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CNN Live Today

Taliban Destroyed More than Statues

Aired March 25, 2002 - 14:53   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: A look back now at the harsh life under Taliban rule in Afghanistan. A year ago, you might remember, the Taliban destroyed two ancient Buddhist statues in northern Afghanistan. That destruction led to global criticism. It also led to the further suffering of the people living in that area. Nic Robertson went back, and has their story for us today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The destruction of the statues 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've been blasted completely, dynamited out of the rock face.

But that's only part of the destruction here that the Taliban wrought on the community here. You can see the caves along the foot of the cliff line, here, below where the Buddha stood. 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 Banyan, but also in outlying villages. They say that the Taliban burned their houses and they cannot move back. There are some 1,200 families still living in the caves here at the foot of the mountains. It 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 have windows, they don't have doors.

Now, international aid agencies working here say there is no malnutrition. Or perhaps, malnutrition only in about 5 percent of the population. There is enough food coming in, they say. But the real issue for people here, we've talked to, is they want to get their homes in the 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 130,000 people -- and the community spreads way beyond that throughout Afghanistan -- this community of Hazaras is led by Kareem Khalili (ph). Now, the Hazaras have always said that they need 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's about 1/5 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 loya jirga that should take place, a grand counsel, in about two month's time, to get that power imbalance redressed.

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

Nic Robertson, CNN, Banyan, Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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