Newest flood of Afghan refugees: Pashtuns fleeing south

Technically, the 30,000 residents of the camps in Spin Boldak are not refugees, since they have not actually fled the country. But as "internally displaced persons," as aid workers call them, these Pashtuns, Kuchis, and other Afghans face the same threats faced by the millions of Afghan refugees that managed to escape Afghanistan over the past 23 years of war.

Mohammadullah, a farmer from the northwestern city of Maimona, says he fled seven months ago, after ethnic Uzbek soldiers raided a neighbor's house, killing seven men, and kidnapping three young girls. The next day, Mohammadullah and 30 Pashtun families packed their belongings on donkeys and left for Herat on foot.

"They said we supported the Taliban, but we were there before the Taliban," says Mohammadullah, surrounded by his five sons, two of whom work as laborers to support his family of nine. "It was all an excuse to confiscate our land. Those who are still there, they are living a life in jail. They can't even go out of their homes."

Barat Khan, who left the northern village of Char Bolak seven months ago, says he went back to his village secretly 12 days ago. He changed his clothes, spoke in the Persian dialect of the north, and spent nights with an Uzbek friend he still trusts.

"All my Uzbek friends told me to go back south, because the warlords will kill you," he says. One neighbor, an ethnic Hazara who owed Mr. Khan 200,000 Afghanis ($5, or the monthly salary for an average Afghan laborer), told Khan that he should run away while he could. "He told me, 'Do you want your life? If you love your life, you should go back, otherwise I will kill you.'"

Wali Mohammad, a farmer from Mazar-e Sharif, and chief representative for the 800 families at Awami Camp, looks forward to leaving this camp for another one being prepared west of Kandahar, the regional capital. There, the sand dunes will be about the same, but tube wells are being dug that will make these Pashtuns less dependent on the kindness of aid groups.

"The government has promised to dig wells there and that will be great," says Mr. Mohammad, who fled with his two wives and 19 children to Spin Boldak, in hopes of entering Pakistan. "But if they don't do that, we will try to go into Pakistan, which is difficult, because you have to bribe the guards 200 rupees per head. For my family, this is a big price."

For his part, Habib says he has actually started to think of the Taliban times as a "golden era," because at least there was a system of law and order and a sense of pride for Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns. And he fully intends to take his lands back, even if that means restarting a cycle of ethnic violence.

"I can't say that I've lost my lands, because I will get it back from those people," he says. "Until my death, I will fight for those lands. These people will not be in power forever. And when they fall, I'll be waiting."

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