KABUL, Afghanistan — After Ahmad Jawad Hijri noticed the wounded kids within the hospital and realized of the Afghan airstrike that put them there, killing 9 others round their age in northern Afghanistan, he by no means anticipated that his response would land him in jail.
However Mr. Hijri, then the spokesman for the governor of Takhar Province, was arrested, imprisoned for 3 days after which fired after telling the information media what had occurred — an ordinary a part of his function which he had carried out many occasions earlier than. Prime officers in Kabul insisted that solely Taliban fighters had been killed within the strike, not kids, and that anybody who stated in any other case was to be prosecuted.
“On the hospital I noticed the wounded kids,” Mr. Hijri stated. “I didn’t make a mistake.”
The warfare in Afghanistan has lengthy been one in every of competing narratives. However the authorities’s response to the Oct. 22 strike in Takhar Province signaled a shift in techniques by President Ashraf Ghani’s administration: an overt declaration of its willingness to suppress and deny data on the deaths of harmless individuals. It additionally highlighted the altering political panorama as peace negotiations proceed in Qatar and the Taliban transfer to reap the benefits of the eye they’re attracting on the world stage.
The information briefings that outlined the early years of the warfare as either side jockeyed to win Afghan hearts and minds have almost ceased. That leaves its foremost gamers — america, the Taliban and the federal government — all testing completely different communication methods to realize their desired ends.
However with the Individuals set to probably withdraw from the nation within the coming months, the Afghan authorities — inundated by Taliban assaults, slumping morale amongst its safety forces and waves of focused killings throughout the nation — has solely shrunk away from portraying itself as a bastion of democratic values.
The October airstrike, consultants stated, was a turning level for the Afghan authorities. Even the pretense of accountability shifted to outright condemnation of these going towards the federal government’s backside line, most likely due to a concern of shedding public standing additional.
The clampdown has solely emboldened the Taliban, desirous to show themselves able to main Afghanistan higher than the present leaders, who’re more and more shedding credibility.
The Afghan authorities is “so afraid of criticism, they’re unwilling to confess to errors or maintain themselves accountable,” stated Patricia Gossman, the affiliate Asia director for Human Rights Watch. “It’s finally self-destructive, however they’re determined to manage data.”
Earlier within the warfare, the Afghan authorities was reticent about civilian casualties inflicted by the coalition or by Afghan forces, typically pledging to analyze however providing outcomes that had been not often publicized. However in any case the episodes had been acknowledged, and native officers from areas the place civilians had been wounded or killed had been allowed to discuss them freely.
The Taliban have used civilian deaths as a propaganda instrument for the whole lot of the warfare, pointing to U.S. and NATO airstrikes and evening raids as evident crimes towards the Afghan individuals. And the Afghan and U.S. governments have typically responded in flip through the use of the identical tactic — exploiting civilian casualties — towards the Taliban.
However as Western troops scaled again their presence, and Afghan forces leveled their very own weapons towards the rebel group, the following errant airstrikes and misguided artillery fireplace which have wounded and killed innocents have develop into an ever extra highly effective propaganda instrument, this time leveled immediately on the Afghan authorities.
One such instance concerned photographs of useless civilians and destroyed property posted to Twitter final week by a Taliban spokesman who highlighted them as warfare crimes dedicated by the Afghan and U.S. militaries. Such photographs are sometimes catalysts for public outcry that goals each methods: blaming the federal government for an lack of ability to guard its individuals and the Taliban for his or her unwavering dedication to violence.
Because the Taliban have scaled up their propaganda distribution, the Afghan authorities has tightened the reins on official dialogue with the general public. Since October, the Ghani administration has muzzled provincial spokesmen and district governors, demanding that they cease relaying data to the information media, a number of Afghan officers from a number of provinces advised The Occasions, particularly referring to civilian casualties.
The crackdown has prompted fears amongst provincial spokesmen that they may lose their jobs or face arrest. One spokesman, who spoke on the situation of anonymity, stated that journalists typically needed to wait hours or days to listen to from the provincial governors as a result of their spokesmen weren’t allowed to reply.
American officers and members of Mr. Ghani’s administration attributed the clampdown to a scarcity of coordination between native and nationwide businesses and stated that the provincial spokesmen had been barred from speaking solely about safety points.
Sediq Seddiq, Mr. Ghani’s spokesman, denied that the federal government was attempting to restrict data, saying that the Afghan authorities has “been a pioneer in supporting our vibrant media and the enforcement of entry to data legal guidelines that are unprecedented within the area.”
Finally, the Afghan authorities’s choice to stifle data on the native stage implies that the Taliban have extra space to manage the narrative within the nation’s districts the place they’re current however that Afghan officers have better command over the nationwide narrative, a former U.S. official stated.
This dynamic performed out on Sunday in southern Afghanistan. Native officers in Nimruz Province claimed an Afghan airstrike there killed a minimum of a dozen civilians a day earlier, solely to have the governor later say that 12 Taliban had been killed and {that a} report of civilian casualties was being investigated. That very same day, protesters took the stays of these killedto the provincial capital, saying girls and kids had been among the many useless.
The repression of data has been a boon for the Taliban, an rebel group that when banned televisions and barely talked to reporters. Their Feb. 29 settlement with america on a timetable for withdrawal, consultants say, helped legitimize the group on a world stage, prompting the Taliban’s public relation equipment to develop significantly.
Taliban opinion items written in English are sometimes posted now on the group’s web site, Voice of Jihad, and typically seem in worldwide information media shops, together with the Op-Ed page of The New York Times. Native Afghan information shops publish statements from Taliban spokesmen on social media, a lot as they’d Afghan officers. It’s a far cry from a decade in the past, when the Taliban’s messaging was typically dismissed as lies.
The Taliban typically lie about dying tolls of their assaults, denying civilian casualties and at occasions blaming coalition forces for them. The group has denied taking any function within the current string of focused killings throughout the nation, regardless of being immediately implicated by the U.S. navy and Afghan safety officers.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief Taliban spokesman, stated that their media technique was targeted on “sharing the reality for the individuals.” In actuality, the group has two traces of effort: one supporting the peace talks and the opposite discrediting the Afghan authorities on the battlefield and supporting Taliban fighters.
To assist counter the Taliban’s narrative, america began a small psychological operations unit referred to as the Data Warfare Activity Power-Afghanistan, in accordance with U.S. navy officers. The shadowy outfit was shaped on the request of Gen. Austin S. Miller, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, within the wake of the 2018 killing of Gen. Abdul Raziq, the police chief of Kandahar. After his dying in an insider assault, rumors shortly attributed his killing as an alternative to the Individuals.
By combining cybertools, intercepted communications and social media, the unit acts as a direct counter to disrupt messaging and knowledge channels of the Taliban and terrorist teams within the nation, officers stated.
Mr. Hijri, the previous provincial spokesman, nonetheless refuses to cowl up the civilian casualties he noticed on Oct. 22. An Afghan Impartial Human Rights fee report backed up his assertions on the episode, saying that an Afghan authorities airstrike had killed 9 kids, aged 7 to 13, and wounded greater than 14 others. Taliban fighters had been additionally harm.
“I’m amid two stones: One facet is the Taliban and from one other facet is the federal government,” Mr. Hijri stated. “Now my destiny shouldn’t be clear.”
Taimoor Shah contributed reporting from Kandahar, Afghanistan.
