By Jerome Starkey in Lashkar Gah
AS AFGHANISTAN votes today in a landmark presidential election that will redefine Britain’s mission in the country, the Taleban have shown their shadow government is still in control of huge swathes of countryside.
Insurgents blocked the roads in and out of Helmand’s capital, Lashkar Gah, yesterday to try to stop people voting. Despite a massive UK operation just outside the city and an American surge designed to make the province safe enough to vote, traffic in and out of the city was down by more than 80 per cent as word of roadblocks and explosives trapped people in their homes.
The only travellers reaching Lashkar Gah from the south had “permission slips” signed by insurgent commanders, to let them through a series of impromptu checkpoints. “I’ve been waiting to come back for two days,” said Rahmatullah, 43, as he reached the bridge which links Lashkar Gah with no-man’s land. “But I didn’t have a permit.”
The carpenter drove on Monday to Marja, just a few miles outside the city, for his daughter’s wedding. He tried to come back on Tuesday, but the Taleban refused to let him through.
“The Taleban told everyone, all the traffic, all the cars, ‘You are not allowed to leave Marja’,” he said. “They said, ‘If you go to Lashkar Gah, you will vote in the elections. We won’t let you’.”
It’s bad news for president Hamid Karzai who is relying on votes from Pashtuns in the south to win a second term. In 2004, he swept to power with 80 per cent of the Pashtun vote. In parts of Helmand and Kandahar, where the Taleban is now strongest, he won 90 per cent.
The Taleban have vowed to boycott the polls, and they have threatened to punish anyone who votes by chopping off their finger.
Inside the city, people are bullish about the threats. What happens outside could prove key.
Rahmatullah was allowed to go home only when his new son-in-law, Hakim Jan, intervened with the local Taleban chief and wangled a travel permit.
The white slip of paper, about the size of a parking ticket, looked like it had been produced on a colour photocopier. It read, “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Helmand Province, Marja District”. In smaller writing were the words “Military Commission Special Permit”.
Beneath that was a neat handwritten note, in formal Pashtu, stating: “Peace be with you, and mercy and compassion. To all Taleban: women, children and sick people with Hakim Jan want to go to Lashkar Gah. Do not bother them.” It was signed, in English and Pashtu script, “Maulavi Rahmat”.
At a nearby bus station, farmer Gul Mohammed, 20, said he had been waiting two days for a car to Marja. It is normally a bustling transport hub, with minivans and taxis touting trips to Babaji – where British troops fought Operation Panther’s Claw – and other towns. Yesterday, it was deserted.
“Normally there are hundreds of people here,” said hotelier Mohammad Sarwan, 46. “But in the last two days, because of the election, we haven’t had anyone.”
At a police checkpoint on the Bolan Bridge, Lieutenant Haji Omar Jan said: “Two days ago, the traffic was stacked up at this checkpoint, but then the Taleban shut the roads and it’s empty.”
Local governor Gulal Mangal said he hoped 75 per cent of Helmand’s 800,000 people would vote. But privately, his staff were less optimistic. “We’ll be lucky if we get 200,000,” one said.
Mr Mangal said all polling stations would have monitors, but most would be candidates’ officials, acting on behalf of Mr Karzai, who is facing claims his supporters have been buying up voter registration cards in parts of the province where it’s too dangerous to vote, in order to stuff ballot boxes elsewhere.
Two recent polls gave Mr Karzai 45 per cent, his closest challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, 25 per cent. But unless he gets more than 50 per cent today – preliminary results are due on 3 September – he’ll have to face his number two in a run-off.
The president has made a series of last-minute deals with notorious warlords that might be enough for victory in the first round. In a move that angered Washington, he gave General Abdul Rashid Dostum amnesty to return from exile in exchange for Uzbek votes he controls in the north. Dostum is best known for murdering a soldier by strapping him to the tracks of a tank and crushing him to death.
