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CNN Live At Daybreak

Many Concerned That There Will Be Power Struggle in Afghanistan

Aired November 20, 2001 - 06:32   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.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: As the routing of the Taliban from Kabul has left a power vacuum that's throwing a wide range of tribal factions to the Afghan capital and it's creating worries about a power struggle that could be as grim as the regime that was just ousted. CNN's Ben Wedeman has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And afternoon game of volleyball in a Kabul lumber yard. As the capital gets used to its new masters, the people of Afghanistan can be forgiven for thinking they're being tossed around between competing warlords.

All of Afghanistan's warring factions have left a pack of destruction behind them. It comes as little surprise, then, that many of the residents of Kabul have scant faith in the ability of those factions to make peace. Certainly not those living in the rubble of the capital's Kartachar (ph) neighborhood pulverized during a murderous struggle for Kabul between the Northern Alliance and Shiite rivals, before the Taliban takeover in 1996.

Nasima Pianzadai (ph) and her family survived the fighting, but their home was badly damaged. The upper floor destroyed and looted, now it's only good for hanging laundry. Nasima (ph) has no faith in the Northern Alliance.

"I'm pessimistic," she says. "When they were here before they destroyed everything, all these houses."

She wants peace and an education for her daughters. Her husband, Tali Lallah (ph), says only the former king of Afghanistan, 87-year old Zahir Shah can reunite the country.

"If the Northern Alliance doesn't agree to bring back Zahir Shah," he says, "it means they want to destroy this country again.

Zahir Shah was deposed in a coup 28 years ago. People here must look back more than a quarter of a century for a symbol of unity in a land destroyed and divided.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But to calm the situation now, we need Zahir Shah to come to country and to manage the government of Afghanistan.

WEDEMAN: Others look to an even higher power for peace.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We and everyone now have a little bit doubt, but we wish that God will help them to bring peace for us.

WEDEMAN: And the need for peace could not be more evident. Ben Wedeman, CNN, Kabul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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