Pashtunwali

Long day today. We picked up some biometric kits and an officer at MOI then drove out the the detention facility (ANDF) at Pol-e-charki prison. We got there just before lunch. The Kandex commander gave is lunch in his office. It was basically the same mean I've had the last couple of times I was there. And it was just as good. As usual, I ate too much and still only ate half of what they gave me.

The officer we brought with us checked the configuration on all the kits they had there. It took about 3 hours. MAJ Perez took a tour of the prison. I hung around outside an watched the prisoners. They were pretty interesting to watch. I had a pashtun interpreter with me. He was telling me what the prisoners were yelling at each other about. He said they were just talking politely asking how each was doing. How their health was. They stared at me for a little, but mostly they ignored me. The interpreter said they he didn't hear them saying anything about us. He said that Pashtuns were very respectful people in general. He told me that once one of the nastiest detainees was yelling and cursing at him but the elders told him to be quiet.

Many were playing soccer. A couple of times they kicked the (mostly flat) soccer ball over the razor wire accidentally. I threw it back to them. An Army major went and talked to them for a bit about their conditions. The only thing they really complained about were their shoes. Apparently they wear out fast. They are more like sandals than shoes.

The interpreter was a young American from New York. His parents were from Pakistan. I talked to him for a while about what he's learned whiles he's been visiting the prison for the last few months. (Not interrogation wise - I don't think they do that at ANDF.) He talked about how tribal this culture was. In Iraq, although there is sectarian violence, they have strong nationalistic feelings. There's much less nationalism in Afghanistan. Most people align with their tribes. The prisoners, who are mostly Pashtuns, used to run the country. Now all the Army and guards are composed of Tajiks. He also mentioned that the guards seem scared of the pashtun detainees. All in all, they were very interesting to watch. It's hard to describe, but they didn't really look like prisoners. They looked more like a tribe of men - all ages - who happen to be stuck behind a fence for the moment.

Talking with this guy, it sounded like working out the political complexities of getting the tribes to agree to work peacefully together to form a single nation-state may be insurmountable. He also reiterated something I've heard several times before, that this country would crumble apart if it isn't run by a Pashtun.