THE KITE RUNNER COMPANION CURRICULUM - TakePart

HANDOUT 4.4C
THE IMPACT OF FUNDAMENTALISM ON HUMAN RIGHTS
CASE STUDY #3:
TALIBAN ATTACK
REFUGEE CAMP
DUSHANBE, Jan 29, 2001: Taliban fighters in northern Afghanistan attacked a refugee camp
close to the border with Tajikistan but caused no casualties, Russian troops guarding the frontier
said on Monday.
Around 13,000 Afghans are living in refugee camps near the Tajik border, according to
the Afghan government in exile in Dushanbe.
Russian border guards said a group of Taliban fighters drove up to the camp near the river Piandj
on Sunday and opened fire without apparently hitting any of the refugees.
Under the terms of an agreement between Moscow and Dushanbe, some 11,000 Russian troops
are patrolling the border between the two countries. Tajikistan, the poorest of the former Soviet
republics, has invoked security reasons for refusing to allow the Afghan refugees to enter its territory.
Several hundred of the Afghan refugees are ill with diseases, such as malaria, tuberculosis and
typhoid, according to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Despite the
extreme conditions they are housed in reed huts, sleeping on the ground without blankets and
lacking in drinking water.
Quoted from “Taliban Attack Refugee Camp” available online at
http://www.afghanistannewscenter.com/news/2001/january/jan30a2001.html
CRITICAL
THINKING
QUESTIONS
1. Use the worksheet in HANDOUT 4.5 to document the human rights abuses you recognize
in this case study.
2. The article says that the Taliban fighters “attacked a refugee camp…” but that there
were “no casualties.” Was the attack an attack on human rights? Why?
3. The article also says that Tajikistan “refuses to allow the Afghan refugees to enter its
territory.” What do you think the “security reasons” are for this? Do you think that these
reasons are valid? Why?
4. Given that Tajikistan is one of the poorest former Soviet Republics, and quite possibly
cannot provide adequately for its current citizens, does it still have a responsibility to
open its borders to Afghan refugees? Why? Why not?
5. In a situation where Tajikistan may be economically poor but Russia may be
economically better off, does the more developed country have a responsibility to aid?
Why? Why not?
6. What can more developed countries do to aid less fortunate countries in their
dilemmas?
7. If you were the leader of Tajikistan, knowing that you are also a citizen of the world,
how would you respond in a socially conscious way to those Afghan refugees on the
border of your country?
8. If you choose to refuse the refugees entry into your country, what human rights of the
refugees might you violate?
9. If you choose to allow them into your country, what human rights of others might
you hinder, if any? In a case like this, whose rights are competing against whose?
10. The article also states that “several hundred of the Afghan refugees are ill with
diseases…” Whose responsibility is it to tend to the sick?
11. Does the responsibility to help these people lie within us as individuals? Within
global organizations? Within governments? Explain/Justify your answers.
46 APPENDIX 4