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CNN Live At Daybreak

Feeling of Apprehension in Kandahar

Aired November 13, 2001 - 05:24   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. It's 24 minutes after the hour. Sources tell CNN as many as 600 people have been killed or executed by anti-Taliban forces in Mazir-i-Sharif since the city fell to the Northern Alliance Friday. CNN hasn't been able to independently confirm this information from the northern Afghan city. But Western officials say the majority of those killed are Pakistani and Kashmiri fighters and family members of pro-Taliban Chechen fighters.

Farther south, CNN's Kamal Hyder reports there's a feeling of apprehension in Kandahar. The fear is that as Northern Alliance forces make advances, the country will plunge into anarchy.

KAMAL HYDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Another uncertain morning here in Kandahar, as another city falls, this time Kabul, the capital, the prized capital for which the Northern Alliance stood very long and waited as Allied bombers bombed the positions north of Kabul.

Now that city has fallen and we are told that many people, including the Taliban, particularly the Taliban, have left the city toward the south, towards Madan Shaher (ph). They have lost their roads to the west. Herat fell yesterday and indications that a wave of anarchy may sweep the country as different powers within the Northern Alliance, the Hezbowat (ph), the other factions, like the Jumboshi Mali (ph), that there may be a power struggle ensuing between these organizations and these militants. And as the Taliban withdraw to rural Afghanistan what remains to be seen is whether these Northern Alliance commanders will agree on anything and will have a formula for power sharing.

Kamal Hyder, Kandahar, Afghanistan.

HARRIS: Well, let's go now to Pakistan to get the reaction from that country to these rapid developments we're seeing take place in Kabul.

Our Tom Mintier is in Islamabad this morning. He joins us with the very latest -- Tom.

TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Leon, we just have information just now in that the Taliban ambassador has, indeed, left Pakistan, going to Kandahar. Now, the lights are going to be burning late tonight at the foreign ministry here in Islamabad, Pakistan, because both the foreign minister and the president are on the way back to Pakistan from their trip to the New York and to the United Nations. So they will not be arriving until late tonight.

The events of the last few hours taking place while they were in the air, but it will probably be a major briefing in the late hours tonight here in Islamabad what the situation is in Kabul. No one was really predicting when this would happen, but most officials say privately here that it came as no surprise that elements of the Northern Alliance made their way into Kabul despite promises by the political side of the Northern Alliance that they would not do so.

Though these troops did come in this morning, it did not come as a major surprise. As a matter of fact, one source at the foreign ministry told CNN that it would not surprise him if the Northern Alliance pushed all the way to Tourqum (ph), which is the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan in the south, in the Khyber Pass area.

So there is a good possibility that it will not just be Kabul, but other areas of Afghanistan that will also be pushed in by the Northern Alliance.

At the same time, the Northern Alliance was getting ready to come in the city, here in Islamabad, someone was getting ready to leave the city. The ambassador, the Taliban ambassador, who has been here and been very vocal and very visual, got in a car very quietly and has left Islamabad. He did leave this morning with several of his staff members on the way to Kandahar. No idea how long he's going to stay in Kandahar, whether he, indeed, will return to the embassy here in Islamabad. The word from the Taliban embassy, he is going to Kandahar to meet with other Taliban officials to discuss the situation.

Now, at the same time there was a departure from Islamabad. In the middle of the night, there apparently was a departure from Kabul, not just the Taliban, but eight international aid workers were put in the back of a pickup truck and taken to Kandahar. Now, these aid workers are the ones who are being put on trial for preaching Christianity. They were taken by the Taliban out of a house in Kabul and moved to Kandahar. They will be probably arriving there the middle part of the day today.

Now, this comes as very bad news for one of the parents. John Mercer, the parent of Heather Mercer, was quite concerned because he has been watching the details from here in Islamabad for the last couple of months of the trials and tribulations of his daughter being held by the Taliban in Kabul. And he says he's a bit concerned.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MERCER: It's quite possible the Taliban want to consider that they still have an effective government and that they're still going to have a trial in Kandahar. I mean that's one way to look at it. The other is that maybe they're going to be pawns for some leverage in political negotiations. I still have hope that the Taliban have kept them safe for over a hundred days now and that they will continue to do so.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MINTIER: Mr. Mercer is saying that he doesn't know. He last received a letter from -- written by his daughter on the first week of November, but has not had any contact since then. Waiting to hear word from the Taliban. He had hoped, he was at the Taliban embassy this morning waiting to see the ambassador. But as we all know now, the ambassador has not only left the city, but is in the process of leaving the country, going back to Kandahar and have meetings there inside the area that still remains controlled by the Taliban -- Leon.

HARRIS: That raises a lot of questions there, Tom.

Let me ask you about another topic here, Tom. The sympathies there in Pakistan, we've been watching them for weeks, as many folks in Pakistan have been sympathizing with the Taliban. Now the Taliban seems to be on the run here. Any sense at all of whether or not these sympathies are increasing, decreasing, or what?

MINTIER: Well, on the other side of that, there is a growing concern that the situation inside Afghanistan could turn into more of a civil war than a frontal activity, that old scores are going to be settled by some of the ethnic groups. There is concern that we may have the slaughter of civilians in some of these areas as scores are settled.

The government is quite concerned that if the Northern Alliance, indeed, takes the capital and tries to install a government there, that goes against the effort of the international community to put a broad-based government there, something that Pakistan says they don't want to see in their backyard. They're already looking very, very strongly at India, over Kashmir, and to have to look to the Northern Alliance, who do not get along with Pakistan very well, over the other shoulder, could be troubling for Pakistan.

HARRIS: Yes, the lid has come off now. It will be interesting to see what comes up next.

Tom Mintier in Islamabad, thank you very much -- Kyra, over to you.

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