After a war, when guns fall silent, comes peace. People pick up their lives, children grow up, life returns to a kind of normalcy. But memories of atrocities remain, sorrow still eats the living alive, and hatred remains. When yesterday's foes will be today's neighbors, as is the case after a civil war, any kind of forgiving and reconciliation is much harder and takes longer than after ordinary wars.
Maata ja tuhkaa — afganistalainen tarina (Earth and ashed &mdash an Afghanistan story ) tells a story of a kin in Afghanistan during the Russian occupation. The Russians bomb a village to revenge somethings. Almost everyone dies, leaving just a grandfather and his young grandson alive. They set out to tell the news to the father of the grandson. The grandson has become deaf in the bombardment and cannot understand why people have lost their voices. The grandfather has lost his hope, and is afraid that his son will take on revenge, thus making the completing the vicious circle.
It is a sad story to start with and the ending is even sadder. It made me think of the future of Iraq, the time after the guns have fallen silent there. So many people have been killed, tortured to death, so many friendships betrayed, so many causes betrayed. It will take generations to heel the wounds, to forgive, to move on. It took at least two generations for the wound of the Finnish civil war to heal. I am afraid it will take longer in Iraq and they have not been able to begin yet.
Mr. Rahimi's book is a reminder of the insanity of war, and worth reading. Reading the book and hearing that again 40 Iraqis have been killed in bombings makes one sad, but being sad (and even angry) is first step towards action, hopefully.
27.01.2007