John Simpson: Imprisoning my innocent friend Peter Jouvenal is a mistake by the Taliban

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Peter Jouvenlam, once one of the best television cameras in the world and now a businessman, has spent the past few months in a small cell in prison in Kabul. He shared it with other British prisoners, Grant Bailey, who had previously run a security company in Afghanistan. Prison is very cold, and this is a bad winter even by standard kabul. They don’t have much food: a bowl of rice a day, with a handful of occasional beans. Even though Peter suffered high blood pressure, he did not have access to the drug he needed.

He was detained for the most trivial reasons. Peter concentrated on various business efforts in Afghanistan: specifically, he had talked to the Taliban about finding the international market for some of the country’s mineral sources. He has shared a flat with another English man, but wants to rent a house he can use as a base. He found a suitable place, and took the photos when he was arrested. In the atmosphere of fever Kabul today, Peter was accused of espionage.

Since then, GDI, Afghan intelligence, currently under the command of Ahmadullah WasiQ, has made some unclear accusations against Peter, saying that he spread the wrong information about the Taliban – which was not really not true.

When I had dinner in Kabul with Peter, a few days before his arrest, he had nothing but praise for negotiated government officials. However, if you work in difficult places like Afghanistan, there is always a danger that you will take as a result of the most trivial misunderstanding, only to find that to justify the arrest of accidentally thin accusations built into something more complicated. .

I have been locked up with him in Afghanistan in the past, although not in this condition, and I know how tough and funny he is. Grant Bailey, a fellow prisoner, will benefit from sharing small cells with him. But from the Taliban perspective, keeping Peter a prisoner was very stupid. They really need help from the outside world.

The economy collapsed on the day they took over abroad last August. They almost did not have economic experience, and the majority of people who were educated and rich had escaped. Without organizations such as the World Food Program and saving children, hunger will be more widespread than that.

There are many inaccuracies that occur in the Taliban leadership, but the key to getting Peter’s freedom is possible to persuade them that keeping him prisoners will make them more difficult for them to reach any agreement with the outside world.

The more outside the world thinks about Afghanistan as a place where every thing is crazy or cruel can happen, the more things will ignore the country’s problems. If a man who is respected because Peter can be arrested and held for weeks with unclear accusations, news organizations will be reluctant to send people there; And people like Peter will find countries that are easier to work.

I have worked with him in several situations raising hair: creeping to the communist-controlled kabul at night, the guards were very armed in the past, or surrounded by a large and hostile crowd after Peter had filmed some of the most famous photos in the history of Afghanistan. You can’t go through this experience with someone and don’t love them.

Peter’s friends, and they are a lot, determined not to let the outside world forget it. His prisoners are really not justified, and whether Afghanistan is not good at all. He must be released immediately.