In these days I was about to publish the communicated rituals about flattering statements by Italian commanders in Afghanistan about the democratic process under way in the country. I did not succeed.
This is because, after visiting Afghanistan for the first time in 2011 (beautifully hosted by our contingent in Herat), the following year I decided to go and check "the old way" what was happening and what the Afghans thought of we.
The premise of my journey was that you could not understand what a person really thinks by looking at her through the armored glass of a Lynx or while surrounded by soldiers in a "courtesy visit".
In that month, spent talking with anyone I could, I learned a lot.
I have discovered that there are no safe regions: one kilometer from the police stations they command the "others" and in many areas on the pacified map, after the 16.30 (when traffic decreases), the streets are filtered by bands in search of government from eliminate or unfortunate to loot.
I learned that, while competing to write stories about burqas (they are still very common), the genocide perpetrated for over a century against the Hazara, one of the main ethnic groups of the country, reduced to a state of slavery in the past and ignored massacred until 2001 because of the eastern features and composed of "infidels" (Shiites in a country with a Sunni majority). This also makes me wonder every year why in the "day of remembrance" we should only remember a few when almost every day many more are exterminated ...
With immense pain I realized that compared to the Afghan Shiites, Mahatma Gandhi was a violent man: when he met a Hazara from the Bamiyan valley, who had escaped with his family from the Taliban 15's own massacre of his village years ago fleeing the mountains at night ( those who had trusted the conciliatory words of their executioners remained), I heard myself say that after the 2014 the alternative would have been either to flee abroad or wait for one's destiny. When I asked if he would take up arms to defend his family, I heard that the killing of a human being is contrary to the most elementary principle of Shiism. But weren't the Iranians the violent Shiites?
One issue surprised me most of all. In 32 days I tried to validate my conviction linked to the Afghan traditions and the many books read: check if the Italians were only some of the many "foreign unbelievers invaders" present in the country. I did not succeed.
The Italians have developed an esteem and a widespread feeling of friendship. From the imams of mosques to the common people with whom I spoke for days, the consideration of Italians is "particular": we are not confused with the other "occupants" and even when there is no previous direct knowledge there is esteem. I remember a young Uzbek policeman who, sitting at a kiosk in Mazar i-Sharif, stressed how Italians and Uzbeks were also somatically similar. I remembered the "one face a race" of the Mediterranean film ...
Surely this merit as well as the work of our contingents in the last 13 years is also due to the ancient help brought by humanitarian organizations such as Emergency.
If I doubt that Italy itself is a democracy, I unfortunately have the certainty that Afghanistan will not be able to define itself as such, apart from the ceremonies.
Near the electoral ballot news comes from Afghanistan of violence (we expected) and numerous and serious electoral fraud.
My invitation to the military and diplomatic leaders still present is to avoid writing reassuring announcements and keeping your eyes open in advance. Act firmly and do not look the other way because an ally or a powerful local says to do it.
It must be - today, not in a week - simply to prevent someone from bitching the work of many years, paid with the blood of too many countrymen.
Andrea Cucco
