Alina Rekhtman '05 remembers hearing stories of bodies hanging from telephone poles.
Rekhtman, one of five University students who worked as interns in Afghanistan this past summer, speaks of Afghanistan as a place where much of the terror of civil war has become a memory — but a memory that is still fresh.
"All the things that we heard about on TV happened so recently that the last few years were years of incredible suffering for the Afghan people," Rekhtman said. "Things are beginning to change, but there are still painful memories."
Rekhtman obtained her internship through the student community service group Students Providing Aid, Relief and Kind Service (SPARKS), which focuses on international issues. She was joined not only by her fellow Princetonians but also by 15 other students from colleges and universities across the United States.
It has been two years since the war-torn country of Afghanistan became the focus of world attention through the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
Today, the country has virtually disappeared from national headlines, yet on the surface, Afghanistan still faces many of the same issues it did then. Despite the lessened influence of the Taliban, it is still torn by violence and faced with the problems of crumbling roads. Widespread poverty and illiteracy and the lack of security continue, and their transitional government is still largely dependent upon the international community for aid.
Slowly, however, conditions are improving.
"You can see definite changes especially in Kabul [the capital]," Rekhtman said. "Most people in Kabul are generally more educated than those in the provinces, so they are getting the most benefit from the involvement of the international community."
"There are bustling markets and bazaars in the city and traffic on the streets," she said. "Refugees are beginning to return and girls are going to school."
While conditions have improved in Kabul, changes have been slower in coming to the provinces.
"The situation in Afghanistan is much better than a year and a half ago," said Robert Finn GS '78, a visiting lecturer who recently returned to the United States from his position as ambassador to Afghanistan, which he held since March 2002. "However, conditions are still below satisfactory. Many things have happened but right now it's a question of application of resources by the international community."
Finn, who is teaching a course on central Asia and Islamic fundamentalism this semester, worked on improving education, building a modern system of transportation and providing basic services to the Afghan people during his time as ambassador. Prior to his appointment, Finn served as the deputy chief of mission at the embassies in Croatia and Azerbaijan, coordinated the Kurdish refugee relief effort in Turkey in 1991, served as the deputy coordinator of the Kuwait Task Force during the Gulf War and served as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan's neighbor, Tajikistan, from 1998 to 2001.
The United States has recently recommitted itself to reconstruction in Afghanistan and has begun plans to reshuffle top U.S. officials with responsibility for Afghanistan, expand the staff serving in the country and distribute an additional $1 billion in aid, according to FreeRepublic.com.
"After Iraq, the government looked to Afghanistan to take lessons from its reconstruction and apply them to Iraq, but they realized when they looked at Afghanistan that they were not getting the returns that they wanted," Finn said. "The Afghan situation has gone on for so long that there is some ennui in the international community. But we hope that more money and doubling the commitment to Afghanistan will change this."
There are questions, however, of whether this increase in aid is enough to provide the Afghan people with even the most basic services they lack.
In a New York Times article last week, Afghanistan's minister for rural rehabilitation and development, Haneef Atmar, claimed that existing pledges of aid from the international community barely covered one-third of the $15 billion he says the Afghan government needs for reconstruction.
A budget shortfall could also delay elections, which are scheduled for June 2004. Afghanistan is currently governed by a transitional coalition government headed by President Hamid Karzai and consisting of leaders from across the Afghan political spectrum.
In addition to budget problems, the Afghan government is plagued by inexperience. Few Afghan ministers have government experience, and a weak system of communication makes it difficult for each minister to know what is being done in the other ministries, Rekhtman said.
Rekhtman worked in the ministry of finance, assisting the advisor from the U.S. Treasury to the Afghan Minister of Finance gather information about the activities of other ministries and strengthen this communication system.
Corruption and poor security are two other issues that must be dealt with if the new government wishes to win the trust of the people in the provinces and retain their support during the inevitably long process of reconstruction, Rekhtman added.
Despite these challenges, Finn is optimistic about the progress that has come through the cooperation of the Afghan government and the international community. The government in Kabul is beginning to centralize provincial resources and a road from Kabul to Kandalhar should be operable within a year, he said. These two measures will hopefully begin to tie the country together and help to establish a stable political and economic system within the next few years.
Finn also pointed to improved conditions for women as a sign of progress in Afghanistan. Millions of girls are beginning to attend school and many women have chosen not to wear bourkas, a traditional Muslim veil that covers the face and upper body.
But Afghanistan remains an extremely conservative country and a large number of women still wear the bourka both for cultural reasons and to protect themselves from men, Finn said.
"The bourka is still worn in Kabul, but before, 95 percent of women wore one. Now it's about 30 percent," he said. "Things have changed a lot for women, but the changes that the Afghans appreciate are not always the same as what Westerners want. [Rather than eliminating bourkas], reaction against the Taliban really brought home the importance of education, and now millions of girls are in schools."
The political situation in Afghanistan mirrors the lives of its people — it is one of setbacks mixed with hope. Sorayah Umewaka '06, another SPARKS summer intern with the Afghanistan Foundation for Culture and Civil Society, spoke of littered streets, destroyed structures and people who had little freedom to travel from place to place because of the danger in the streets.
However, she also described a country with a rich history and a people whose stories reveal not only their pain but also their determination to rebuild their country.
"I worked on a nationwide oral history project, editing translations and analyzing interviews," Umewaka said. "This project will preserve Afghan culture and experiences, which is especially good because so many people are illiterate and so the only way to preserve this culture is through oral history. Some of the experiences of the people were so unreal, so surreal. They have come from such a rich culture but also suffered so many travesties."
Above all, Finn, Rekhtman and Umewaka emphasized that the United States and the international community must not give up on Afghanistan. Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world, and probably will still be three to four years down the road, but that does not mean that the country is not making substantial progress, Finn said.
"We are not reconstructing Afghanistan; we are constructing it," he added. "It's going to take time."
Yet as the United States prepares to increase its involvement in Afghanistan — and attempts to convince the international community to do the same — Umewaka points to the role the Afghan people should play in putting their own country back together.
"I have a lot of faith in the Afghans," she said. "They are very ambitious. I don't see them giving up after all they have been through."
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