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Sunday, October 14, 2001
By Bette McDevitt, Special to the Post-Gazette
At least 125 of Afghanistan's children are safe, far from the fighting and the bombs, living in a German "Peace Village" that provides medical treatment to children from war-torn countries.
For more information, click on Friedensdorf's Web site: www.friedensdorf.de
Bette McDevitt is a freelance writer.
But what will become of their families, what they will come home to, and how will they get home -- these questions are wide-open, says Wolfgang Mertens of Friedensdorf, a children's camp in Oberhausen, Germany, whose name translates into "Peace Village."
The Boeing 727 that Afghanistan's national airline Ariana had used to transport the children to Germany was destroyed Sept. 12, allegedly by the Northern Alliance rebels who are fighting the Taliban regime for control of the country. U.S. airstrikes have since wrecked the airport in Kabul, the nation's capital.
The Taliban had insisted the children fly on Ariana, and the old Boeing was the only plane available. So now, Mertens and other Peace Village staff are working to find another way to get the children home on schedule in February, if possible.
Mertens said the Afghani children are worried about their families.
"The children are concerned, always asking about their parents. They are listening to the radio, to BBC, which broadcasts in their language, and they are saying they do not want another war. They are afraid, and we are reassuring them. Of course they are safe here."
The director of the Red Crescent Society in Kabul assured Peace Village staff by e-mail that things were calm in the Afghan capital last week and that the children's families were fine. But Mertens noted that under wartime conditions all communications from Kabul are censored, so they cannot be certain that all is well.
The Peace Village, featured in a Post-Gazette story Dec. 4, brings children from more than 100 troubled countries to Oberhausen, a suburb of Dusseldorf, for medical care and rehabilitation. Many suffer tuberculosis of the bone or wounds from landmines, which require amputations. The program is supported by the German government but depends on donations and volunteers.
Mertens hopes the Afghan children will be able to rejoin their families in February.
"We are planning ahead, no matter what regime is in place," he said. "We believe that whatever the government is, they will let us do our work, because of the reputation we have built over the last 10 years."
The Taliban have cooperated with the program for several years.
Peace Village has worked with various Christian aid workers in Afghanistan, all of whom have fled except for the four Germans, two Americans and two Australians from Shelter Now who are imprisoned in Kabul on charges of preaching Christianity.
Peace Village's main counterpart in Afghanistan is the Red Crescent, similar to the Red Cross. It is made up of people with a Western orientation who play no role in politics, Mertens said. A Taliban representative oversees their work.
Peace Village has chartered an old Air France Boeing 727 to pick up sick or injured children in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Aside from dealing with the Taliban, United Nations sanctions against Afghanistan also have made the flights difficult to arrange. Sometimes, U.N. permission to transport children would be in question until the day of a flight.
"But things were getting better," Mertens said. "We had permission for two flights next year, but who knows what will happen now."
Mertens is thinking ahead.
"There's another airport, 80 kilometers [50 miles]north of Kabul, at Baghlan. We could charter a plane, and go there."
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