Disability in Afghanistan, the report by Égalité

At least 243 individuals - including more than 70 civilians - have been killed in the 20-year war waged by the United States in Afghanistan, (1) but little or nothing is known about the injured and more generally about people's living conditions with disabilities.

One year after the US flight from Kabul, (2) Égalité publishes a report with interviews, images and data collected in Herat by his friend and journalist Morteza Pajhwok. The voices of the protagonists well express the needs of an abandoned people.

1) Afghanistan, wars and disabilities

The prevalence of disability escapes the statistics. In Afghanistan as in Italy, in Europe (3) and in the world, where the last World report on Disability WHO dates back to 2011, confirming the global lack of interest in the weakest.

1.1) Causes and Effects

The legacy of half a century of wars, beyond the statistics, it is visible in the report by Morteza Pajhwok with Égalité:

people battered with heavy and light weapons, missiles and drones. In addition to hundreds of thousands of mines and cluster bombs, about 300 in the years 2001-2002 alone, mostly still unexploded (4,5),
health services totally devoid of resources to pay for doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, equipment and devices, medicines. (6) It is thus impossible to prevent disabilities, right from gestation, and mitigate their effects,
almost non-existent social, educational and assistance services. Families are alone in distress, except for the help of the few charities still present in some areas of Afghanistan. (6)

1.2) Universal poverty

The end of the cd 'Enduring Freedom Operation' (2001-2022) restored power - and left armaments - in the hands of the mujahideen, alias Taliban, originally formed on the initiative of the United States (7,8,9,10). Except imposing an economic embargo that has a tragic impact on 40 million human beings.

'Universal poverty' is the concept expressed in the latest UNDP report (United Nations Development Programme) where in September 2021 - before the Ukrainian conflict and the drought - 97% of the Afghan population was expected to be below the poverty line. (11)

At least 19 million people they are now exposed to hunger and malnutrition, which in turn causes obstacles to children's development and irreversible disability. Disabled people and their families - in Afghanistan as well in Europe, albeit at different levels - they are the most exposed and in need at the same time. (12, 13)

2) Disability in Afghanistan, the report

Morteza Pajhwok, born in 1996, collected scenario information and nine 'unfiltered' interviews on disability in Afghanistan. In Herat - the second province after Kabul, in the Northeast, with 2,2 million inhabitants of 10 tribes and as many ethnic groups - once known as 'Great Khorasan'.

The interviews involve both people with disabilities and the director of the disability section of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The ICRC of Herat Province has provided assistance to nearly 48 people with disabilities in western Afghanistan since 1992.

2.1) Download

Amputations and spinal injuries, war wounds and diseases require the same treatments, aids and supports required in every country in the world and prescribed by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). With attention, among other things, to the accessibility of places and services, and to the needs of personal mobility.

Égalité proposes to its readers who run the download of this report to make a symbolic donation, so that these shared needs can find an independent voice and an opportunity for support also through ours intelligent (wheelchair) chair project.

Wire transfers carried out with the indications Afghanistan or AFG will be destined to the already existing initiatives on the spot for the protection of people with disabilities.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORTAGE

3) Perspectives

Multipolarity is the only hope to bring back to the planet the necessary peace to build rather than destroy, nourish and cure rather than kill and devastate. The Taliban are now trying to reactivate the economy of Afghanistan with the help of Russia, after the US flight ended on 30.8.21.

On 27.8.22 Nuruddin Azizi, Afghan minister Interim industry and commerce, announced the agreement reached with Moscow for the purchase of gas and petrol to be paid in rubles. The Taliban Chamber of Commerce and Investment also trusts in the supply of Russian grain and food. (14)

The international community in any case, it must invest significant resources, both to finance the reclamation of the territories from mines and cluster bombs, and to assist the war wounded - including the many afflicted by post-traumatic stress - which no one has so far even counted.

#Égalité

Dario Dongo

Footnotes

(1) Neta C. Crawford, Antonio De Lauri, Suzanne Fiederlein, Catherine Lutz, SaraJane Rzegocki, Asters Suhrke. Cost of war, Afghan civilians (updated August 2022). The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Browne University

(2) Lynne O 'Donnel. How America Sealed Afghanistan's Fate — Again. Foreign policy. 28.8.22

(3) 'Disability statistics often rely on self-reporting of disabilities'. Disability statistics introduced (update August 2021). Eurostat

(4) Fatally Flawed. Cluster Bombs and their use by the United States in Afghanistan. Human Rights Watch. 18.12.03

(5) Suzanne Fiederlein, Sara Jane Rzegocki. The Human and Financial Costs of the Explosive Remnants of War in Afghanistan. The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Browne University. 19.9.19

(6) Patrick Wintour. Afghanistan: NGOs call for assets to be unfrozen to end 'near universal poverty'. The Guardian. 15.8.22

(7) Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State under Barack Obama, has stated multiple times - in 2011 to Fox News (The text of the interview) and on 1.3.22 to MSNBC - that it was the USA under Ronald Reagan that formed, financed and armed extremist groups. To counter Russia, which intervened in December 1979 in support of the Afghan Communist government of the time. Mujahideen as Abdul Ali Mazari, Mohammad Mohaqeq, Ismail Khan, Abdullah Abdullah, Ahmad Shah Massoud, Karim Khalili, later merged into the Taliban now at the head of the Islamic Emirate

(8) US created Taliban and abandoned Pakistan, says Hillary. Dawn. 25.4.09

(9) Hillary Clinton to Fox News: 'The US Created The Taliban'. Albawaba. 31.8.21

(10) Hillary Clinton hails mujahideen for driving out Russia, explains how by dropping enough weapons in Ukraine, an Afghanistan-like condition can be achieved. OpIndia. 1.3.22

(11) 97 percent of Afghans could plunge into poverty by mid 2022, says UNDP. UNDP. 9.9.21

(12) World Bank estimated inflation on daily consumer goods in Afghanistan at 43,4% in July, year over year. Afghanistan Economic Monitor. OCHA (August 23, 2022)

(13) The Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) had billions of dollars in currency, US Treasure bonds and gold deposited in the United States. After the flight from Kabul, the Biden administration froze these assets, which are still, in part, in the books and warehouses of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Another part was diverted by Joe Biden to humanitarian aid in Afghanistan, while 3,5 billion dollars were set aside for possible compensation for the families of the victims of 11/XNUMX. See Steve Inskeep. In the Taliban's Afghanistan, the near-broke central bank somehow still functions. WLRN. 29.8.22

(14) Taliban and Moscow will agree on the purchase of gasoline and gas. Khabarfoori.com news, world economy. 5 Shahrivar 1401 (27.8.22), 12:52 pm. https://bit.ly/3Kyz9XS