Scoop Link: Robert Fisk On His Beating By Refugees

Tuesday, 11 December 2001, 1:58 pm
Article: The Scoop Editor

My beating by refugees is a symbol of the hatred and fury of this filthy war

Report by Robert Fisk in Kila Abdullah after Afghan border ordeal

They started by shaking hands. We said "Salaam aleikum" – peace be upon you – then the first pebbles flew past my face. A small boy tried to grab my bag. Then another. Then someone punched me in the back. Then young men broke my glasses, began smashing stones into my face and head. I couldn't see for the blood pouring down my forehead and swamping my eyes. And even then, I understood. I couldn't blame them for what they were doing. In fact, if I were the Afghan refugees of Kila Abdullah, close to the Afghan-Pakistan border, I would have done just the same to Robert Fisk. Or any other Westerner I could find.

So why record my few minutes of terror and self-disgust under assault near the Afghan border, bleeding and crying like an animal, when hundreds – let us be frank and say thousands – of innocent civilians are dying under American air strikes in Afghanistan, when the "War of Civilisation" is burning and maiming the Pashtuns of Kandahar and destroying their homes because "good" must triumph over "evil"?

For full story click here…
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia_china/story.jsp?story=109257

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