My beating by refugees is a symbol of the hatred and fury of this filthy war
Report by Robert Fisk in Kila Abdullah after Afghan border ordeal
10 December 2001
They started by shaking hands. We said "Salaam aleikum" – peace be upon you – then the first pebbles flew past my face.
A small boy tried to grab my bag. Then another. Then someone punched me in the back. Then young men broke my glasses,
began smashing stones into my face and head. I couldn't see for the blood pouring down my forehead and swamping my eyes.
And even then, I understood. I couldn't blame them for what they were doing. In fact, if I were the Afghan refugees of
Kila Abdullah, close to the Afghan-Pakistan border, I would have done just the same to Robert Fisk. Or any other
Westerner I could find.
So why record my few minutes of terror and self-disgust under assault near the Afghan border, bleeding and crying like
an animal, when hundreds – let us be frank and say thousands – of innocent civilians are dying under American air
strikes in Afghanistan, when the "War of Civilisation" is burning and maiming the Pashtuns of Kandahar and destroying
their homes because "good" must triumph over "evil"?
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