A small step forward in Kabul's Hotel California
The fact that the Kabul conference is taking place is undoubtedly a step forward, blogs Lindsey Hilsum. But the Afghan government will soon be expected to organise mult-million dollar development projects and reintegrate the Taliban.
At 5am this morning, I found myself jostling a couple of dozen other journalists for a press pass outside a bicycle repair shop.
We had submitted all our details for accreditation to the Kabul conference several weeks ago, backed up by a letter from the British embassy. Our fixer went to get our passes yesterday afternoon, but the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, having been preparing for the conference for at least two months, managed to produce just nine passes for a press corps which is probably 200+ strong.
We were told to try again after midnight, or at dawn. They said we had to leave all equipment in the media centre overnight for security. We refused. They gave in.
As we queued, I cast a glance over to the police checkpoint and tried not to think of the security advice that such places would be targets for suicide bombers. They’d already fired three rockets near the airport.
Eventually, we got our passes (plain green, no photo, so why was that so complicated?). An enthusiastic Alsatian sniffed our equipment and we were loaded onto a battered bus.
At the next checkpoint, blue-uniformed guards searched our luggage and removed dangerous items – from my bag they took lip salve, muesli bars, breath mints and the bomb dressing I always carry with me just in case. Much arguing, and I got the bomb dressing back and was allowed to eat the muesli bars.
And so to the press centre, where we would have no access to the conference at all. More arguing. A few (including our intrepid camerawoman) slipped through the net and made it to the garden where there might be a chance of interviewing delegates.
Eventually, helpful press officers from the British embassy got the producer and myself across too, just in time to see President Karzai conducting Hillary Clinton around a makeshift bazaar of Afghan handicraft shops. When I say “see”, I mean glimpse through a tottering morass of cameras and coiffed blonde hair that apparently belonged to Hillary Clinton. (There’s a word TV journalists use for a chaotic gaggle of cameras following a VIP and it involves goats and something rude.)
We had been told that once in, there was no way out (Hotel California: “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave”). Security reasons, you understand. But once again, the British came to our rescue. After doing a few interviews, we escaped.
I tell you this everyday tale of journalism in Afghanistan because the foreign secretary said today that it was “a step forward that the conference took place here, organised by the Afghans”.
A step forward, but we’re talking about this government organising multi-million dollar development projects and programmes to re-integrate Taliban fighters. That’s going to be much more difficult than accrediting 200 journalists and getting them in and out of a conference.
