When we came back home, I found a letter from Rasheed. It was addressed to a large group of Americans that I assume he met during his visit to the United States last year. It read:
Respected Friends,
It is time to work for peace and sustainable development in Afghanistan and Pakistan. You all have the capacity to do some positive things in this regard. TRDO (Tribal Reforms and Development Organization) is working on peace and development in the areas situated on the pak afghan border. Kindly come up with good suggestions that what we should do to achieve the desired objectives of peace and development and how we can put pressure on our policy makers to stop war and genocide.
Rasheed Mohmand Advocate, Executive Director TRDO
The attached document was titled "How to Overcome the Problem". The text read:
"This is the picture of Robert Bell who killed 16 innocent children and women in Afghanistan.
Robert Bell a US soldier who killed entered into a nearby house and brutally killed sixteen innocent people mostly women and children in Qandahar Afghanistan has done a great damage to the ongoing peace process. This is very unfortunate that being a strong ally of the Afghanistan the US army is repeatedly perpetuating such kind of heinous crimes and adds to the problems of not only of the week Hamid Karzai government but also creates problems for the US government and particularly to the US citizens throughout the world. Before this incident, the US army burnt the Holy Quran in Bagram airbases which led to the country wide demonstrations and protests which had taken the lives of innocent people. These things are happening very frequently and we have witnessed that even the wedding and funeral processions have been targeted.
The people of Afghanistan and Pakistan are of the opinion that these incidents are intentional rather than accidental. They are of the opinion that it was necessary to prosecute the accused in Afghanistan but he was taken to the America to save him. The people are negatively reacting to this incident. The millitants can get full advantage of this situation and there are more attacks of the insurgents against the allied forces as well as on the afghan security forces. The anti militant people will also support the militants only on this ground. They the militants are emancipating the Afghanistan from the foreign troops who have become more fatal and hostile to the local people.
Solution of the Problem:
- In order to bring peace in Afghanistan it is necessary to reduce the number of combating forces and they should have to build the capacity of the local afghan forces.
- The Afghans should be involved in all the process of peace and development.
- Those foreign troops who are sent to Afghanistan should be properly guided about the cultural, traditional and religious norms.
- Before sending and during their stay in Afghanistan there should be a proper and regular check up that whether they have any mental problems or not.
- Those who are accused of any kind of crime or genocide they should be prosecuted inside the Afghanistan as the Americans prosecuted the Emal Kanis, Ramzi Yousaf, Afia Sadidi and many others in order to satisfy the people that not only justice has been done but seemed to be done."
I cannot emphasize enough the warmth with which Brian and I were greeted during our visit to Pakistan. Our challenge throughout the week was not to develop friendships but rather to find enough seconds in the day (and morning and night) to talk with everyone who wanted to befriend us. Since leaving Pakistan, our inboxes are filled with notes from men and women, students and faculty, who write things such as, "I am so happy to meet you. We love being with your presence at the conference. You are always in our hearts."
I am not sure when or how I was taught to immediately correlate "Pakistan" and "terrorism". I only know that, before our trip, when someone said "Pakistan", it was the first word to come to mind. In the reverse direction, I met several people who, having not met Americans and/or been to American before, were surprised that we were nice. Over and over we found ourselves explaining that the vast majority of Americans are very good people who just want to live in peace. Over and over, people wanted to tell us the vast majority of Pakistani people are good people who just want to live in peace.
That is why now, when I hear of tragic events such as the recent burning of the Qurans and the US soldier's shooting rampage of innocent people, it is even more heartbreaking and infuriating. The Afghani and Pakistani victims are no longer abstract numbers, but rather our mothers and children and next door neighbors who would prefer (and deserve) to be at a parade.
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