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CNN Live Today

Former Taliban Government Destroyed Massive Statues Sacred to Buddhist Faith

Aired March 25, 2002 - 12:27   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: In the meantime, though, off to Afghanistan, in a follow-up to the story that first arose months before 9/11.

Despite worldwide clamor, the former Taliban government destroyed massive statues sacred to the Buddhist faith.

Nic Robertson went back recently to find out how the people in this area are dealing today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT, AFGHANISTAN (voice-over): The destruction of the statutes by the Taliban happened almost a year ago.

Now, the reason the Taliban said that they would destroy them was because they said they were un-Islamic. And if we go in, now, over my shoulder to the mountains there, we can see all that's left of where these 130-foot-high statues of the Buddhas stood.

They had been blasted completely, dynamited out of the rock face. But that's only part of the destruction here that the Taliban brought on the community here.

You can see the caves along the foot of the cliff line here, below where the Buddhas stood.

Now, those caves are now occupied by people from the Hazara community here. They say that the Taliban not only destroyed their houses inside the city of Bamiyan here, but also in outlying villages, they say that the Taliban burned their houses, that they cannot move back to their houses.

There are some 1,200 families still living in the caves here at the foot of the mountains. It is over 8,000 feet up in the mountains here. It is extremely cold at night.

The people complain they don't have blankets, they don't windows, they don't have doors.

No international aid agencies working here, say there is no malnutrition, or perhaps malnutrition only in about five percent of the population. There is enough food coming in, they say. But the real issue for people here we've talked to is that they want to get their homes in their outlying villages rebuilt. They want to be able to move out of the caves and back into their homes.

Now this area, this Hazara community, which is perhaps in this province over 30, over 130,000 people. And the community spreads way beyond that throughout Afghanistan.

This community of Hazaras is led by Hareem Karili (ph). Now, the Hazaras have always said that they needed to fight for their proper representation of power inside Afghanistan's government.

And right now they do subscribe, they say, to the interim government under Hamid Karzai. They say they're about one-fifth of the population in Afghanistan.

But they still say at this time they don't feel that they're getting the proper representation they feel is politically theirs, and they say that they look to the (INAUDIBLE) year (ph) ago (ph) that should take place a grand council in about two months' time to get that power imbalance redressed.

But certainly now the issue for the Hazaras here, particularly those living in the caves and the mountains, if they get their homes rebuilt and get back into their communities where they can go back to farming, their traditional way of life here.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Bamiyan, Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: All right, Nic. Thank you, Nic Robertson.

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