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T HE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION TUESDAY, JULY 30, 2019 | 5world
that statement, saying they would not
negotiate with the Afghan side until
they had reached a deal with the United
States.
“And we will not sit and talk with the
Kabul administration as a government,”As Afghanistan’s presidential election
campaign began on Sunday, the coun-
try’s leader was facing a series of daunt-
ing concerns, from unrelenting violence
to fears that his government could be
derailed by a peace deal with the Tal-
iban.
And weary of waves of terrorism —
like an attack on one candidate Sunday
— voters are skeptical about risking life
and limb to cast ballots, especially given
the widespread fraud in recent elec-
tions.
“Why should I vote?” asked Fatima
Hussaini, a resident of Kabul, the capi-
tal, expressing a widespread view
among the electorate.
“The government hasn’t done any-
thing for us, and we’re not stupid enough
to vote again,” declared Ms. Hussaini,
who said her 2014 vote had been wasted.
Mohammad Ashraf, 41, a shopkeeper,
said he, too, would not vote because he
does not believe it would improve secu-
rity. “I don’t want to take the risk,” he
said.
Their fears were not without cause. In
Afghanistan, running elections and go-
ing to the polls can be life-or-death deci-
sions.
On Sunday, the political party office of
Amrullah Saleh, an Afghan vice presi-
dential candidate and President Ashraf
Ghani’s running mate, was stormed by
gunmen and bombed. Mr. Saleh sur-
vived the attack, the president reported,
and the Interior Ministry said he was
not injured. But 20 people were killed
and 50 wounded. Among those killed
were 16 civilians and four security force
members, according to Nasrat Rahimi, a
spokesman for interior ministry.
The bombing underscored fears that
this election, like the scandal-marred
2014 presidential vote, would be under-
mined by persistent terrorist attacks.An overstretched national police
force is being asked to provide security
for all 18 presidential candidates and
their running mates. Many Afghans fear
that insurgents will attack polling sites
when voting begins on Sept. 28, and that
the fraud and violence that marred the
2014 election will be repeated.
Yet colorful campaign posters and
billboards were raised on Sunday de-
spite those fears, the deteriorating secu-
rity situation around the country and a
confusing government bid a day earlier
to inject itself into the peace talks be-
tween the Taliban and the United States.
This election, already delayed twice,
is playing out amid simmering anger
and resentment from Mr. Ghani’s gov-
ernment over being frozen out of those
peace talks, being held in Doha, Qatar.
The Taliban have refused to negotiate
with the Afghan government, calling it
illegitimate.
And violence has spiked in recent
months, with combatants in the 18-year
war seeking, in part, to gain leverage at
the peace talks.Afghan security agencies spent eight
months on an election security plan that
includes armored vehicles and guards
for candidates’ rallies and homes, said
Nasrat Rahimi, an interior ministry
spokesman.
At least one prominent candidate, Mo-
hammad Anif Atmar, has said Mr. Gha-
ni’s control over the election process
could taint the vote.
A coalition of about a dozen candi-
dates, including Mr. Atmar, said Sunday
it would boycott the election beginning
Thursday if Mr. Ghani did not remove
recently appointed government officials
loyal to him. Citing the election delay,
Mohammad Shahab Hakimi, a spokes-
man for the group, said that Mr. Ghani’s
term had expired on May 22, and that he
no longer had the authority to act as
president.
Other candidates have suggested de-
laying the vote so that a newly elected
government does not interfere with
peace negotiations.
A boycott by two-thirds of the 18 can-
didates would be a severe blow to an
election already in doubt because of the
violence and the complex peace
process.
“Insecurity is concerning some candi-
dates, raising their doubts as to whether
an inclusive election is possible,” a politi-
cal analyst, Ali Yawar Adili of the Af-
ghanistan Analysts Network, wrote on
the group’s website Sunday.
The eighth round of the Doha talks is
expected soon, with the United States
and the Taliban close to a deal that
would exchange a phased withdrawal of
14,000 American troops from Afghani-
stan for a Taliban promise that the coun-try would not be used by terrorists to
launch attacks.
On Saturday, Mr. Ghani’s government
announced that it was preparing for di-
rect negotiations with the Taliban in two
weeks. The Taliban quickly dismissedsaid a Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah
Mujahid.
Taliban and Afghan representatives,
including some government officials,
met this month in Doha for so-called in-
tra-Afghan dialogue, discussions in-tended to help reach an agreement on a
road map for a political settlement and a
lasting cease-fire.
The United States has set a target of
Sept. 1 for some sort of preliminary deal
that sets a road map for direct negotia-
tions. It is unclear how such a deal would
affect the Sept. 28 election or the status
of Mr. Ghani’s government once intra-
Afghan negotiations began.
At his “nation-building” campaign
launch Sunday, Mr. Ghani made clear
that he intended for his government to
represent Afghans in subsequent talks
with the Taliban. “I am the president of
all Afghanistan,” he declared.
He indicated that he would not let the
peace process interfere with the elec-
tion.
“We don’t want those who aren’t com-
mitted to peace to sabotage this
process,” he told a cheering crowd. “But
we want this to happen with principles
and in the right manner.”
As his supporters chanted “Long live
Ghani,” the president addressed the mil-
itants directly.
“I have a message for the Taliban,”
Mr. Ghani said. “We don’t look down on
you. But don’t forget that each Afghan
has to be respected.”
He said that while his predecessor,
Hamid Karzai, laid down 11 conditions
for negotiating with the Taliban, he was
willing to negotiate unconditionally.
Tensions were evident even at this
event, though, despite the largely sup-
portive crowd. Mr. Ghani was inter-
rupted by a man who shouted “Liar!”
and “Demagogue!” The president’s se-
curity agents hustled the protester
away.
At a wedding hall across town, Mr.
Ghani’s chief executive and main elec-
tion rival, Abdullah Abdullah, waited
until the president’s rally had concluded
so that TV coverage would shift to his
own rally. Mr. Ghani and Mr. Abdullah
have coexisted in a tenuous unity gov-
ernment that was cobbled together with
American help after the disputed 2014
election.
Mr. Abdullah criticized Mr. Ghani’s se-
curity team for silencing the rally pro-
tester. “We would never shut someone’s
mouth,” he said.
Mr. Abdullah also ridiculed Mr. Gha-
ni’s penchant for saying he is an heir to
exalted Afghan statesmen and poets of
eras past. He mentioned the president’s
recent misreading of the famous 13th-
century poet Rumi.
“The least one can do as a sign of re-
spect is to read their poems right,” Mr.
Abdullah said.
He told his supporters that he was
committed to the peace process, but he
did not discuss how it might affect the
election if a deal were reached.
For many Afghans, a sense of ambiva-
lence and fear extended not just to the
weeks of campaigning ahead, but also to
what kind of future their country might
face after a peace deal with the Taliban.
Mustafa Arya, a former Abdullah sup-
porter who now backs Mr. Ghani, wor-
ried that because President Trump is ea-
ger to withdraw American troops, the
United States would undercut demo-
cratic gains achieved in Afghanistan
since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.
“We want a peace deal, but not one at
the cost to our dignity, or that will bring
back the emirate,” he said, referring to a
Taliban demand that any post-peace
government be an Islamic emirate
rather than a republic.
“We don’t want to go back to that peri-
od,” Mr. Arya said.Mujib Mashal, Fatima Faizi and Jawad
Sukhanyar contributed reporting.Afghan campaigning begins amid rising violence
KABUL, AFGHANISTANBut the administration
seeking re-election could
be bypassed in peace dealBY DAVID ZUCCHINOSupporters of President Ashraf Ghani at a rally in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday. This election comes amid resentment that Mr. Ghani has been frozen out of peace talks.OMAR SOBHANI/REUTERSA wounded man being transported to a hospital after explosions targeted a political gathering in Kabul on Sunday.JAWAD JALALI/EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCK“Insecurity is concerning some
candidates, raising their doubts
as to whether an inclusive
election is possible.”known as ISIS, were captured in Iraq,
the majority outside the Iraqi city of Tal
Afar in August 2017. Sixteen of the most
vulnerable, sick and orphaned children
were the first to return seven months
ago.
Then in May, another 188 children,
ages 1 to 16, came home to families in
time for the religious festival of Eid al-
Fitr in early June.
Dozens of Turkish women held in
northern Iraq have also returned home,
and 60 more children are expected in the
coming weeks, according to families and
friends in Turkey. Roughly 800 Turkish
women and children are believed to be
detained still in Iraq.
Families in Turkey are working for
the return of the mothers of the repatri-
ated children as well. But most of the
adults have already been tried and sen-
tenced in Iraq in a process that human
rights organizations and the United Na-
tions have criticized as summary jus-
tice.
The 188 recently repatriated children
left behind 84 mothers who are still in
detention, 26 of whom have been sen-
tenced to death, according to a judge fa-
miliar with their cases in Baghdad.
Turkish government officials declined
to comment on the repatriations.
There is no doubt the children have
been through harsh times and need
care. Families are dealing with every-
thing from scabies and malaria to fre-
netic behavior and nightlong crying.
Nisa is clearly traumatized. She is
afraid of the dark and will not even go to
the bathroom on her own, her grand-
mother said.
“She panicked when she saw an air-
plane. She said, ‘Grandma, they are go-
ing to bomb us. Hide.’”Huseyin, a pastry chef in the town of
Denizli in southwestern Turkey, trav-
eled four times to Baghdad to rescue his
2-year-old grandson, Halit, who was
among the first group of 16 children
brought home.
“He had malaria and scabies,”Huseyin said. “The first week, he was
crying very hard. It got to a point that he
could not cry anymore,” said his grand-
mother, Nevin.
Halit played happily on a recent after-
noon on the couple’s sitting room floor,
lining up toy trucks in a convoy. Butwhen he first arrived, he kept biting
their 4-year-old daughter, Huseyin said.
When they took him to a shopping mall,
they said, Halit went into a frenzy, laugh-
ing wildly and giddy over candied ap-
ples.
The jail in Baghdad, where dozens ofTurkish mothers and children shared a
communal cell, was a rough place, re-
called 12-year-old Hattab, another re-
turnee from the Turkish city of Konya
who was held there for a time.
“The guards, they treated us like ani-
mals. They pushed us when we went
outside,” he said. “Little kids got their
hands squashed so many times.”
Part of an extended family who set-
tled in Syria before the war, Hattab came
home with three small boys belonging to
his elder sister, 22.
“We do not know how old they are,”
said his grandmother, Hacer.
She guessed that Abdullah, Gudami
and Muhammad are 5, 4 and 2. All were
underweight, and Gudami bore shrap-
nel scars on his head. They did not rec-
ognize half the foods she put in front of
them, Hacer said, breaking into tears.
There are deeper problems, too.
“Hattab has been through a lot and
forgets things,” Hacer said. “I would not
allow my other children, but for him we
keep the lights on.”
The Ministry of Family, Labor and So-
cial Services has handled the returns,
vaccinating and registering the children
and providing new clothes before hand-
ing them over to relatives. Officials have
visited the families at home and have of-
fered psychological help, although none
interviewed had received it yet.
Some of the first children to return
were traumatized and have had prob-
lems at school, Hacer said.
“My feeling is no psychologist is as
good as a mother.”
The families insist that some of the
imprisoned women are just as much vic-
tims as their children.
Halit’s mother, Rumeysa, was only 16
and in high school when she ran off to
Syria with a Turkish man 10 years hersenior without telling her parents. Now
22 and widowed, she has been sen-
tenced to life imprisonment in Iraq,
most likely on charges related to aiding
the Islamic State.
“It’s obvious that we have proof she
was 16, and we have proof she was a
child,” her father, Huseyin, said. “She is
a victim and anyone would accept that.
But Iraq does not.”
Huseyin is preparing a fifth trip to
Iraq.
“If I had to go to the moon,” he said,
“believe me I would.”
Nisa’s grandfather, a tailor named
Mehmet, said his daughter Leyla had
been forced to go to Syria when her hus-
band threatened to take the children,ages 5 and 6 months, without her. On her
first Skype call home after leaving,
Leyla would not even look at the cam-
era. Her mother, Bedia, said she knew
immediately that something was wrong.
“Would you not know your own child?
I understood she was unhappy,” she
said. “Whatever they do there is out of
fear,” she said. “I don’t believe anyone
who has been there would still like the
idea of the Islamic State. My daughter
was begging last year, ‘Mom, please
save us.’”
Mehmet insisted that the women
should be returned, saying that he be-
lieved 90 percent of them were taken
there unwillingly.
“They should be charged here if they
are guilty,” he said.Children of ISIS followers find home in Turkey
T URKEY, FROM PAGE 1Gudami at his family’s home in Konya, Turkey. When he arrived from Iraq, he was underweight and had shrapnel scars on his head.TARA TODRAS-WHITEHILL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESAbout 1,000 Turkish women and
children with ties to ISIS were
captured in Iraq. It is believed
that hundreds are still held there.РЕЕplane. She said, ‘Grandma, they are go-plane. She said, ‘Grandma, they are go-
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