justice, afghani style August 31, 2005
An e-mail today from my dear friend who is stationed in Afghanistan. He’s a lawyer by training:
“Greetings from Afghanistan. I thought you’d like a taste of due process,
Afghan style.
A few months ago, U.S. forces paid a local Afghan to teach English to nearby
students. Being the trusting souls we are, U.S. forces simply paid another
Afghan, expecting he would pay the teacher. Not wanting to break from
Afghan tradition, the middle man took his fair share first. U.S. forces
paid $2,500US. The teacher got about half that.
Fast forward to mid-July. Enter attorney (name omitted) and his team of
Tennesseans.
Both sides want attorney (a/k/a Lieutenant Colonel and Team Chief )
(name omitted) to make a decision. (No one in law school ever told me one day
I’d preside over a Jurga in Afghanistan.) Wanting to be fair, or as fair as
one can be in Afghanistan, I gathered as much evidence as I could. This
included several emails with U.S. soldiers who had been involved in the
process. All that took several weeks.
But finally the truth became evident: middle man had scammed teacher. But
what’s the remedy? If it were the U.S., the teacher would have to sue, get
a judgment and try to levy on the judgment.
But here, justice can be far more swift.
This morning I met with the teacher to tell him my findings. He suggested I
simply seize the man’s car and hold it until he got his money, since he
feared the middle man would flee faced with a $1,000US judgment. So, not
wanting to get bogged down in technicalities, I mentioned this to my Afghan
National Army counterpart, the battalion Executive Officer (acting as
Commander while the CO is on leave). We agreed that the XO and the teacher
would meet this evening. They did.
About an hour after they met, I was summoned by an Afghan Sergeant Major,
who proceeded to tell me that the XO had ordered the offender seized and
jailed and his car impounded. The Sergeant Major wanted to know how long I
wanted the man jailed. I figured one good night in jail would do for a
common thief, and I decreed that the offender could get his car back if he
paid the teacher the money owed, plus another $100 or so for “incidental
damages.†If not, the teacher would get a rather beat up set of wheels.
(But, beat up or not, it’s more wheels than the teacher now has.)
So justice has been served, and the offender still has his right hand. Why
can’t it be so swift, certain and fair back home? I guess it’s ‘cause of
all those derned lawyers.”
