Gulf News

U.S. shelling a blessing in disguise for Kandahar poor Kandahar |By Nissar Hoath | 17-11-2001

The aerial shelling by the Americans has proved to be a blessing in disguise for many poor people in Kandahar.

Even if the bombs miss their target, American efforts are not going entirely to waste, with bomb scrap becoming a prized possession and a source of income in this ravaged land.

To the poor in Kandahar for whom the air- dropped U.S. relief goods are inaccessible, the aerial shelling has proved to be a valuable source of income.

A small fragment of an American bomb shell, due to its weight and gravity, is three times more valuable than normal metal scrap of the same size.

Many residents, according to a Taliban official, have made the gathering of U.S. bomb scrap their business and earn a much-needed living out of this.

Describing the ingenuity of some desperate residents, Mullah Naimattullah, a staff member of the Foreign Ministry, explains: "Some people even make investments to attract U.S. jets to drop bombs in open fields and on the hills and mountains.

"They buy a small battery and bulb and go to the unpopulated mountains and set up a small bunker-type post. They light the bulb in the dummy bunker and wait in their villages for the U.S. jets to bomb the light."

He added that once the site is bombed, the villager goes to the site the next morning to collect the bomb fragments, which he sells in the local scrap market, capitalising on the U.S. shelling.

A kilo of the bomb metal is sold for about 500 afghani (about a Pakistani rupee). "The amount is worth a piece of bread. There is lot of money in the business as a small piece of the bomb shell is worth five to 10 Pakistani rupees," the Taliban official explained.

He said most of the scrap reaches Pakistani markets in Chaman and Quetta.

Naimattullah narrates an incident which aptly illustrates how desperation can drive one to desperate measures. A villager from the Dahnd area of Kandahar, according to Naimattullah, had only few thousand afghanis to feed his wife and five children.

"But, instead of buying food, he invested in a small motorcycle battery, a few metres of electrical wire and a bulb. Then he lit the bulb on a hill near Chell Zeena at night and waited for the U.S. bombing, but nothing happened."

The next evening, the intrepid villager revisited the site. "This time, he tied up a dog near the site to show the Americans some signs of life," the Taliban official said. And he finally succeeded in his mission - to make the Americans direct their bombs more accurately, this time at his lone shining light.

"The next morning, he was several times richer than two days ago," the official claimed.

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2001