阿富汗收尸老人让战争双方的亡灵安息

Ferrying the Dead of Both Sides in a Cruel Afghan War

阿富汗收尸老人让战争双方的亡灵安息

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — On the brindled plains of southern Afghanistan, Malik Abdul Hakim is death’s ferryman.

阿富汗坎大哈——马利克·阿卜杜勒·哈基姆(Malik Abdul Hakim)是阿富汗南部斑驳平原上的一名亡灵摆渡者。

He collects the bodies of soldiers and police officers killed in areas of Taliban dominance and takes them home. From government centers, he carries slain insurgents back to their families, negotiating roads laced with roadside bombs.

他把在塔利班(Taliban)控制区阵亡的军人和警察的遗体收敛起来，带他们返回故里。他也会小心翼翼地避开路边的炸弹，把被杀的叛军尸体从政府中心送回老家。

Mr. Hakim, a slender 66-year-old with a white beard that hangs to his chest, laughs when asked what drives him. He never envisioned he would have this life, crossing front lines for strangers. But he finds meaning in his work, delivering a measure of dignity to families scarred by war.

现年66岁的哈基姆身形消瘦，花白的大胡子垂到胸前。当被问及从事这份工作的动力时，他笑了。他未曾想到竟然会过上这样的生活，为帮助陌生人而在前线穿梭。但他认为自己的工作是有意义的，可以让遭受战争创伤的家庭拥有一份尊严。

Still, he prays that one day he will be out of a job.

不过，他一直企盼着有一天他会失业。

“Every time I see a body, I pray there will not be another,” he says in a soft and oddly youthful voice. “I will be thankful when there is peace and stability, and I no longer have work.”

“每当看到一具尸体，我都祈祷不要再看到另外一具了，”他说话的声音很柔和，而且异常年轻。“如果真有天下太平、我也失业的那一天，我会感激不尽。”

Until then, he says, he will not be deterred. Not by the wretched smell of corpses, the physical demands of lifting the bodies or the psychological toll inflicted by a front-row seat to the atrocities of war. Not even by the death of his two sons at insurgents’ hands.

他说，在那之前，自己是不会退却的。难闻的尸臭、搬运尸体所要付出的体力，以及因为近距离见证战争的残酷而承受的心理压力，都阻挡不了他。就连两个儿子死于叛军之手的惨痛遭遇也无法让他止步。

“All these years, I have done this for God,” he says. “I call both sides my brothers because they are Afghans and Muslims. I don’t want favors or position. My only aim is to help those in need.”

“这些年来，我一直在为真主工作，”他说。“我认为两边的人都是我的兄弟，因为他们都是阿富汗人，都是穆斯林。我不想要什么好处或者地位。我唯一的目的就是帮助有需要的人。”

That a man can shoulder such a burden is a sad feature of the prolonged war in Afghanistan, which grows more deadly by the week. The Afghan security forces lost more men last year than in any previous year, as did the Taliban. Since he started seven years ago, Mr. Hakim has carried 713 bodies, including 313 in the past year alone.

他一个人所担起的这副担子，是旷日持久的阿富汗战争的悲哀写照。每一周，这场战争的杀伤力都会变得更大。阿富汗安全部队去年的阵亡人数比以往任何年份都多，塔利班方面也是如此。从业七年的哈基姆总共运送过713具尸体，其中仅去年就运送了313具。

Mr. Hakim’s work began by chance after the death of a famed Taliban commander in Zhare, his native district. The insurgents wanted the body of their leader returned, and neighbors suggested they ask Mr. Hakim, who was volunteering for the Afghan Red Crescent at the time.

哈基姆当初干上这份工作全凭偶然：一个著名的塔利班指挥官死在了哈基姆所在的扎里地区，叛军想要拿回领导人的尸体，于是哈基姆的邻居建议他们问问当时正给阿富汗红新月会(Afghan Red Crescent)当志愿者的哈基姆。

Mr. Hakim decided to give it a try. He drove to the district center and made his entreaty. As he waited, the district police commander had a question of his own for Mr. Hakim: Why had he never offered to collect the government bodies?

哈基姆决定试一试。他驱车赶到区域中心，说明来意。他等待答复时，该地区的警长疑惑地问道：他怎么没提供过收敛政府人员遗体的服务呢?

“I told them it never occurred to me to do any of this,” he said with a wry smile. “I wasn’t even sure I wanted to do this for the Taliban.”

“我告诉他们，以前从未想过做这样的事情，”他苦笑着说道。“我甚至都不确定自己是否想为塔利班运送尸体。”

Eventually, the government agreed to release the body, but on the condition that the Taliban would do the same.

最终，政府方面同意交出那具尸体，条件是塔利班方面要懂得“礼尚往来”。

A few years ago, he began receiving assistance from the International Committee of the Red Cross. His area also expanded to include parts of Helmand, Zabul and Oruzgan provinces. One day last summer, he carted 28 Taliban bodies after an exceptionally brutal fight in Zhare.

几年前，他开始接受红十字国际委员会(International Committee of the Red Cross)的帮助。他的工作区域也得到了拓展，涵盖了赫尔曼德省、查布尔省和乌鲁兹甘省的部分地区。去年夏季的一天，在扎里地区的一场异常残酷的战斗结束后，他运走了28具塔利班成员的尸体。

Days like that worry him. Time has done nothing to bleed either side of its will. With foreign troops fully off the battlefield, the death toll is rising.

这样的日子让他忧心忡忡。战争双方的意志并未随着时间的流逝而减弱分毫。随着外国军队全部撤离阿富汗战场，死亡人数不断上升。

“They have been at war for 13 years, and if they fight another 13 years they will not see peace,” he says. “They must sit down and speak with one another.”

“他们已经打了13年，再打上13年的话，他们也看不到和平，”他说。“他们必须坐下来互相沟通。”

Such advice has not come cheaply for Mr. Hakim. He has lost two sons and a son-in-law to the war.

哈基姆发出上述忠告并不轻松。战争夺走了他的两个儿子和一个女婿的生命。

Five years ago, his son-in-law, Ismatullah, drove a water truck on a road construction crew. One morning, he brought two of Mr. Hakim’s sons with him to Khakrez, a district directly north of the city of Kandahar.

五年前，哈基姆的女婿伊斯马图拉(Ismatullah)在一个公路建筑队里开洒水车。一天上午，他带着哈基姆的两个儿子一同前往位于坎大哈正北方的哈克拉兹地区。

The men never returned.

他们再也没回来。

Mr. Hakim knew the area. Months earlier, he had delivered two Taliban bodies to a commander there. But the commander now refused to divulge anything, offering only that the fate of his family was in the hands of the Taliban court. Mr. Hakim waited four days, then left.

哈基姆了解这个地区。几个月前，他曾把两具塔利班成员的尸体送到那里的一个指挥官手中。可是，这名指挥官现在却拒绝透露任何信息，仅表示他家人的命运掌握在塔利班法庭手中。哈基姆等待了四天，只能离开。

Distraught, Mr. Hakim drove to Quetta, Pakistan, to meet with a senior Taliban member to plead for information. He returned home with an official letter instructing another local commander to take him to his sons.

忧心忡忡的哈基姆驱车前往巴基斯坦的奎达与一名塔利班高级成员会面，请求他提供一些信息。哈基姆回去的时候，拿着一份要求另一名地方指挥官带他去寻找儿子踪迹的公函。

A few days later, he met the commander along a nondescript stretch of the highway in Khakrez. The man was leery. He asked Mr. Hakim’s driver whether the courier’s sons, Azizullah and Ruhullah, had been working for the government.

数天后，他在哈克拉兹公路的一个普通路段上与这名指挥官碰面。此人颇有戒心。他问哈基姆的司机，这名运尸者的儿子——阿齐祖拉(Azizullah)和鲁胡拉(Ruhullah)——之前是否在为政府工作。

After an hour’s drive, the convoy pulled onto a desolate plain, where the Taliban conveyed one final insult before vanishing down the road.

开了一个小时的车后，车队来到一个荒无人烟的平原地带。塔利班在那里对他们进行了最后的羞辱，随后消失在马路尽头。

“They told us to smell in the area and we would find the bodies,” Mr. Hakim recalled, weeping slightly.

“他们让我们在那附近闻一闻，然后就能找到尸体了，”哈基姆轻轻哭泣着说。

After searching for an hour in the blistering heat, Mr. Hakim found his dead children buried in a shallow grave. He dug for two hours with his hands.

在酷热的天气中搜寻了一个小时之后，哈基姆找到了已经死去的孩子——他们被埋在一个浅坟里。他徒手挖了两个小时。