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Tea breaks tension in a small town
© St. Petersburg Times, SWAT VALLEY, Pakistan -- The man at the front desk was firm: "The agency is not letting anyone leave the hotel." We knew what he meant by "agency" -- the undercover Pakistani intelligence agents who are said to be prowling every hotel where foreign journalists have encamped in Pakistan. Now at 10:15 p.m. Sunday, with America and Britain finally starting their attack on neighboring Afghanistan, we wanted to go into town to get reaction. We had let our driver go for the night and were unable to reach him. Two cab companies refused to send taxis, claiming it was "for security reasons." Even our translator, Saif, seemed nervous about leaving the hotel's peaceful, gated grounds. "Let's hope there are no civilian casualties," he said. "Then there will be a very tense situation in this country." It was a beautiful, cool evening, with a three-quarter moon and stars twinkling over the foothills of the mighty Hindu Kush mountain range. We had come to this valley about 60 miles from the Afghan border to do a story on the Taliban training camps that once operated in the region. But now it appeared that we, like journalists all over Pakistan, would be stuck in our hotel, so close to the action yet so far away.
We nodded agreeably at the front-desk clerk, which he took to be a sign that we were going back to our rooms. Instead, as soon as he turned away, we walked down the drive toward the high iron gate. Surprisingly, the guard undid the lock and let us through. The road was dark and deserted. Saif again tried to dissuade us from going into town, pointing out that it was late, shops had closed and everyone was probably at home. There was a good chance we would walk 2 miles and not find a soul to talk to. Just then a "tuk-tuk," a little motorized rickshaw, came chugging around the bend. It was so small the three of us could barely squeeze into the back seat. In fact, photographer Jamie Francis was half hanging out the side. "If we see anybody, don't say you're Americans," Saif warned. He said he would tell anyone we met that we were "from Dubai" -- technically correct, since we had arrived in Pakistan by way of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. As we came into the town of Mingora it appeared Saif had been right -- there were only one or two ragged-looking people on the streets and chances were they didn't know an attack had begun. But as we got to the center of Mingora, we saw that a couple of small stores were open and a few men were standing outside. Did they know what had just happened? Yes, and they were not happy. "America still has not provided full evidence to the Taliban," said Barkat Ali, owner of a little grocery store where packets of Surf Excel laundry detergent hung from a clothes line and danced gently in the breeze. "The Bush administration knows that the attack on the World Trade Center was an attack by the Jewish lobby," he said. Since arriving in Pakistan nine days ago, we had heard this over and over from even well-educated, well-informed people -- that the terrorist attacks on America were not the work of Osama bin Laden but "the Jewish lobby" or the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service. As "proof," Pakistanis claim that 4,000 Jews had been warned to stay away from the Trade Center on Sept. 11 and that no Israelis were killed in the attack. (In reality, more than 100 Israeli citizens are known to have died that day.) As Ali talked, growing more and more animated in his denunciations of the United States, we noticed that the little cluster of people had rapidly grown to a crowd of 30 or more, all men, all agitated over the attacks on Afghanistan. "America has not defined terrorism," argued Mohammed Yakub, who identified himself as a student. "If Osama bin Laden is proven guilty, of course he should be subject to punishment, but why only Osama? The world knows of the Indian atrocities in Kashmir, so why is the world not reacting in the same way toward India? Why has America been giving sophisticated weapons to Israel to commit atrocities against Palestinians?" Yakub and the others said they would "sacrifice our lives to fight the Taliban," but it seemed to be more knee-jerk rhetoric than a serious call to arms. "He says he will even give up his TV for the Taliban," one of the crowd yelled, pointing at a man with a big grin on his face. Everybody laughed. Although the talk grew quite heated, we didn't feel in any way threatened. In fact, someone finally said, "Care for tea?" and we were ushered into the nearby Public Calling Office, where local residents can place international phone calls 24 hours a day. A pot of tea promptly materialized and we sipped from dainty flowered cups, watching on a small color TV set as U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld outlined the weaponry already thrown into the attack. Above the television was a painting of two hands clasped in a handshake -- one hand had the skin of a human, the other that of a reptile. On close inspection, the "thumb" was a snake's head. "America is the snake," said the artist, Fazal Hadi. For the second time in a half hour, everyone laughed good-naturedly. We couldn't tell if our hosts realized we were Americans; no one asked and we didn't tell. As we got up to leave, several people rose to shake hands and a round of thank yous ensued. We squeezed back into our little tuk-tuk. The Pakistanis waved at us, and we waved back at them. And off we went into the starry night. -- Susan Taylor Martin can be reached at susan@sptimes.com.
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Times columns today Howard Troxler Jan Glidewell Gary Shelton Sara Fritz Susan Taylor Martin |
