Protest of government brings Kabul to a halt
KABUL, Afghanistan — A large demonstration against the fragile Afghan government brought Kabul to a standstill on Monday and put security forces on alert, with the authorities stacking shipping containers to block all routes to the city center and the presidential palace.
The demonstration, which was driven by ethnic Hazaras’ outrage over the proposed route for a new electricity transmission line, tapped a deep well of factional tensions and frustration over the government of President Ashraf Ghani.
Though most of the protest remained peaceful, some demonstrators pelted the container blockades with rocks and acted violently toward at least five reporters. The security forces resorted to sporadic use of water cannons to disperse people.
Thousands of demonstrators marched from the west of Kabul to demand that the government abandon its decision to reroute the line, which would transmit electricity from Turkmenistan. The line was initially supposed to go through Bamian, a Hazaradominated central province that is one of the most deprived in the country. But the current proposed route avoids the province, instead going through the Salang Pass in Parwan province, which protesters say is vulnerable to avalanches.
Afghanistan still relies heavily on imported electricity, as decades of persistent conflict have derailed the building of dams and kept internal energy production to a minimum. The government continues to import more than 80 percent of its power supply from neighboring countries.
The protesters see the government’s decision as prejudiced against the occupants of central Afghanistan, most of whom are Hazaras, a group emerging from a long history of oppression. But Ghani’s government has blamed his predecessor for the change of route, saying that two years of costly preparation work has already been done on the new route.
In a declaration before their march ended in the afternoon, the protesters demanded that the government scrap the decision on the route change and promised further demonstrations until it happened.
But much of the declaration focused on larger issues of what the protesters called “the systematic and shameful injustices that have gone on for 70 generations.”
“We can tolerate a lack of electricity, but the degradation of a nation and systematic discrimination is no longer tolerable,” the declaration said.
Ghani, who appointed a commission to review the project’s contracts, has said that his government had little to do with it, and that he was delaying the project to ensure that Bamian receives electricity from it, even if the main transmission line does not go through the province.
“In the past 2 weeks, the govt has spared no efforts in reaching out to the protesters to hear their views & engage in discussions,” Ghani’s office said on its official Twitter account. “The govt has endeavored to address the issue in a way that the project’s funding is maintained & power supply is ensured” for Bamian.