KABUL, Nov 27 — Wearing a hospital gown, Mohammad Hussain, an Afghan patient suffering from war-related mental illness, whispered that the result of his participation in the war was nothing but sadness and depression.
“Every moment I went to the (battle) tank, every moment I went to the mission, I felt scared and like we were going to die,” Hussain said.
Hussain, who joined US forces in Afghanistan in 2010 as an interpreter and left in 2012, said from his hospital bed that he had become ill and could not continue his service.
Hussain is now being treated at the Sehat-e-Rawani hospital in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
“I told them (US troops) that I could no longer work. They said, ‘No, you don’t have a problem. You just have depression,'” the former army interpreter said.
Hussain received six months of medical treatment from the US troops, but fell ill again when he remembered his past and what he had seen while serving with the US troops.
“I remember my whole past. I cannot forget,” he said, adding that he had witnessed Afghan civilians being killed during fighting.
Recalling his bitter memories, Hussain said he saw a US jet fighter drop a bomb and kill the son of a barber. “So I suffered a lot from that incident. Why did the civilians die?”
Mohammad Shafi Azim, head of the psychiatric department at Sehat-e-Rawani hospital, said the prolonged war had brought a host of problems to Afghans, including mental illness.
“A prolonged war, security problems, the unpleasant sound of ammunition, rocket attacks and a small or big fight can cause mental problems for a child, teenager or adult living in a community in a war zone,” Azim told Xinhua.
Azim, who also worked as a doctor during the presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan, added that many patients who visited the hospital often talked about the grief of losing their loved ones during the war.
“Even though the war has ended, the consequences such as economic difficulties, unemployment and many other problems remain in the society and continue to haunt the victims,” said Khawaja Qudratullah Sediqi, a neurologist working at the hospital.
