R. DALTONDaud Saba (pictured) left his native Afghanistan in search of a scientific education and peace. Now he has returned to try to help piece his strife-torn country back together.
Saba was the first Afghan to receive a doctorate in geology in India, a choice he made to avoid going to a Soviet university after the 1979 Soviet invasion. He then moved to Europe, Toronto and finally Little Rock, Arkansas, where he and his Afghan physician wife continue to advocate for their homeland.
When the Taliban were ousted after the terrorist attacks in the United States in September 2001, Saba opted to return to his country to use his environmental science skills for human development. Now he experiences his cushier life in America only during brief vacations every few months, when he visits his wife, a transplant researcher at the University of Arkansas Medical Center.
In May, Saba was appointed as an adviser to Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, specializing in human-development issues. The role came after his success in establishing a Centre for Policy and Human Development at Kabul University to promulgate proper laws. He and half a dozen colleagues work in a simple, single-story building on the sprawling campus, its tree-lined avenues alive with students. Nearby in the university's library, the United States and Iran have designated study areas side-by-side, and students move between them to study and learn.
In his new roles, Saba has led the writing of two hefty documents about development of Afghanistan. He has the respect of US and European scientists who have worked in the country for decades. Yet he says that he has been sidelined in Kabul, because of his honesty. He refuses to be quiet, juggling harrowing demands, just as do other expatriate scientists who have returned to try to help their homeland.
When I visited, Saba's mobile phone rang constantly. One minute, there was a call from a grandson of Afghanistan's former king, Mohammad Zahir Shah — 'the father of the nation' — who was then on life support. Shortly thereafter came a desperate plea for advice from village leaders caught in fighting near Shindand, about 125 kilometres south of Saba's hometown of Herat.
“People are dying right now,” Saba exclaimed, his dark eyes intent. But he was caught in a new emotional crossfire. What he could not say out loud at the time was that the fighting involved US soldiers — who were later implicated in more than 100 civilian deaths in an attempt to oust a Taliban force.
R.D.
