Reporting the War in Afghanistan

There’s been a rise in violence in Afghanistan this year. A number of high profile attacks have been targeted against US buildings and Afghan civilians in the past two weeks. In the wake of these attacks, it’s become harder for journalists to do their job. Host Marco Werman speaks with The World’s Laura Lynch who is in Kabul.

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Marco Werman: Hundreds of protestors took to the streets of Kabul, Afghanistan today. They demanded an international investigation into last week’s assassination of former president, Burhanuddin Rabbani. He was killed at his home in Kabul by a suicide bomber. The Afghan capital has seen a sharp rise in violence in the past couple of weeks, that includes two attacks on US targets in Kabul — one was a 20 hour siege of the US embassy by militants firing rocket propelled grenades from a nearby construction site; the other was Sunday’s fatal shooting inside the CIA office. The World’s Laura Lynch is in Kabul. All these reports make Kabul out to be suddenly more of a target for militant attacks. Have you sensed that on the ground, Laura, is it palpable?

Laura Lynch: Well, I think certainly people feel more tense than they have in a while and it is because so many things have happened in such a short space of time. I was speaking to a member of parliament this morning who told me that she noticed that everywhere she went and everyone she talked to just seemed to be so much more on edge than they had been in the past. And you’ve got to remember that this is a place and these are a people who are used to an awful lot of violence. So to sense that they’re feeling a little bit more on edge than they usually do, that’s saying something.

Werman: Have people changed their daily routines at all?

Lynch: To some extent they’ve been forced to change their daily routines because when these incidents have happened parts of the city have been locked down and you can’t move anywhere within those parts of town. So it’s all these disruptions to life here, which is not easy at the best of times. If you’ve ever been in Kabul, then there are the most extraordinary traffic jams you’ve ever seen. Well, this just makes it worse. In spite of all that, people are trying to get on with life and trying to stick to their routines as much as they can. The shops are open, not easy for them, but they’re trying to get things as normal as they can be.

Werman: Kabul used to be considered the one place in Afghanistan that US and Afghan forces could really protect. What has changed that?

Lynch: I think that some would say is that the US forces and the other international forces have drawn back and have let the Afghans take care of the security in this city. And it was seen as a test for the Afghans, if they could control security within Kabul itself. And when there was the incident two weeks ago, the 20 hour siege, you saw these insurgents were firing on the US embassy and they had to bring out US soldiers to get involved on the roof of the embassy to fire back. They didn’t want to get involved directly in the operation in the city itself because they needed to let the Afghan army show and the Afghan police that they could take care of their own. But boy, that sure shook a lot of people’s confidence in the Afghan forces’ ability to take care of security in this city.

Werman: In the wake of these high profile attacks, Laura, has it become harder for you and other journalists to do your jobs?

Lynch: Well, I’ve been here for a week now and I knew when I was coming that there were going to be restrictions in the way I could do my job, and that’s been true of working here as a journalist for some time now. It’s meant that I have to figure out where I’m going, if I should be in a crowd, whether that’s too much of a risk. So, absolutely it affects the way that you can report and it affects your ability to tell the story — the way you tell a story, if I was in London for example, or some other city where I could move about freely and stay anywhere as long as I want.

Werman: Well, yesterday you reported on Afghan widows who live in a neighborhood overlooking Kabul. Was that a dangerous thing to do?

Lynch: Well, you wouldn’t think so. It’s not dangerous in and of itself, Marco, but the rule of thumb nowadays is if you are going to go to a place perhaps on the fringes of the city, refugee camps, you better not stay long. And the fear is that there might be people who are looking at you, seeing you as a foreigner, seeing you as someone they might be able to kidnap for ransom. And these things you do pay attention to. So I stayed there for about 20 or 25 minutes. I would’ve much rather stayed longer, and I had to get back.

Werman: Laura, remind us of the last time you were in Kabul and tell us about one thing that you noticed that really struck you, something that surprised you.

Lynch: Well, the last time I was here was in 2007 and the first change that I noticed when I came back here this time was actually a good change — an airport that was an absolute mess and has now become a relative model of efficiency and security. So that is a good thing. But the other thing I’ve noticed driving around now is the number of barbed wire and security guards around government buildings, around cultural buildings, around private homes. To an extent it seems like this really is far more of a city under siege than it was a few years ago.

Werman: The World’s Laura Lynch in Kabul. Thank you, Laura.

Lynch: You’re welcome.

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