Adjmal Nashkbandi, the Afghan interpreter kidnapped alongside the now-free Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, payed the ultimate price for not-being Italian, when the Taliban executed him yesterday.

Mastrogiacomo was released on the 19th of March, in a deal that involved the release of five taliban prisoners by the Afghan government. Nashkbandi, though, was not released at the same time, being kept by the Taliban in order to force more concessions from Karzait’s government. Concessions that were never likely to come.

Meanwhile Afghan security officials have finally admitted that they are holding the Afghan functionary of Italian aid agency Emergency, Rahmatullah Hanefi. Rahmatullah was seized by unidentified armed men following Mastrogiacomo’s liberation. Rahmatullah was the main go-between, charged byt the Italian government through Emergency, with the responsibility of negotiating directly with the Taliban. It was Rahmatullah, for example, who collected the freed Mastrogiacomo.

The Afghan government now claim that Rahmatullah was instrumental in the kidnapping of Mastrogiacomo, Adjmal Nashkbandi, and their driver (also executed by the Taliban)Syed Agha.

Responding to these accusations, Gino Strada, the Italian surgeon who founded and heads Emergency, said “I’m tired of hearing scum, cut-throats, murderers and delinquents circulating lies like this […] They [the afghan security services] are a gang of murderers – the same ones to whom our government have given 50 million euros to reconstruct the Afghan justice system”¹

Emergency’s position in Afghanistan hangs in the balance. Open hostility from the Afghan government will make their work virtually impossible. The hostility and accusations against Emergency are understandable, given that they treat all wounded in their hospitals regardless of the injured’s role in any fighting. Or to put it simply, they treat injured Taliban fighters, alongside wounded civilians, and injured government troops.

If the Italian government is serious about its involvment in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, it needs to pressure the Afghan government to give concrete proof regarding the accusations against Emergency’s man – or to release him immediately.

It should go without saying that concrete proof should not include any confession. Sources within the Afghan administration have suggested to Emergency that Rahmatullah has been subjected to sustained bouts of torture since his capture. Torture that, through their unquestioning support of the Afghan government, our governments are partially responsible for.

The Italian government aren’t responsible for the barbarous actions of the Taliban. With the refinancing of the Italian mission in Afghanistan they are responsible for those of the Afghan government. They had no leverage to force the Taliban to release Adjmal Nashkbandi. They do have leverage to force the Afghan government to act correctly in the case of Rahmatullah Hanefi, and were he an Italian citizen, rather than Afghan, you can bet they would use that leverage.

Let’s hope that Rahmatullah Hanefi doesn’t have to pay, any more than he already has, for not being Italian.

¹ Mastrogiacomo, accuse dai servizi afgani
“Il mediatore è coinvolto nel sequestro” – La Repubblica (09/04/2007)