Events in Afghanistan are of particular interest just now to a UCC senior research fellow, Mr Colin Thunhurst, of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. He has recently returned from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan, part of which adjoins the border with eastern Afghanistan.
The FATA was established in the days of the British empire as a bulwark against invasion from Afghanistan and has a great degree of autonomy. Mr Thunhurst, who has wide experience in this area of the world where he has lived for a number of years, was asked by the British government as part of its overseas development programme to help produce a health plan for the tribal areas.
He was scheduled to have returned by now to begin implementing the plan, but the events of September 11th in the US put paid to that.
He believes Afghans are pouring over the border into this remote and little-known area of Pakistan. The mullahs hold sway there, and the fundamentalist approach to Islam is not much more enlightened than was the Taliban regime in Kabul.
"The difference is that the Taliban were seeking to impose their version of Islamic fundamentalism; in the tribal areas, it is already accepted," he said.
Because of their virtual autonomy, the FATA areas have fallen through the Pakistani health net and are urgently in need of outside help. The most common health complaint there, says Mr Thunhurst, is gunshot wounds.
If Afghanistan settles down, the likelihood is that people will want to return to their homeland, he adds, but in the meantime health issues will be gathering momentum. While nothing definite has been arranged, Mr Thunhurst says he hopes to return sometime during the first three months of the new year.