Associated Press
MARJAH, Afghanistan — Elders in a former Taliban stronghold berated and challenged Afghanistan’s president Sunday, delivering a litany of complaints about government corruption and NATO’s military operations on the Afghan leader’s first visit to Marjah.
President Hamid Karzai said that’s exactly what he had come to hear.
“Today, I’m here to listen to you and hear your problems,” Karzai told about 300 men who sat shoulder to shoulder on the floor of a mosque in central Marjah.
Thousands of U.S., NATO and Afghan troops seized the town of 80,000 people from the Taliban this month in a three-week offensive seen as a major test of a new strategy to win over Afghans by routing insurgents from population centers, setting up an effective civilian government and rushing in aid.
On Sunday, many of the assembled elders said they wanted to side with the government, but that their experience so far made them skeptical.
They complained — sometimes shouting — about corruption among former Afghan government officials. They lamented how schools in Marjah were turned into military posts by international forces. They said shops were looted during the offensive, and alleged that innocent civilians were detained by international forces.
“Over the past seven years we have suffered problems imposed by authorities,” said Abdullah, who only gave one name. Then, “in the past 20 days since the international forces have come here, people have been killed and wounded, our market has been destroyed, and houses destroyed.”
Seated on a cushion in his trademark peaked hat and a black suit, Karzai nodded as men in dusty tunics and long beards stood up at a podium next to him and catalogued grievances. Sometimes he interrupted their speeches to respond, or just to agree. Elders in the crowd occasionally stood up to correct the speakers.
The government’s task is to convince residents of the town in southern Helmand province that the civilian government can provide them with a better life than the Taliban. The Marjah push — the largest offensive since the 2001 ouster of the extremist group — was the first since President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 new American troops to try to reverse the Taliban’s momentum.
Mohammad Naeem Khan, in his early 30s, said his loyalty is to whoever will provide for him.
“If the Taliban tap me on the shoulder, I will be with them, and if the government taps me on my shoulder I will be with them,” Khan said.
