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CNN Live At Daybreak

Target: Terrorism - Northern Alliance

Aired October 02, 2001 - 07:43   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Members of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance say they will plan a transitional government to oppose the ruling Taliban party. That transitional group could include the former king of Afghanistan, now in exile.

CNN's Chris Burns is with the Northern Alliance and he is at the castle of a former Afghan monarchy, or, I guess, the remains of a castle -- Chris.

BURNS: That's right, Miles. This used to be a sprawling palace. It's about 45 miles north of the capital Kabul, just past the front lines, which are not too far from here. In the back of me used to be the stables. If you look now, it is a sort of a cemetery for armed personnel carriers that belonged to the Soviet Union when they invaded Afghanistan and occupied it from 1979 to 1989.

Also left behind, a Soviet helmet and some 50 caliber machine gun shells. If you look further on, this is the palace that used to belong to the Habibullah Khan. He was the king from 1901 to 1919, when he was assassinated. He was seen as a Westerner, a Western leaning monarch, a modernizer, and he tired to bring electricity, cars, telephones, everything else to this country.

However, after he died and later on after the country fell apart, we see what happened to the palace, it also fell apart. It was destroyed by years of fighting, factional fighting, not only when the Russians were here, when the Soviets were here, but also the factional fighting that came after that.

And that is the concern, that if this transitional government can be put together with Mohammad Zahir Shah, who is a relative of that king, if he can come back here and head a transitional government once the Taliban were toppled, that he could bring, perhaps, the stability that Afghanistan desperately needs. Miles.

O'BRIEN: Chris, you've been spending a lot of time with the Northern Alliance and there's a bit of a leadership vacuum there in the wake of the assassination of one of their key leaders just a few days before the September 11 attacks. I'm curious if that has changed their feelings about the monarchy and potentially what ruler might succeed the Taliban in Afghanistan.

BURNS: Well, actually the Northern Alliance wasn't too crazy about the king in the first place. In fact, they're still fairly critical of him. He's 86 years old. He's lived in Rome since he was deposed from power in 1973. They think, they don't think he would be a strong ruler as the commander Massoud, their military leader of the Northern Alliance, was assassinated two days before the September 11 attacks in the States. He was seen as a charismatic leader. The Northern Alliance having lost him, they really have no one else to present as a leader. So the king is seen sort of as a default leader who can head as a figurehead some kind of an interim government.

He's a Pashtun, also. That's something to keep in mind. He's an ethnic Pashtun who would reassure the Pashtuns in the south, that's 40 percent of the population, and the Northern Alliance would need to work with him to form that government to provide the stability in this country and avoid the factional fighting that could break out otherwise -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, Chris Burns reporting to us from territory controlled by the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan.

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