Canadians pay Afghan farmers for land lost

[GAP]

Canadians pay Afghan farmers for land lost
Updated Thu. Feb. 22 2007 8:32 AM ET Associated Press
Article Link

PATROL BASE WILSON, Afghanistan -- Money, it seems, does not buy peace of mind, especially for war-weary Afghan farmers, who have over the last couple days received C$938,000 in compensation for land bulldozed by Canadians to build a road west of Kandahar.

For refugees returning to their homes in Zhari district after being driven away months ago by heavy fighting, the money is welcome recompense, but there is still a deep sense of unease.

"We're very disappointed about the insecure situation in this region,'' said Bismalah, a farmer with a deeply lined face, who returned to his land three weeks ago.

"The only thing we need is security. This is our wish. If the Canadians give us hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars, but we are living in an insecure situation, we don't like money; we like security.''

In order for Bismalah and roughly 55 other farmers to get their money, they had to pass through a security cordon that included personal searches, armed escorts into the base and a display of Canadian military firepower in the form of a pair of Leopard C2 tanks.

For Shafikahn, a somewhat more affluent landowner, it was an illustration that the peace around here was tenuous at best and the recent decision to flee his home a second time was justified.

"Half of our family is still living in the city so we decided to move back to the city,'' said the remarkably tall farmer who could only guess his age to be between 40 and 48 years.
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[Yrys]

On the radio, a journalist was saying how difficult it has been for the CF
to negociate with the land owner, dut to the propafand of the Talibans,
saying that the canadians would never pay...

 

[GAP]

One more article regarding the convoy

'The Million Dollar Convoy'
Thursday, February 22, 2007 | 11:07 AM ETBy Tom Parry
Article(Blog) Link

Richard and I and a few other journos took a ride out to a couple of forward bases yesterday. We made it out to Patrol Base Wilson and then on to Strong Point Centre, both down in the Zhari District, west of Kandahar City. It was a wild ride.

At Wilson, the army was handing out stacks of cash to local farmers. They lost part of their land last year when Canadian soldiers bulldozed through their property to build Route Summit. This was their compensation from Canada.

We called our vehicles “The Million Dollar Convoy” because they were carrying just shy of a million dollars' worth of Afghan money to be dished out. Richard and I, along with my buddy Murray Brewster from Canadian Press, rode in the back of a LAV-III armoured vehicle.

At some point in the trip, we discovered there are no good seats in the back of a LAV. Mine was directly over a heater that was throwing off enough heat to fry eggs. Richard was squeezed in next to me. And Murray was sitting under the roof hatch. He had fresh air and a nice view. But I reminded him that if we ran into trouble, he’d be the grenade catcher.

We didn’t run into trouble. Except for one incident on the road back from Wilson. It was late and it was dark. The convoy was tearing down a road. The three of us were watching the terrain up ahead on a little screen that’s hooked up to a thermal imaging camera on the front of the LAV.
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[241]

...said the remarkably tall farmer who could only guess his age to be between 40 and 48 years.
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So just a question, may be a little off topic but did I read right and the farmer guessed his own age??  (Don't keep track of when they where born over there) Or is this just poorly written??