Our first enemy are the Taliban, our second enemy is the Army – Displaced Physician from Swat

February 2012
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You Tube Video

Introductory information posted on You Tube: An interview with a Swati doctor who we met while he was attending to refugees in a rented home in Banaras, Karachi. He articulates a narrative that is all-too-common in these days of occupations launched for liberation–the civilized pursues the “barbarian,” screaming his devotion to “democracy, freedom, markets.” Yet, when the dust settles, we wake to learn that, somehow, the champions of freedom have conspired to demolish far more lives, homes, and economies than the “barbarians” ever could.

As our mainstream media contents itself with parroting Army spokesperson Major General Athar Abbas–unthinkingly and almost without exception–it is urgent that other voices be heard. Please spread far and wide.

Interviewer: … This … This is a war, right, … that is going on … I will surely not ask, ask you how it is, and why it is; we know all that. Tell [me] this, this war that is going on, yes, is this war right [sahih], in your opinion?

Doctor: This war is completely wrong [ghalat]. Why? Because neither the student [talib] die there nor soldiers [fauji]; who dies? The common people [`awam]. The people die. And for this reason, [what is happening is] extremely, completely, absolutely wrong. Why? Because if they wanted to kill – they can kill Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti inside a cave – then can’t they kill these people? But they don’t want to kill. If they wanted to kill, they would have killed them a long time ago; but they don’t want to kill. Why? Because if they kill, the aid, et cetera, would all stop; this too is a factor. Some times we say we have killed Muslim Khan, we have killed [unclear]ullah, we have killed this[, we have killed that]; but then they say they are all alive. So all this is a lie, a pile of lies; and they are making fools of the people …

Interviewer: So now the thing is that the students, the government, the soldiers, are all one …

Doctor: [inaudible] kill the target. You have commandos, commando action, a lot of groups [jama`at], a lot of [inaudible: criteria of all the forces?]; so, therefore, why don’t you hit the target?

Interviewer: So, dialogue … you feel it is now too late …

Doctor: No; dialogue with whom? Those same … we understand just this, from this we know just this, that these two are together, that the soldiers and the the student are together. Which student? These tyrant students [zaliman taliban]. A student is not like this; a student spreads the culture enjoined by God [Allah ka deen], speaks of God and His prophet [pbuh]; these are extreme tyrants, they commit tyranny

Interviewer: But those who live their, all of the Swatis, they are saying that the Taliban have not subjected us to tyranny [zulm: tyranny, oppression, injustice]. We have not seen any throats being slit; we were not molested [literally, subjected to any excesses].

Doctor: But this is just [what we are saying], also what we say … Many students are good, it isn’t that they are all bad. But the thing is that the names that are being taken, crush them, those on whom you have placed an award [i.e. head money] where are they? To this day, they have no contact [information], nor anything else; where did they go? Where are they hiding? You can kill Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti inside a cave; why can’t you kill the talib? You know that the Pakhtoon nation is a brave nation, and if it looses its temper [para out ho gaya] then believe me no one will be saved in Islamabad, let me tell you this also. Because if 4 million [i.e. displaced] people can come up to there, they can also surround [gherao] Islamabad. And this is genocide of the Pukhtoon; in the true sense, this is genocide of the Pukhtoon, because …

Interviewer: But what is ANP [Awami National Party] doing? What is ANP doing? Your party, the party that represents you, what is it doing?

Doctor: The ANP’s role … it is making a lot of effort, that there be peace, that there be an accord, that everything is done in a good way, but ANP is also following in his footsteps, meaning, we say that ANP is also following in Musharraf’s footsteps, what he does these people do the same thing. These people should raise their voices, if they can’t do it, they should resign …

Interviewer: Does it seem to you, that this war, what can be purpose behind this war?

Doctor: The purpose can just be this that they are emptying all of Swat … you are telling the people to get out, how can they get out?

Interviewer: Then what will happen?

Doctor: On the one … The ways [rastay] are being closed, all the ways are closed, …

Interviewer: But what will be the benefit of this … what will be the benefit to the military?

Doctor: Either they will give it to America … there is a programme for China … what we understand is that a programme is being made for China. The only solution to all these things is …

Interviewer: So it seems to you that the people will not be allowed to return to Swat?

Doctor: No … no… no… they won’t even go, ever.

Interviewer: Why won’t they go?

Doctor: They won’t go because until you clear … you clear one area … Talib is present here … You say Talib is present here … chase them from here to transport them to another place. [then you say] Talib is present there … vacate this place. And the ways are all closed, and the second, air, by air …

Interviewer: So you are against the Taliban, but you are also against this war [i.e. military operation].

Doctor: We are against this war. We are against the military. We are against the Talib. Our first enemy is the Talib, our second enemy is the soldier, because they have destroyed us [marwa diya]. The Talib did not do us as much damage as the military [Interviewer: True]: they rain bombs from above, and fire cannon balls from below; where should the people go? We will just die, right? Give it to us straight, either …

Interviewer: I will ask you one question, because we have a lot of colleagues who are sitting in large cities like Karachi, Lahore, who because of the fear of the Taliban, support the war …

Doctor: [cut] Don’t kill the people. [cut] have arrived after crossing huge forests. What is their crime [qusoor]? The people whom you …

Interviewer: So, the war is right? This means that the war is right?

The Urdu Sign Reads: "Taliban Station, Mattah"

Doctor: We say, kill the target, don’t kill the people. We have only this demand, that if you have to kill, why don’t you kill the target? We have only this question, that you can kill 17,000 children in the Red Mosque [Lal Masjid, in Islamabad], you can kill Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti inside a cave, this Talib is standing in front of you – is he your uncle [tumhara chacha lagta hay kiya]? – why don’t you kill him? You come and bomb the people, he stands in front of you and you don’t kill him.

Interviewer: So, then, what this means is that this war is wrong?

Doctor: The war is wrong.

Interviewer: So then you say that this war is wrong?

Doctor: Absolutely. The war is wrong. If you have to kill, kill the target. Why are you killing the people? What is the people’s crime?

Interviewer: And the people who support this war, what will you say to them?

Doctor: The people who support this war, they are friends of America, all of them. The plain fact is that to collect money from the Americans they want to prolong this war. … to prolong this war. If they finish this target, then how will they get American assistance?

Interviewer: But the fear of the Taliban that exists, what is to be done about that?

Doctor: Seeker [Talib] of what? These Talib … We don’t accept them as Talib. These [who are called] Talib, they are all [inaudible, cut] … A dramatic performance is being put on, to extract assistance from other countries. And a Pakhtoon genocide is taking place. The race of Pakhtoons is being finished. You have destroyed the [local] economy, destroyed the schools, destroyed the hospitals, what is [left] there? Go there for what? You can’t get one Panadol [paracetamol] pill, you can’t get salt, you can’t get matches; where should the people … will die. If you want to kill, you have chemical weapons, use them, finish it, finish [inaudible]. You want the area vacated, you have had the area vacated. Some people died. This is a thing of extreme tyranny. The tyranny is that when a pregnant lady leaves her home and she delivers on the way, and she dies, the child dies, and the lady dies, she is left as she is. Is this… has this ever happened, this is … this, I mean, not even Bush would do this, what the Pakistan military [afwaj] has done; the Pakistan military [afwaj] hasn’t done? At least give a safe passage. If you have to save the people, at least give them a safe passage. At a minimum clear the way and ask the people to get out. Use helicopters to get them out. You have closed all the ways, imposed a curfew … [cut] In this, … of the media; for the sake of God, there is a clean … a very good role that the media can play. If the media can publicise [agay ujagar karay] this …, what we say is in in bits and pieces … If this … I am from Swat, I am from the area where the war is being fought; my village has been bombed, my village has been bombed so heavily that it has been completely crushed. OK, right. The name of my village is [unclear: Rodingar?], Swat Rodingar; my village is beyond Swat Mattah. The entire village has been bombed [makes a swift horizontal motion with his hand held flat, with palm down]. Some died, some died on the way [out], these are the conditions. These [points to his family] bedraggled … they all have fever, they have had it [tang aye huay hayn], this [point] has 104 [degrees Fahrenheit] fever. [Woman speaks in Pashto, he translates:] these children have all been deprived of schools, the schools are destroyed. What has Islamuddin [presumably the child’s name] done? The people only want that make war, but make the right war; you have commando action, kill him, finish it. Until you finish all your target, …