Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Third Day Taliban Taking Group of 26 International Journalists Around Afghanistan

Aired November 02, 2001 - 08:10   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: Let me tell you this morning about B- 52 bombing campaigns north of Kabul in and around the Bagram Air Field where the Northern Alliance is pitted against the Taliban. Meanwhile in the south, our Nic Robertson has just been part of an ongoing tour sponsored by the Taliban an opportunity to see things firsthand in and around Kandahar - Kandahar being the historical headquarters of the Taliban and in many cases, headquarters repeated to be of al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

Now as you may remember, Nic was one of the few correspondents who was taken by the Taliban to see what they wanted him to see. He can say what he wants to say, but his travels are somewhat limited. Nic, what is the latest from there?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Aaron, today was the third day the Taliban were taking a group of 26 international journalists around and today CNN was able to leave the foreign ministry compound without a Taliban escort and go down into the markets of the city.

What we found there were the markets were fairly busy. People there told us that this was an indication that they felt comfortable about coming out because there's been very little bombing in the last few days. Now they say that food prices have gone up somewhat, but what they also said that the Afghan currency has also strengthened, so relatively it means that food prices remain pretty much the same and the Afghan currency is stronger.

Now we were also able to go to the hospital in Kandahar today, again, unaccompanied by the Taliban. Now there we talked to people who were in the hospital who told us they were civilians - indeed one lady there, the doctor showed us, had shrapnel wounds - he showed us that in a x-ray. We were able to talk to people who said they were civilians. Two men in that hospital said they had been working on a dam, an electrical hydra power plant at a dam about half a day's drive from Kandahar.

They told us that hydra electric facility was targeted yesterday and bombed and that's how they became injured. That also correlated what the Taliban ambassador in Pakistan yesterday reported that that electricity facility had been targeted and damaged.

Again, CNN was able to wander the hospital freely without a Taliban escort, but when we did try to go into one section of the hospital that had armed guards, we were told that we couldn't go there and that that part of the hospital was off limits, but essentially today a much freer hand to take a look around. Aaron.

O'BRIEN: Oh Nic, that sort of raises the question then as to whether the allegation about the Taliban using hospitals, schools, and Mosques as human shields, if you will, for military installations may in fact be happening. Have you seen any direct evidence aside from that somewhat circumstantial evidence that ran into at that hospital?

ROBERTSON: No, we have not seen the evidence of Taliban putting military hardware in hospital facilities. We have seen some damage military hardware in urban areas -- an APC that had been shot up, we're told, by a jetfighter. That was in the middle of a residential area.

Of course, the other conclusion one could draw in the hospital is the section we couldn't visit was in fact a section where there were military causalities and of course, the Taliban have forbidden us to go into military sites and have given us very scant information about military casualties.

We were told by the Taliban's military commander for this area that he had only had 15 fatalities in the three weeks plus of the ongoing air campaign, although he did tell us that morale was very high as well. He said - he said in fact that the bombing campaign was actually garnering support for the military - Aaron.

O'BRIEN: Nic, when you say military casualties, is there some theory, perhaps, that there might have been significant members of the Taliban leadership that might have been injured in the wake of these attacks.

ROBERTSON: We've asked have there been injuries to the leadership and we have been told that there have been none. We also asked the governor of Kandahar today - that would be - he is a very influential figure here because Kandahar is the heartland of the Taliban and we asked the governor or Kandahar today if there was a plan should Mullah Omar be killed, what would happen.

He said the Muslims are all brothers and any one Muslim is able to step into the shoes of another and execute his duties. So he said that even if the supreme leader or any other senior official within the Taliban was killed, then essentially he would be replaced and that there would be no problems and they would carry on as before. Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Nic Robertson who is on a Taliban-guided trip through Taliban-controlled parts in and around Kandahar. Thanks very much for joining us this morning and giving us those exclusive insights here on CNN.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com