree to this interview.
Nek: You see, the situation is, there are a lot of doubts. Soto make these doubts a little clearer.
CNN: Why did you choose to leave Afghanistan?
Nek: There are many reasons for it. Many of them will compromisemy own and my family's safety. And the safety of my friends (indicatingthe other two Afghanistan refugees) too. So, I am not going tospeak about personal, because they can really make problems formy family.
CNN: How large is your family?
Nek: My first family, that saying my mother and father, my grandparentsare still living, my uncles. Well, as you know in Afghanistanthe family ties are very strong and the families are quite extended.Like we live in one area about 15,000 people so if I give youa list of, all of them are the son of one person. Like it's thesame if you start from a close point and you go very far.
CNN: Right. And would you say the threeof you are like family, are very close?
Nek: No. We are from two different districts of the same province.
CNN: You've mentioned several times thecultural, ethnic and religious differences in Afghanistan. Whatmakes you different from the Taliban?
Nek: This is really a very good question and I hope everyone willthink over this question very much because this is the main, themain main reason really why we are running from the Taliban andwhy there are so many differences arising.
I will start from the first. The first thing is: we are of twodifferent races. I'm talking about mine, our own, and Taliban'sdifferences. If I talk in general in Afghanistan there are fourdifferent races. The majority race is Pashtoon. These are theTaliban. The next is Tajik. The next would be Ozbik. And the fourthwill be our race which is Hazara. Except Pashtoon, all these otherthree races, three main races, are the minority races. Althoughwe have some other minority races too. When I'm talking of differentraces, I'm talking of total physical differences. We look likevery different. We don't look the same, totally different in physicalappearance. This is one difference.
The second is our religion. Like the four races that I named,Pashtoon, Ozbik and Tajik, they are Sunni Muslims. They are ofthe sect called Sunni. And Hazara people, which is our race, iscalled Shia and we believe in Shia.
The third difference is of the language. Pashtoon people speaka language is called Pashto and the three minority races, mainlytwo of them speak Persian Dari. One ethnic group remains and theyare called Ozbik and their language is Ozbiki. Yeah. But all ofthem can speak Persian too. Mainly these three minority racesare called Persian-speaking races.
So apart from these three main differences, which is of race,religion and language, we also have cultural differences. Ourtraditions, our cultures, are very different. From Taliban. Sobased on these differences for the past many centuries, reallywe have never been able to come together. As you know, in Afghanistan,before Russian invasion the system of government was Kingdom.
CNN: Yes.
Nek: And it was one family of Pashtoons that were ruling overcenturies. And I must tell here that there was part of our history there was conflict that we had with Pashtoon people wasin 1890's. So one of the Pashtoon Kings, his name was Abdur Rahman.He cleansed about 65 per cent of our population. About 65 percent.
CNN: Ethnic cleansing?
Nek: Yes. It was.
CNN: And they did ethnic cleansing of 65per cent?
Nek: Sixty-five per cent. Everywhere they built towers of Hazarapeople's skulls. He built walls. He built even castles of theHazara people's skulls. And that is really the worst part, theworst conflict with the Pashtoon people and after that bitternesseven increased. The following kings did not give right to people,they continued in the same way, ethnic cleaning people. Like oneof the things which is very famous, a term which they use andpractice is 'Hazara-hunting'. So everywhere they catch Hazaradoing something they go and catch them and kill them. It's calledHazara-hunting. It's one of their favourite practices.
So we come to the Russian revolution when Russians invaded Afghanistan.So the situation changed a little bit. Some of the people werealso influenced by communism. So, as you know, for about, forthe past twenty years, after the Russian revolution, there isa war going on.
CNN: Yes.
Nek: Especially in the past few years it has become really worse.Really worse since the appearance of Taliban. Before there werepolitical groups of Pashtoon people but they were all dividedso they were not strong enough in different places but when Talibancame in all Pashtoon people, especially those fanatics, so theygot together and started really the same thing their fore-fatherswere doing to our people. I must mention that the first time theyentered Kabul, they attacked Kabul in '95, thousands of our peoplewere killed.
CNN: This was the Russians or Taliban?
Nek: This was after the Russians.
CNN: After?
Nek: Yes. And following, when they captured Kabul in '96 thenin 1998 they close towards Northern areas. In August '98, I willnever forget this. When they captured our Northern city of Mazar-e-Sharifand they brutally killed more 10,000 people.
CNN: You witnessed this?
Nek: I was in Afghanistan. We live in the central part. But Iam well aware what happened. So every street, every corridor,every yard, every room, was full of innocent people, innocentwomen and children, all of them fallen in their blood. Everywhereit was silent.
Mazar-e-Sharif was silent. For 10 days, Taliban stopped journalists,United Nations, and other aid agencies to go in and see the situation.For 10 days they stopped it and after 10 days, people went in,some journalists, they saw what has happened there.
The whole Mazar-e-Sharif was full of dead bodies. So it was somethingvery urgent. United Nations and some local people they starteddigging, making some mass graves, and removing bodies. And itwas not very late, just after one month. One month! That theydid this mass killings. You must have heard the name of BamiyanCity?
CNN: Yes.
Nek: Bamiyan City is in the center of Afghanistan. So they attackedBamiyan City. Bamiyan City is also a Hazara populated city. BamiyanCity was attacked and captured by Taliban and in the same wayas Mazar-e-Sharif, 8,000 people were killed there. Massacred.
But they stopped the world from watching that. Very few peopleknew it. I'm sure you can confirm what I say from United Nationsand Amnesty International. They did make some reports about thiskillings.
CNN: You are obviously well versed in thesehistorical events that took place.
Nek: The first thing which persuaded me to know more and morewas the situation. When I saw all this injustice, when I saw allthis killing, when I saw all this dictatorship of the Talibanin one race that they want to rule our Afghanistan and oppressall other ones, it was the main, the main energy, the main stimulusthat made me investigate why is it happening. Why? For how longis it happening? How long will it continue?
CNN: What were you working at during thattime period? Teacher or scholar?
Nek: No. I was a student. My family background is good in education.Yes. So I was not studying my textbooks only but I was studyingsome history books too.
CNN: Of the country?
Nek: Yes. Especially from some elders. I would listen what hashappened.
CNN: And your colleagues were students tooat the time?
Nek: Uh, no. I did not know them, my friends, at the time. Well,I met them there just by travel. They are from different places.
CNN: Your English is quite good. Where didyou learn to speak English so well?
Nek: I must thank you for praising me. Well, I must start fromnow to the past. This is fourteenth month that I am in the CaymanIslands, an English speaking country. And most of the time I spentin the Northward prison and as you know, the prison has a goodsystem of education.
CNN: It does.
Nek: And I was studying classes there. From there I learned alot. And every day, every conversation with everyone is good classof English. And when I speak to my friends I do nothing but translatingEnglish news and English comments. And you can imagine how muchthis could help me for the past months here.
CNN: Yes.
Nek: And I have really improved my English times here, than Iknew before. Well in Afghanistan too I had a special teacher,a private teacher. I studied more than two years with him. Thenin school in Afghanistan, we have English as a subject. It's acompulsory subject you have to take right from grade six.
Next: Differences in education amongthe Afghan ethnic groups.