An Interview with a Suicide Attacker Kid in Afghanistan
In the year 2009 a Pashtun child of 15 years old was arrested in
Afghanistan wearing an explosive vest to explode himself but the bomb did not
explode due to some technical problems which had disconnected its remote
controller from the main vest. The Afghan police could manage to arrest him
before finding another way to explode himself. The investigation was very
interesting.
Afghan Police: Why did you plan to commit suicide and kill many people as well as
yourself?
Suicide attacker: We will die anyways, with suicide attack or without, it does not
matter. What do you think I should do? Should I wait to die in drone attacks?
Afghan Police: No, why do you think you will die in drone attacks?
Suicide attacker: I live near Durand line in Afghanistan, most of my neighbors died
either because of drone attacks or rockets fired by the Pakistanis.
Afghan Police: Do you have a family?
Suicide attacker: Yes, I did have a family. My father and two brothers died in war with
Russians, one of my brothers and two sisters died in the internal conflicts by
Mujahidin rockets, my other brother who was the only person immigrated to
Europe to find a job to support our family, Christian racists killed him in
Europe, we could not even bring his body here, we just heard from his friends
how he was attacked and murdered. Now, I am the only one with my mother and I
have to work to find some food for my mother. There are no jobs and government
there in my village. The only people who can give jobs, is the Taliban. I went
to them and they sent me to a school in Pakistan where I got some religious
lessons and they told us that America and other Christians have occupied your
country, you have to fight for your religion and for freedom of your country. They
said if you die in this fight, they will give enough food and money to my
mother as long as she lives. That is the reason I am here today.
Afghan Police: But many of you kill Afghan men, women and children. They are not
foreigners that you people kill every day.
Suicide attacker: Well, these Afghan people hate the Taliban too. They work with
foreigners and they help them to occupy our country. “They are the same as
foreigners” said our religious teacher in Pakistan.
Afghan Police: Have you ever been to a normal school in Afghanistan?
Suicide attacker: No, there are no schools in my village.
Afghan Police: What do you want us to do with you? Kill you? Send you to
prison? Or what?
Suicide attacker: I don’t know, do whatever you have to do … do your job …
Afghan Police: What will you do if I let you go?
Suicide attacker: I will go back to my village to see if my mother is still alive. And
most probably they will send me back.
Afghan Police: Will you accept to come again and commit suicide attacks again?
Suicide attacker: Well, I have no choice. They will force me to do so otherwise they
will kill me or my mother.
Afghan Police: What can we do to help you not to do the same mistakes again?
Suicide attacker: The boy cries and says … we have got no
country … we have got no home … we have got no jobs … no food … no school …
nothing … nothing … how can I and my mother live? We will die anyways without
this fight … without suicide attacks … we can’t survive the hunger and the
drone attacks or the Taliban fights … if you bring my mother out of that
village … if you give us a home in Kabul in a safe place, if you send me to
school and give my mother a job … if you give us enough food … I will go to
school and start a normal life … but it is not only me … there are many other
boys in that village who have the same problem as mine …
Bring a good government in my village … make our destroyed houses and
build schools for us … give us jobs and find a way of life for the people of my
village … stop drone bombardments there … don’t let us kill others and
ourselves because of hunger … don’t let us go to the Taliban because of
joblessness … don’t let us die …
