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Taliban Pledge "Amnesty" for All in Afghanistan; Women's Rights Under Taliban Rule; Afghan Refugees Granted Temporary Safe Havens; Afghan Women Face Worrisome Future Despite Taliban Vows; Pakistan: Recognizing Taliban to be Regional Decision; Death Toll Rises as Rain Hampers Relief Efforts; U.S. Ships First of 500 million Pfizer Doses Biden Pledged; Growing Global Concern over New Reality in Afghanistan. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired August 18, 2021 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:13]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm John Vause, with another hour of CNN NEWSROOM.
Ahead this hour:
This is new softer, kinder Taliban, promising blanket amnesty, women's rights, no safe haven for terrorists. Was it all just for the cameras?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm thinking about my future, my daughters. What will happen to them if they kill me? Two daughters without a mother.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Regardless of what the Taliban say, Afghan women and girls are now in fear for their lives and their futures under their new overlords.
And back to back natural disasters for Haiti. Heavy rains and strong winds from the tropical storm, further isolating areas hit hard by a deadly earthquake last weekend.
(MUSIC)
VAUSE: The deputy leader of the Taliban and the man widely expected to be Afghanistan's next president arrived in the southern city of Kandahar Tuesday after 20-year-long exile.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar cofounded the Taliban alongside the now dead Mullah Omar. In the 2018, at the request of the Trump administration, he was released from Pakistani prison to join a delegation of peace talks in Qatar. He has since been seen as a moderate voice among hard-liners.
When his fighters stormed the presidential palace in Kabul, he called for them to show humility, remained discipline. Even so, his rise to leadership does little to show the Taliban is willing to break from their brutal past anytime soon. And those fears persist, despite a laundry list of promises about women's rights, amnesty for opposition fighters, and a free press made during a Taliban news conference.
There's also the threat of Afghanistan turning back into a haven for terrorists plotting global attack.
But the Taliban spokesman says, that won't happen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZABIHULLAH MUJAHID, TALIBAN SPOKESMAN: No death will be caused to anyone outside Afghanistan. And I'd like to ensure all our neighboring countries, we will not allow anyone to use Afghanistan against them. Therefore, I would like all of the international community should know and we obviously are committed to our promises.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Those promises of a reformed Taliban did nothing to slow the rush to Kabul's airport, one of the last remaining ways out of the country and away from Taliban rule.
After the chaos and turmoil on Monday, U.S. troops have secured the airport, bringing an almost surreal scene of order and calm inside the passenger terminal, but beyond the perimeter, Taliban fighters are in control.
We have more now from CNN's Nick Paton Walsh.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR SECURITY EDITOR (voice-over): Around Kabul airport, lives spared or spoiled and one gate, I was caught in the crush, shots in the air. Afghan soldiers lead us through a hole in the fence.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Assalamu alaikum.
WALSH: Inside, a few lucky Afghans still with steps to go, and sleepless U.S. Marines. Some not born before 9/11, whose first glimpse of Afghanistan here with the same as so many before them, except this time, they were truly encircled by Taliban outside and they were leaving.
For the 20 years of trying was everywhere. Vehicles that may be left behind. And the Afghans who won't be blowing their faces to protect them. Lucky enough to get on a flight but not a surgeon number as those who had swamped the airfield the days before.
It is absolutely breathtaking to see the scale of the operation underway here and the volume of people relieved to be inside, but still, the chaos enduring.
Flights picked up as evening fell. Urgency but a strange disconnect to the chaos that was swirling around the airports.
People inside the airport simply did not know what was happening outside. And inside, they were headed in one direction.
At airport security, the country's new rulers were given their first press conference on a TV that surely showed the presidents that had been at war here. They sit and wait to be called to a new life in a land of plenty, where they will land with only what they can carry.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Kabul, Afghanistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: It seems the Taliban will need to do a lot more that make promises to convince Afghans but the rest of the world they really have changed. Many doubt they really want peace, despite promises of mercy that they have made for their enemies.
[01:05:03]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MUJAHID (through translator): We don't want Afghanistan to be a battlefield. Today, the fighting is over. Whoever was against the opposition has been given blanket amnesty. The fighting should not be repeated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Live now to CNN's Anna Coren, who recently returned from Afghanistan. Authorities covered here for many years on CNN.
Anna, there is clearly still anxiety, this fear that the Taliban are just doing this for the cameras, that this is not a sincere effort at change, it's more to get the rest of the world off their backs so that they can get on with imposing their expects version of Islamic law.
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is a real concern, John. Obviously, the eyes of the world are on the Taliban at the moment. You know, can they deliver on the promises they are making? And that we heard from the spokesperson for the Taliban? He is a high-ranking Taliban official saying, we want peace. He was asked about whether women would be allowed to go to work.
And he said, yes, they will be allowed to go to work within the framework of Sharia law. It was very vague. And I think that that is where the alarm bells are going off.
For me, one of the most telling statements was when he was asked, you know, what is the difference between the Taliban of the nineties, when they ruled in '96 to 2001, and committed all those atrocities, and obviously implemented their very harsh Islamic interpretation of Islam, to what it is today? And this is what he said.
Let me read it out. If this question is based on ideological beliefs, then there is no difference, we have the same beliefs. The belief back then, 25 years ago, was that women were not allowed to go to work, that they had to wear burqas when they went out in public, or they had to be chaperone by a male relative.
There was no music, no videos, not TVs. Girls were not allowed to go to school. This was their beliefs back then. Have they evolved? Certainly, they are trying to re-brand. And that's what we heard from the spokesperson yesterday, in this press conference, where there were international media.
Interestingly, John, he took his first question from a female journalist. Now, the Taliban is saying that women can walk the streets wearing hijabs. Obviously, there are mixed messages coming out. We saw from Carissa ward's interview with one Taliban member, that women will have to wear a niqab, fully covered up.
There are different factions covered up factions of the Taliban. This is what I'm hearing from local journalist that I have worked with. The Taliban saying we will not come into anyone's home, there will be no invasion of anyone's personal property. Well that was not the account yesterday, where the Taliban went to this apartment building, and terrified a family searching for members of the community, people who had worked with foreign companies. These are stories that we are hearing.
So we know that there are obviously the official members of the Taliban, trying to portray themselves as this legitimate governing body, that is going to have to rely on foreign aid, John. This is an interesting tightrope that the Taliban is going to have to walk, because they are now in charge of 38 million people. But as we are seeing, plenty want to flee.
But can they deliver on their promises? I guess time will tell.
VAUSE: Just very quickly, just because the Taliban has a medieval interpretation of his mom, it does not mean they don't understand PR and how the media works. In many ways, this is quite sophisticated, right?
COREN: It's incredibly sophisticated. What we have been saying the past couple of months, when they have literally taken back Afghanistan, as it's fall into them, is that they have been using social media, showing these mass surrenders of the military, handing over their weapons, people walking away and people cheering, as the Taliban have driven through. And interestingly, John, I spoke to another Afghan journalist a short time ago, and he said he looked around the neighborhood, and he was talking to a shopkeeper.
And he said, I'm so happy that the Taliban are here, because there is no more crime, I now feel safe on the streets. You have to remember there was a real criminal element to Kabul, high crime levels that have increased in the last couple of years.
[01:10:00]
You know, the government corruption, where everyone had to pay people off. That has now gone, at least for now. So, yes, this is a much more sophisticated Taliban that know how to
get attention, they know how to use social media. They perhaps now know, having been out there in the world's, exiled in Qatar and other places, what they need to say to appear legitimate.
As I say, John, I guess it's going to be a matter of time. The real concern is that once the journalist leave, once the cameras go, people's attention turns to the next new story. That's when the atrocities will happen, that's when that harsh interpretation of Islam will truly be implemented in Afghanistan.
VAUSE: Histories often a prologue, and that's exactly what we saw 1996.
Anna, thank you. Anna Coren live for us there in Hong Kong.
Around the world preparations are underway for possible flood of Afghan refugees. And a British Royal Air Force plane landed in Central England late Tuesday. The U.K. government has announced a resettlement plan, welcoming up to 5,000 Afghans in the first year, with a priority on girls, women and religious minorities.
President Biden spoke by phone with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently, to agree to it closely to help as many Afghans evacuate as possible. And after emergency meeting of foreign ministers, the European Union underscored the steps needed to head off any micro crisis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEP BORRELL, EU DIPLOMACY CHIEF: We have to ensure that the new political situation in Afghanistan, that the return of the Taliban does not lead to a large-scale migratory movement. And we need to coordinate between the European Union member states and their transit countries, they will be high on our agenda and we have to support the transit and neighboring countries of Afghanistan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: To Washington D.C. now, Ali Noorani, president and CEO of the National Immigration Forum, a nonpartisan organization which works to promote the value of immigrants and immigration.
Ali, thanks for being with us. We appreciate your time.
ALI NOORANI, PRESIDENT & CEO, NATIONAL IMMIGRATION FORUM: Thank you so much for having me.
VAUSE: OK. So, in the coming days, the U.S. is now looking to step up the phase of their evacuations from Kabul airport. Details come out during Tuesday's Pentagon briefing. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJ. GEN. HANK TAYLOR, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, JOINT STAFF REGIONAL OPERATIONS: The speed of evacuation will pick up. Right now, we are looking at one aircraft per hour in and out of HKIA. We predict that our best effort could look at 5,000 to 9,000 departing passengers per day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Just focusing on the Afghans who helped the U.S., who have either been granted or are in the process of applying for a special immigrant visas for the families, some estimates are 90,000. Do the math, 9,000 out of day out of Kabul, best case scenario. Is, what, nine days here -- nine more days, and that's just those who help the U.S.
Chances are, that will be longer. Given the reality on the ground, what can be done to speed up this process?
NOORANI: Well, right now, the biggest problem facing the U.S. is that the U.S. may control the runway, but the Taliban-controlled perimeter of the airport. There were reports over the course of the day that the Taliban was establishing checkpoints to determine who could get to the airport and who could not, which leads me to believe that it will be hard to get 5,000 to 9,000 people every day, who have been helping us on the ground, to be evacuated.
I think the U.S. has to figure out how they open up access to the airport, so Afghan SIV applicants and those eligible can get out of Afghanistan.
VAUSE: The former U.S. president, George W. Bush, who gave the order to invade Afghanistan, issued a statement which in part talked about the need to help Afghans, these allies, to get them out of the country. He wrote this, "The United States government has the legal authority to cut the red tape for refugees during urgent humanitarian crises. And we have the responsibility and the resources to secure safe passage for them without bureaucratic delay.
I guess there are some questions about safe passage now. But that statement seems on the Biden administration, saying that if they wanted to do more, then they could act faster, they could. But it seems there is a holdup on the U.S. and, and now you're seeing that there is a holdup on the Afghanistan side as well.
NOORANI: Well, this is all really on the Biden administration. They need to deploy the resources to Afghanistan, to provide access to the aircraft, negotiate with the Taliban so that people can get access, and then get people to safe territories, like place such as Guam or otherwise, so that these applications can be processed in a timely manner.
All these things are within the control of the Biden ministration. And they need to act with much greater level of urgency.
VAUSE: There was a news conference on Tuesday.
[01:15:01]
And the message coming out was pretty clear, it's all this forgiven, let's try and get along, let's rebuild the country. Listen to part of it. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MUJAHID (through translator): We don't want Afghanistan to be a battlefield. Today, the fighting is over. Whoever was against the opposition has been given blanket amnesty. The fighting should not be repeated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: I guess one factor which could trigger a flood of refugees is how brutal the Taliban will be in terms of imposing strict Islamic law. Do you believe that they will change their way to be a kinder, gentler Taliban or be the same old same old we've seen before?
NOORANI: Well, I think they have a wonderful opportunity in terms of opening up access to the Kabul airport, so Afghan nationals who helped the U.S. military, can get access to these planes were trying to evacuate them. That would be a small step forward. But really I don't think we have any real reason to trust the Taliban on their word. And I do think that the world is going to see an increase of refugees from Afghanistan. On the world needs to rally to ensure that these individuals and families are protected.
VAUSE: Yeah, the first woman ever to be a mayor in Afghanistan, talk to Britain's iNews on Sunday: I'm sitting here waiting for them to come, there's no one to help me or my family, I'm just sitting with me and my husband. And they will come for me and people like me and kill me. I can't leave my family. And anyway, where would I go?
How many Afghans are just in that position, waiting for people to find them and kill them? She did not work directly with U.S. forces but she is a target.
NOORANI: This is what struck me the most over the last 24 hours. As we have seen these photos and videos of people tracked on the airplane, listening to this woman story as a mayor, I'm worried about the stories and the pictures that we are not seeing. The pictures that we are not seeing across Afghanistan, are going to be grim, when they do come out, and those of the people who are most at risk, the ones that have no access to the press, have no access to the internet.
But at the end of the day, they were the ones who helped not only U.S. military by other militaries around the world, who were in Afghanistan for the last 2 decades.
VAUSE: Yeah, and they took a stand for civil rights, for human rights, they are also in the firing line.
Right now, Afghan refugees have been granted a temporary safe haven at the request of the United States, in Uganda, North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo. But it's only for a short period of time, very limited in number.
Where do you see these tens of thousands or more Afghan refugees be resettling? NOORANI: Pakistan already has about 1.7 million registered refugees,
registered with the UNHCR. So I anticipate that we will see more increase flows to Pakistan, and then to Iran, to Turkey, and then trying to get into Western Europe. In fact, I was talking to some advocates in the ground on Croatia last year, and they were already seeing an increasing number of unaccompanied children from Afghanistan.
I just saw a report from them just a couple of days ago, and they were seeing increased numbers of Afghanistan families, already into the Balkans trying to get to Western Europe. So this crisis is only going to grow over the months ahead. And it is so important that the international community rallies in support of these families.
VAUSE: Yeah, it's been off to a very, very bad start if you like, this power handover, whatever the fall of Kabul. Let's hope that it does get better than before. But that's remains to be seen.
Ali Noorani, thank you for being with us.
NOORANI: Thank you so much, John
VAUSE: Coming up here, why weren't Afghans believe the Taliban when they say they've changed? Maybe it has to do with their past, public executions and stonings, denying jobs and education to women and girls, destroying priceless artifacts. Maybe.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:20:59]
VAUSE: When the Taliban ruled the last time around, a soccer stadium in Kabul on Friday would be a scene of black turban Taliban fighters forcing convicts to kneel before them, executing them or hang their severed arms and legs from the goalpost for all to see. But now they say, hey, we're a changed group, promising a kinder, gentler government than its brutal regime 20 years ago.
But as CNN's Sam Kiley reports, many Afghans remain skeptical that the militants will stay true to their word or even capable of keeping it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Promises?
SUHAL SHAHEEN, TALIBAN SPOKESMAN: We would have a new government, an inclusive, Islamic government --
KILEY: Promises --
SHAHEEN: Women can continue their education from primary to higher education.
KILEY: Promises --
SHAHEEN: We do not want a monopoly of power.
KILEY: Taliban 2.0, more moderate, inclusive, power sharing?
From 1996 to 2001, the ultraconservative Islamists impose the form it is land that stone homosexuals and shocked female schools, as it took over Afghanistan. Women bore the brunt of this medieval ideology. The movement was toppled by NATO and Afghan allies intent on ending Taliban rule and the safe haven that it gave to al Qaeda's plot against America on 9/11.
Al Qaeda was routed, fleeing NATO into scattered exile. For the next 20 years, the Taliban fought back, taking territory slowly, and refining its public relations. Less efforts on oppressing women, more on building trust in local administrations.
But millions of Afghans, especially in the cities, we're encouraged to believe in the freedoms and democracy that was stamped out by the Taliban. So when they swept back into the capital, fear to cold.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If they have changed, why have they stopped women from going to work, why are they murdering artists?
FARZANA KOCHAI, AFGHAN MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT: Do I have a space here to work in my country or not? So we are risking our lives just for this answer.
KILEY: At the Taliban press conference in Kabul, it spokesman insisted that the movement had matured. But he insisted that all human rights, freedoms, and especially, the role of women would still be determined by Sharia law.
To succeeding government, the Taliban may have little choice in the face of real politics. It will also need help from the international community. It's been burnishing its diplomatic credentials.
Here, the leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, sealing a deal with the U.S., that is now widely derided for shepherding the Taliban to victory. But the movement has clearly signaled that it needs to govern rather than rule by force. The question is whether that is something the Taliban can or even wants to do.
Sam Kiley, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Colin P. Clarke is the director of policy and research at Soufan Group and the author of "After the Caliphate: The Islamic State and the Future of the Terrorist Diaspora".
Colin, thank you for being with us, we appreciate you.
COLIN P. CLARKE, DIRECTOR OF POLICY & RESEARCH, THE SOUFAN GROUP: Thanks for having me.
VAUSE: Well, the Taliban spokesperson held a news conference and he would like the world to believe that the Taliban of 2021 is nothing life like the Taliban of 2001. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MUJAHID: No death will be caused to anyone outside Afghanistan. And I'd like to ensure all our neighboring countries, we will not allow anyone to use Afghanistan against them. Therefore, I would like all of the international community should know and we obviously are committed to our promises.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So, with that in mind, why should anyone take the Taliban at their word, and why is the Taliban trying to achieve here?
CLARKE: Well, I think nobody should take the Taliban at their word.
[01:25:01]
Frankly, they haven't turned it. What is this? A kinder, gentler Taliban? It's nonsense. And if anyone does fall for this, they are being naive or foolish.
What the Taliban is trying to do is simple. They are trying to run a public relations campaign, to distance themselves from the abuses of the past several decades, and to make themselves a more palatable partner for countries or -- and the international community.
And I think we should roundly reject these attempts, because we know what the Taliban is. This is a bloodthirsty organization that's killed Afghan men, women and children. Just because they have now taken the country by force doesn't change that fact.
VAUSE: Well, here's another statement the same spokesperson addressing the issue of freedom of the press. Here he is once again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MUJAHID: We would like all the media, the private media, to be free, to be independent, to continue their publications.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: This is something which we can actually gauge, because areas of Afghanistan which have been under Taliban control for quite some time. That's what they say. What does the evidence on the ground say that they do?
CLARKE: Well, the evidence shows that this, again, is a highly draconian and medieval organization. They don't care about free speech. They don't care about human rights. This is what I would call law fair, using Western laws against us to essentially elevate their own platform. That's what the Taliban is doing here.
Look, this is a sophisticated organization and they understand the way Western media works. So anyone who is willing to play this game, the Taliban will play it. But be clear, a tiger doesn't change its stripes. Its actions, not words we need to be looking at, and those actions are not necessarily reassuring.
VAUSE: Those who want to play this game, I guess, they are clinging to this belief that somehow the Taliban of 2021 may not be as brutal and cruel as the Taliban before. Because this time they want international legitimacy and financial assistance. That is what, essentially, fool's gold at this point?
CLARKE: I think it's a lot of smoke and mirrors. The Taliban is going to say what they want, what they think people want to hear. And as the world turns their attention elsewhere, there are no shortage of global hotspots. So the world will turn its attention elsewhere. The Taliban will go back to business as usual again.
This is old wine a new bottles. We can't fall for what we are seeing here. We are less than a week into the rule of the Taliban. Let's give this a little bit of time before we start proclaiming the organization changed.
VAUSE: Well, the U.S. security adviser, Jake Sullivan, on Tuesday, seemed to contradict weeks if not months of spin about the future of Afghanistan. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAKE SULLIVAN, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: We were clear eyed going in, when we made this decision. That it was possible that the Taliban would end up in control of Afghanistan. We were clear eyed about that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: If they are clear eyed and they knew as possible, they sure didn't seem to plan for it.
CLARKE: Yes, and look, with all due respect, and I do have a lot of respect to Jake Sullivan, a very bright guy. The messaging from the Biden administration has been atrocious. The strategic communications has been altogether lacking. And that's probably being a bit mild.
The only thing worse than the execution of the withdrawal has been the way that the Biden administration has presented it to the Afghan people, to the American people and the international community. It really seems like a total debacle when you are watching from the outside. So, to say that the administration plan for contingency X or Y, it just doesn't seem -- you know, doesn't seem honest at this point.
VAUSE: Yeah. Colin P. Clarke, thank you so much for being with us, sir. We appreciate it.
CLARKE: Thank you.
Still to come, amid an uneasy quiet on the streets of Kabul, one business is booming.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Why do you think you're selling more burqas right now?
Because the Taliban took over and all the women are afraid, he says. So that's why they are all coming in and buying burqas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The future for so many women in Afghanistan will be soon scene from under a blue burqa.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:32:01]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back everyone.
I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
During their first news conference since taking power, the Taliban made a long list of promises intended to soothe the concerns of an anxious nation, including blanket amnesty for all Afghans.
If scenes outside Kabul's airport are any guide, there is a good deal of skepticism these promises will be kept among many Afghans. Large crowds are still there hoping for a way out of the country and a life beyond the Taliban's brutal interpretation of Islam.
The White House says the Taliban had promised safe passage for civilians looking to leave amid reports of beatings and whippings for some who tried to bypass Taliban checkpoints not far from the airport.
Meantime, Taliban co-founder and deputy leader Mullah Baradar returned to the country Tuesday after a 20-year long exile, a sign the Taliban is unlikely to break from its past despite promises to the contrary.
And a Taliban spokesman says when it comes to the treatment of women, the international community should not be concerned.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZABIHULLAH MUJAHID, TALIBAN SPOKESMAN (through translator): So there will be no violence against women, no discrimination against woman. Of course, they -- within the framework of the Islamic law, our sisters and mothers which had been (INAUDIBLE) under Sharia law our God has said, which is our values. Women is an important part -- tenet of our society.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Whatever they say, the reality is women and girls across Afghanistan are facing an uncertain future and living in fear. Two decades of progress likely to be wiped away.
CNN's Clarissa Ward reports now from Kabul.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): At the central Kabul market, stores were open and people were back on the streets -- or at least some people. It was impossible not to notice that women here seem to have largely melted away.
One store was doing better business than usual. For more than a decade, Mohammed has been selling burqas -- the head to toe covering once imposed by the Taliban.
"Business was good but now it's even better," he tells us. "More sales."
(on camera): Why do you think you're selling more burqas right now?
(voice over): "Because the Taliban took over and all the women are afraid," he says. "So that's why they are all coming in and buying burqas."
(on camera): Do you feel abandoned?
FAZILA: Yes, exactly.
WARD (voice over): In an apartment downtown, we saw that fear firsthand. Until last week, Fazila (ph) was working for the U.N. That's not her real name and she asked we not show her face.
She's petrified that the Taliban will link her to western organizations, and says she hasn't gone outside since they arrived in Kabul.
(on camera): You look very frightened.
[01:34:41]
FAZILA: Exactly. Too much stress. It is not easy for a person who worked a lot with international organizations, having more than 10 years experience of working with internationals. And now no one of them help me.
Just sending emails to different organizations that I work with but now no response.
WARD: Are you angry?
FAZILA: No, I'm not angry. But as a person that who worked with them now I need their support. It is not fair.
WARD: You look very emotional as well.
FAZILA: Yes. Because I'm thinking about my future, my daughters. What will happen to them if they kill me -- two daughters without mother.
WARD (voice over): The Taliban says they have learned from history and that women's rights will be protected. But many fearful Afghan women remain to be persuaded.
(on camera): We are on our way now to the home of a prominent female Afghan politician. She's told me that there are Taliban fighters outside her front door. So she's asked that I go in alone.
Fawzia Koofi was one of the Afghan government negotiators during peace talks with the Taliban and has dealt with the group a lot. She says that promising change is not enough.
FAWZIA KOOFI, AFGHAN POLITICIAN: They have to really prove it in the provinces across Afghanistan. They have to show it by example. Is very easy to issue statements but people need to see that in practice.
WARD (voice over): Koofi has every reason not to trust. Last year she was shot by unknown gunmen. The Taliban denied they were behind the attack.
(on camera): You have children?
KOOFI: I have two daughters.
WARD: And are they here?
KOOFI: They're in Kabul.
WARD: And are you concerned for them or?
KOOFI: I'm concerned for my daughters and all the girls of Afghanistan. I don't want history to repeat itself on them very brutally.
WARD (voice over): 20 years of progress for women of Afghanistan now hangs by a thread.
Clarissa Ward, CNN -- Kabul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Joining me now is Nasrin Nawa, a reporter who is based in Afghanistan working for the BBC Persia service and is now a Fulbright scholar at the University of Nebraska.
Nasrin, I know this is a difficult time so I really appreciate you being with us. Thank you for joining us.
NASRIN NAWA, REPORTER, BBC PERSIA SERVICE: Thank you for having me on.
VAUSE: Ok. You wrote a piece for "The Washington Post" and in that story you talked about the concern that you have right now for your sister, in particular, and also your parents who remain behind in Afghanistan. Your sister's flight was canceled when the U.S. military took over Kabul's airport.
So have you been in contact with her recently? How is she? What is she telling you about the situation there right now? NAWA: She was very (INAUDIBLE) today, but she is so disappointed. She
is very tough (ph). she is withdrawn and anxiety. She thinks like it's the end of the world for her if she remains back in Afghanistan with the Taliban regime.
Not just my sister, my family still (INAUDIBLE). If you go outside (ph) all my friends, my colleagues, almost everyone that I talked to, almost everyone is just -- I have to say (ph) they are so dispirited and disappointed right now.
VAUSE: In your article for "The Washington Post", you write about advising your sisters to get home immediately, to burn identification cards -- that kind of thing. And also to destroy her much-beloved guitar, she struggled with that for a long time. You told her. She didn't do it then that could lead to her death by the Taliban.
And then you add this. "This is how the hopes, passions, careers and plans of many young Afghans are crumbling."
And a lot of Afghans are in that situation right now. But there are Afghans who have welcomed the arrival of the Taliban. Is that true? Is that -- it's not -- it's sort of one message coming from the country. There are those who are terrified and fearful and those who have welcome this takeover?
NAWA: Honestly, that is true because Afghanistan is a traditional society, traditional country. And without Taliban, without their presence like this in Afghanistan, we were fighting with people the Taliban mentality, Taliban beliefs.
So we were hearing like people on the street, telling us, we wish the Taliban come. At least that time, you won't be able to walk around like this.
And it was increased in the last couple of weeks when I was in Kabul. And I was just staring at them because I believed that it would never happen, that they come to Kabul and we go back to the history and now I know they were right. And I was totally wrong, it happened.
[01:39:55]
NAWA: But that it doesn't mean that the whole country will become Taliban. You saw some maybe -- some pictures and videos from the airport. It shows, it proves that people prefer to die but not live the Taliban.
VAUSE: Nasrin, we will leave it there. It's been good to speak with you. Thank you for your time. And I wish you all the very best to you, your sister and you family back in Kabul.
NAWA: Thank you.
VAUSE: Thank you for being with us.
NAWA: Thank you so much. VAUSE: Pakistan is holding off recognizing the Taliban regime until
consultations are held with regional and international partners. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan told a delegation from Afghanistan they have a great responsibility to leave the country to sustainable peace, stability and development.
Sophia Saifi is in Islamabad with the very latest on this. And also there is a growing problem it seems to Pakistan in its support for the Taliban over the recent months and weeks and also over the years as well.
You know, E.U. leaders or those within the E.U., are calling for, you know, some tougher international action against Pakistan for supporting the Taliban. So how is the government there reacting to that?
SOPHIA SAIFI, CNN PRODUCER: Well John, they haven't reacted to those statements yet. Initially, what the lines that have been coming out while the peace talks were in place that, you know, according to Pakistani authorities, there is unrealistic expectations on them to bring the Taliban to the table.
However, you know, Mullah Baradar who is now, you know, apparently on his way to Afghanistan has -- we're seeing some reports that he's reached Afghanistan. He was in jail in Pakistan.
And Pakistan was responsible for getting him out of jail and getting him to the table for talks, the peace talks that were ongoing. There was an Afghan delegation that got there at the -- sorry, an Afghan Taliban delegation that got here at the end of 2020 in Pakistan. They were received by the foreign minister.
So Pakistan has obviously been playing a very direct role in whatever talks and development that have been taking place. And Pakistan did not have the greatest relationship with President Ghani's administration either.
But at the same time, Pakistan has also said that it doesn't have kind of leverage on the Afghan Taliban that it had previously or that was expected of Pakistan.
And now with the Afghan Taliban taking over Afghanistan in the way that they have, you know, there is the argument to be made that, why would they need Pakistan as an intermediary anymore in the first place?
Pakistan has its own security concerns. Over the summer, in June, there have been special sessions of parliament in which the chief of army staff has addressed closed cabinet and parliamentary meetings, you know, informing them of the security threat that lie ahead.
Today and tomorrow is the 9th and 10th of the month of Muharram which is an important Shia -- you know, it's an important day for Pakistan Shia Muslims. The country is on high security alert because these days -- on these days when Shia take out their processions, they have been known to be attacked by Sunni militants. Many of these attacks have been by the Pakistani Taliban, who last night came out and pledged allegiance to the Afghan Taliban.
So there are lots of concerns, there is a lot of trepidation of what lies ahead for Pakistan's future. And we'll just have to wait and see what happens, John.
VAUSE: Sophia, thank you. Sophia Saifi there, live for us in Islamabad. We appreciate it.
We'll take a short break.
When we come back the death toll from the devastating earthquake in Haiti continues to climb. A CNN crew is in one of the hardest hit areas. We'll take you there when we come back.
[01:43:36]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Heavy downpours over Haiti's earthquake zone is slowing what has already been a slow relief effort. The death toll has now jumped to over 1,900. Hospitals are being inundated with victims. And heavy rain from tropical storm Grace has heaped misery onto disaster.
Many of the sick and injured survivors are now stuck in remote areas, huddled together under makeshift tents or with no shelter at all.
aid to them has been difficult and leading to growing frustrations. Here's what one victim told CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARIMENE JOUESIL, HOMELESS AFTER EARTHQUAKE (through translator): We have been promised medicine. I went to look for it and I was told to wait. Yesterday they distributed aid but I wasn't able to get anything.
It rained a lot at night. We could not sleep. We have nothing to eat. We have nothing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: CNN's Matt Rivers is near the epicenter of the quake where health care workers at one hospital are simply overwhelmed. Here's his report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): As soon as we arrived to the hospital, so did this man on a stretcher. First responders brought him to the main hospital in the city of Jeremie, a facility that in reality has no room for him.
Inside, Haitian doctors and nurses are doing what they can to manage an influx of earthquake victims. So many have come in, every single bed is full, so some are simply laying on the floor.
There are broken arms and legs, crush wounds from falling debris. And in the case of 22-month old (INAUDIBLE), a shattered femur.
"My daughter is suffering," her dad says, "and I don't want her to lose her leg. I am so sad she's going through this."
Ivansen's (ph) dad says he pulled her out of the rubble himself.
"I love my daughter very much and I almost lost her. I'm very grateful to these doctors, working with their bare hands. It's horrific for everyone."
Not far from the hospital there is destruction on every block. Here, ordinary people are clearing this debris because underneath was a grocery store. Food supplies are thin right now, so anything they can find will help.
Hundreds have died here. Many remain missing and thousands were injured, far more than the small health system can handle.
At the hospital there is only so much these doctors and nurses can do. On a normal day officials say they treat 10 people here. When we were there, 84 people were waiting for treatment and more were coming in.
"We are totally overwhelmed," says the hospital director, "the patients keep coming in. And we don't have the means to take care of them all."
A doctor on scene told us at least a third of these people need to be moved to better equipped facilities. If they're not it could lead to everything from losing limbs to losing lives.
It's what Ivansen's dad fears the most. He is doing his best to just keep it together because he doesn't know what else to do.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Matt Rivers there. Well, for more on how you can help the people of Haiti, please go to CNN.com/impact.
Hospital admissions for COVID-19 in the United States have doubled over the past three weeks as the delta variant surges. Data from the U.S. Health Department shows more than 80,000 people were in hospital this week straining many health care systems.
Texas is requesting additional mortuary trailers while ICU beds have maxed out in Alabama. Pediatric cases in Kentucky have soared more than 400 percent in one month.
And U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to speak vaccine booster shots on Wednesday. His administration is considering a plan for boosters eight months after a full vaccination.
But the World Health Organization wants wealthy countries to delay those shots. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARIA VAN KERKHOVE, COVID-19 TECHNICAL LEAD, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: This is a global pandemic and we need to think about global solutions. What our recommendation is, is that all of the world's most vulnerable and those who are most at risk -- health workers -- need to receive their first and second doses before large proportions of the population or all of the population in some countries receive that third dose.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[01:49:54]
VAUSE: Well, vaccines are on the way right now to help the global fight against the coronavirus. The U.S. is sending nearly 500,000 doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine to Rwanda.
It includes the first batch of the 500 million doses President Biden has pledged to donate globally. White House officials say about 200 million of those doses will be delivered by the end of this year. The remaining will go out in the first half of the next year.
Just one confirmed case of local transmission of COVID-19 was enough to spark a three-day nationwide lockdown in New Zealand. It was the first new local case since February. The prime minister says it was identified as being the delta variant leaked to an outbreak in New South Wales in Australia.
New Zealand's medical chief warns dozens of infections could eventually rise from that initial case.
Still to come here, countries which once fought the Taliban must now decide how to deal with their former foes. A look at how the world powers are now responding to the Taliban takeover of Kabul.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: The Biden administration has received a lot of criticism for the sudden troop withdrawal from Afghanistan which led to the collapse of the government and the takeover by the Taliban. Still, the White House is standing by the decision but is now placing some of the blame at least on the previous Trump administration.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAKE SULLIVAN, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: There are those who argue that with 2,500 forces, the number of forces in country when President Biden took office, we could have sustained a stable peaceful Afghanistan. That is simply wrong.
The previous administration drew down from 15,000 troops to 2,500 troops. And even at 15,000 the Afghan government forces were losing ground.
What has unfolded over the past month has proven decisively that it would have taken a significant American troop presence. Multiple times greater than what President Biden was handed to stop a Taliban onslaught.
When you conclude 20 years of military action in a civil war in another country with the impacts of 20 years of decisions that have piled up, you have to make a lot of hard calls. None with clean outcomes.
What you can do is plan for all contingencies. We did that. The American forces now on the ground at (INAUDIBLE) are there because of contingency planning and drilling we did over the course of months, preparing for a range of scenarios, including dire scenarios.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Still global leaders are watching with concern as reality sinks in. The Taliban won the war and once again decided the fate of more than 30 million Afghans and beyond.
CNN's Arwa Damon explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The headlines blared the ugly, almost incomprehensible truth. After 20 years of war against the world's most powerful armies, the Taliban won.
And those countries that once fought them are having to accept that they have to engage their former foes.
JOSEPH BORRELL, E.U. FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF: The Taliban has won the war, so we have to talk with them in order to engage in a dialogue as soon as necessary to prevent a humanitarian and a potential migratory disaster but also a humanitarian crisis.
DAMON: After an emergency meeting Tuesday the E.U.'s foreign policy chief said that the bloc will not recognize but will work with the Taliban if fundamental human rights are respected.
[01:54:59]
DAMON: But it seems that the main concern is how to prevent Afghans from flooding Europe and avoiding a repeat of the 2015 Syrian refugee crisis.
EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): France, as I've said, have and will continue to do its duty to those who are most threatened. We will do our full part in an organized and fair international effort. But Europe cannot be the only ones to take on consequences of the current situation.
DAMON: The consequences of the current situation. In other words, desperate Afghans wanting to flee the Taliban.
ANGELA MERKEL, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (through translator): Before talking about quotas, we must first talk about security possibilities for refugees in the neighborhood of Afghanistan. And I will also discuss this with UNHCR.
Then we can think about as a second step whether especially-affected people can be brought to Europe in a controlled and supported way.
DAMON: As Europe scrambles to protect itself, Afghanistan's neighbor and fickle American ally Pakistan's leader praised the Taliban's takeover as having broken the shackles of slavery.
And where the west recedes Russia and China will step in. The two countries' foreign ministers reportedly spoke by phone on Monday to discuss the unfolding situation.
SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: The fact that the Taliban show a willingness to consider the position of others in my opinion is a positive sign. And they said that they are ready to discuss a government in which not only them but the other representatives of Afghan powers can be a part.
DAMON: It is arguably among the saddest outcomes of a 20-year war that was meant to deliver so much more than this to a population that has already suffered more than most of us can even imagine.
Arwa Damon, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Thank you for watching this hour. I'm John Vause.
CNN NEWSROOM continues with Rosemary Church after a short break.
See you tomorrow.
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[02:00:07]
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us.
