Angry Bagram villagers protest at Airbase

Nearly 2,000 villagers from Bagram village, which sits alongside the Soviet-era airbase, now the air hub of the US military effort in Afghanistan, protested outside the gates yesterday. Chanting "Die America" and "Die Karzai," the crowd had a very specific greivance: when US forces conducted the man hunt for the escaped Arab prisoners from the detention facility there, they entered uninvited into many houses, and apprehended eight people.

US forces claim these men were suspected terrorists, but Bagram villagers say that is not the point. They are outraged that their village elders were not consulted first. From the villagers' perspective, they did not deserve the invasive raids of US forces, especially because they claim they have been always cooperative with the Americans. Even President Karzai has commented that the US procedure of raiding residential compounds, where women and children are present, is extremely offensive to the Afghan sensibility. (It is also true that the cooperation and labor of the villagers at Bagram is key to the functioning of the Base.)

The AP circulated some photos of the protest (including this one here by Tomas Munita). In them there are no written signs, just a tire burning, and men and boys chanting, indicating a fairly spontaneous, localized protest. According to some Western media, the protest turned into a riot, with stone throwing, and attempts to break through the gates of the base.