Violence targets U.N. offices in Heart, aid workers abandon Afghan city
BY KIM BARKER Chicago Tribune
KABUL, Afghanistan - (KRT) - Rioters who protested the removal of a powerful warlord as governor of Herat province targeted only the United Nations and other aid groups and may have stolen files on human-rights violations, officials said Monday.
The United Nations has pulled most of its workers from Herat, flying them to Kabul. But after 36 hours of clashes, the city on Monday was relatively calm. Afghan national police and soldiers patrolled the streets and checked cars on all the roads leading to the city.
The riots started Saturday night, after President Hamid Karzai removed Ismail Khan as the western province's governor. Khan has been accused of human-rights violations but also has won praise for rebuilding the city of Herat.
Four protesters were killed in the clashes, shot by government soldiers after they refused to obey orders, said Lutfullah Mashal, spokesman for the Interior Ministry. Dozens more people were injured, including 15 U.S. soldiers and two U.N. workers.
Mobs specifically targeted the United Nations, said Filippo Grandi, the U.N. deputy special representative for Afghanistan. They looted the Herat office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, breaking glass and throwing documents and burning down the U.N. headquarters office.
"The office is in ashes and everything is burned," Grandi said.
The rioting was yet another sign of deteriorating security in Afghanistan in the run-up to the presidential election Oct. 9. Insurgents and Taliban remnants have pledged to disrupt the election and have fought frequently with U.S. and Afghan troops.
U.S. forces have been battling insurgents in the Shinkay area of Zabul province, including foreign fighters, the U.S. military reported.
Although the United Nations and other aid groups have been a frequent targets of the Taliban, the rioting in Herat marks the first time that mobs of Afghans have turned on such offices.
Rioters also looted or burned the offices of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and a Danish aid group. Little else in the city was disturbed.
One U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the rioters stole documents from the Human Rights Commission. "They went inside, opened the cupboards, grabbed documents and only then started looting the place," he said.
Grandi said there was too much chaos to figure out whether documents were stolen at any of the offices. But he said that possibility would be investigated.
When the mobs attacked, U.N. workers were forced to hide in bunkers, said the U.N. official, who requested anonymity. He said they dodged bullets, and even when they jumped into vehicles to escape the compound, the crowd attacked them.
Homes of the United Nations workers also were attacked, Grandi said.
While 35 foreign U.N. workers were flown to Kabul for a few days rest, 15 foreign U.N. workers and hundreds of Afghan workers remained in Herat, working on aid programs.
Grandi said the United Nations had been assured there would be no more riots in Herat and he was excited about the plans of the new governor, Sayed Mohammed Khairkhwa, who arrived in the city Sunday.
"There may have been an incident, but there is also a great opportunity in the west," Grandi said. "I think we would be very unwise to miss it."
Khan, one of the country's most powerful warlords, has frequently criticized the United Nations and human-rights groups in Herat.
He was removed from office hours after Karzai announced in an election speech that he wanted to rein in warlords, a steady source of problems for the strife-torn country. In the past, Karzai has said warlords pose more of a threat to the country's stability than Taliban insurgents.
Karzai offered Khan a post as the federal minister of mines and industries, but Khan refused.
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© 2004, Chicago Tribune.
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