| Subject: 'Scariest good guy' in Afghanistan A Vietnam veteran and Knight of Malta delivers aid in war zones and wages peace |
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Date Posted: 12:21:34 12/03/01 Mon
November 1, 2001
'Scariest good guy' in Afghanistan A Vietnam veteran and Knight of Malta delivers aid in war zones and wages peace
Stewart Bell National Post
http://WWW.NATIOnalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20011101/765072.html
DASHT-E QALA, Afghanistan - The refugees crowded around the flatbed truck in this tent city on the desert plain may have seen international humanitarian workers before, but never one like the Vietnam War veteran with the silver beard handing out sacks of food aid.
He wears a military-style uniform with a U.S. flag sewn on the shoulder. Above his shirt pocket appears the inscription, "Sir Edward Artis, Knight Commander, Knights of Malta." On his finger is a hefty red ring bearing the Maltese Cross.
"I thought he was a soldier," said one young European humanitarian worker.
Mr. Artis's methods of delivering aid are as unusual as his appearance.
When he travels, the former U.S. Army paratrooper sometimes packs a parachute, in case his plane is unable to land safely in a war zone.
He once snuck illicitly into Russia to deliver medicine to Chechens displaced by war and loosened three teeth diving out a window to escape a soldier during the Rwandan genocide.
"I've been called one of the scariest good guys you're ever going to meet," he said, explaining his gung-ho approach, which combines combat skills, a tough-as-spit demeanour and rapport with various rebel leaders. "I'm a warrior, but I'm waging peace."
His latest mission has brought him to a refugee camp at Dasht-e Qala, near the dusty mountains where Taliban and Northern Alliance troops face each other in trenches filled with empty shell casings. He delivered tents and 15 tonnes of wheat this week, paid for by his private humanitarian group, Knightsbridge International. Another 45 tonnes of wheat are on the way.
He is also searching for 200 more tents to replace the primitive shelters made of sticks, mud and blankets that house the 300 refugee families living here.
Five children died of starvation and hunger-induced respiratory diseases at the camp this week, yet there is little humanitarian activity because of the danger caused by the war.
As Mr. Artis handed out his supplies, U.S. bombers were striking just a few kilometres away.
Food supplied by his group will feed residents for four months, he said. He also wants to bring food farther south to the Panjshir Valley and perhaps Kabul, the capital, which has been heavily bombed by U.S. warplanes since Oct. 7.
"I want to serve those people on the front line, and now more than ever because those people hate me [because of the U.S. bombing campaign]," he said.
"They don't need to hate me because I'm an American any more than I need to hate them because they are Afghans."
Mr. Artis, who grew up in Concord, Calif., northeast of San Francisco, spent five years in the Vietnam War as a helicopter medic and was injured three times.
He returned to civilian life, but found it unfulfilling, so he embarked on a humanitarian career focused on helping war veterans that has spanned 30 years and taken him to dozens of countries.
In 1993, Russia made him a commander of the Knights of Malta, a religious order formed in France in 1054. That year he met another Maltese knight, Dr. James Laws, an Ohio cardiologist, and they decided to team up to save the world.
They formed Knightsbridge International and began a series of missions to bring relief to the worst war-affected zones on the planet, beginning in Russia, and later Rwanda and Afghanistan. They are not afraid to admit they enjoy the excitement of the work.
"Two rules," Mr. Artis said. "High adventure and service to humanity."
The two volunteer their time, have no staff and put 100% of their donations into the hands of the needy. They do not hide their disdain for the United Nations, which they consider overly bureaucratic, or the brand of aid workers they call "phony, ticket-punching disaster tourists," who they say only want to go to war zones to have their photos taken so they can raise money for their organizations.
Mr. Artis said Knightsbridge focuses on getting the job done, and doing it in areas where other aid groups cannot or will not go.
"I'm proud of what we do," he said. "We have been beat up like a pinata at a Puerto Rican wedding. I don't care. But we are going to get our food in to these people."
Fights erupted as Mr. Artis and Mr. Laws unloaded their first aid shipment in Dasht-e Qala this week. Women wearing burkas hovered at a safe distance while men in camouflage jackets with antiquated Russian rifles on their shoulders pushed to the front.
"It's more confusing than we expected," said Mr. Artis. "There's a lot more people with weapons, but what can you do? We tried to do this in a more civilized manner."
This relief mission carries an added risk, he confided, because Taliban officials placed a US$50,000 bounty on his head after his last visit here in 1998.
He dared them to try to kill him: "I can think of no better place to die than here. It's better than lying in some veterans' hospital dying of some Agent Orange-induced disease that my own government gave me."
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