Noise of war gives way to sound of rebuilding
With Canada and NATO's help, a battlefield's residents return in droves, GRAEME SMITH writes
GRAEME SMITH From Saturday's Globe and Mail
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ZANGABAD, AFGHANISTAN — A landscape blasted by some of Afghanistan's heaviest fighting in recent years has started returning to life, as hundreds of families straggle back to houses that served as Taliban hideouts just a few weeks ago.
The rutted dirt track that leads to the village of Zangabad was impassable during a visit to the area in November, when sporadic thuds of Canadian mortars and Taliban rockets could be heard booming across this ruined farmland.
Now Canadian soldiers and their allies have conquered the area with last month's Operation Baaz Tsuka, and the road is open for traffic, guarded by only a handful of Afghan soldiers lounging in the golden winter sunlight. A trip to the village 40 kilometres southwest of Kandahar city showed no sign of the insurgents who recently controlled Zangabad and threatened the provincial capital.
While Zangabad's shops remain shuttered and many houses padlocked, the roads are full of trucks and vans piled high with household goods as people return home and start cleaning up after months of war.
"Now we are free," said Mohammed Naeem, 37, who moved his extended family of 60 people back to Zangabad last week, after escaping two months ago. "We are happy the government came back to our village."
Less than a week after Kandahar's government declared that residents can safely return, authorities estimate that 400 families have moved home. The flood of returnees indicates locals' confidence in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's concept of building a so-called Afghan Development Zone around Kandahar city, a zone of security intended to serve as a foundation for building a viable economy in the troubled south.
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With Canada and NATO's help, a battlefield's residents return in droves, GRAEME SMITH writes
GRAEME SMITH From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Article Link
ZANGABAD, AFGHANISTAN — A landscape blasted by some of Afghanistan's heaviest fighting in recent years has started returning to life, as hundreds of families straggle back to houses that served as Taliban hideouts just a few weeks ago.
The rutted dirt track that leads to the village of Zangabad was impassable during a visit to the area in November, when sporadic thuds of Canadian mortars and Taliban rockets could be heard booming across this ruined farmland.
Now Canadian soldiers and their allies have conquered the area with last month's Operation Baaz Tsuka, and the road is open for traffic, guarded by only a handful of Afghan soldiers lounging in the golden winter sunlight. A trip to the village 40 kilometres southwest of Kandahar city showed no sign of the insurgents who recently controlled Zangabad and threatened the provincial capital.
While Zangabad's shops remain shuttered and many houses padlocked, the roads are full of trucks and vans piled high with household goods as people return home and start cleaning up after months of war.
"Now we are free," said Mohammed Naeem, 37, who moved his extended family of 60 people back to Zangabad last week, after escaping two months ago. "We are happy the government came back to our village."
Less than a week after Kandahar's government declared that residents can safely return, authorities estimate that 400 families have moved home. The flood of returnees indicates locals' confidence in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's concept of building a so-called Afghan Development Zone around Kandahar city, a zone of security intended to serve as a foundation for building a viable economy in the troubled south.
More on link
