Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Afghans Want a Broad Based Government Out of Germany Meeting

Aired November 27, 2001 - 05:05   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: And our Christiane Amanpour is in the capital of Kabul and we'll talk a little bit more about the Afghan summit -- Christiane, a lot of hope pinned on this.

But as some reports have said, they've been warring for years and if they were going to get along, they might have done it before now. What is the hope on this summit and what actually can be put together?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there are very, very high hopes and expectations. You might not think that the people who have been living under such awful conditions and so much deprivation and war over the last 20 years would be able to think clearly and concisely about exactly the kind of political settlement they want, but they have.

And they've been telling us over and over again in the two weeks since Kabul fell back to the Northern Alliance, indeed, since most of this country is now in the Northern Alliance's hands, that they want a broad-based government. That's what we hear over and over again.

They say they do not want any of the war lords who brought them this misery and war and 50,000 civilians dead in Kabul alone in the last 10 years or so of civil war between different factions who controlled different parts of this city. They say they've had enough of that and they're pinning enormous hopes on the Bonn process, on the process of attempting to get a transitional government.

Many people hold out hope that the factions will agree to have Zahir Shah, the former king, as the transitional leader of an interim government. They have nostalgic and fond memories of the '60s when he was in power here and the last really peaceful period they ever had here. So they've very, very keen for that.

Apart from that, the Afghans want very simply peace, security and jobs. They say that 20 years of deprivation is simply too much and they don't want to go through this again.

So an enormous amount of attention is going to be focused from this country on those talks. And as I say, a huge number of hopes also riding on what goes on.

We are being told by U.S. officials that the factions, according to U.S. and other officials, are saying that they are prepared to deal seriously in Bonn. They realize the importance of this moment. In addition, of course, they have this carrot and stick of billions of dollars of international aid being held over their heads. If they do not form a broad-based inclusive government that is formally recognized they're simply being told that they won't get this aid and they desperately want and need a reconstruction.

In the meantime, of course, here in Afghanistan many people's focus is on the war on terrorism, on the end of the Taliban and on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR (voice-over): This was one of Osama Bin Laden's main hideaways in the province of Kandahar, according to a defense ministry official now in Kabul. He says it was printed in an al Qaeda newsletter for Taliban officials.

In this corner, the ancient Islamic title "Leader of the Faithful'' is bestowed on Bin Laden's protector, Mullah Omar. In this corner it says, quote, "providing hospitality to Osama Bin Laden is no shame.''

Other pictures allegedly show how the mountainous refuge was accessed by this trail and by what looks like a river or irrigation ditch that leads to this carved doorway. From underground, a sky light for ventilation.

The official says this is an old print. The hideaway may have been bombed by the U.S. after the 1998 embassy attacks in Africa.

(on camera): Officials at this security headquarters in Kabul, as well as senior Pakistani officials, tell CNN that far from the Taliban controlling Osama Bin Laden, the opposite was true. In recent years, they say, it was Osama Bin Laden's philosophy, his money and his mercenaries that came to heavily influence Mullah Omar and the Taliban hierarchy.

(voice-over): As examples, they point to the decisions to blow up the ancient Bamiyan Buddhas as un-Islamic idols and to put eight foreign aid workers on trial for allegedly spreading Christianity.

Security officials in Kabul say not all the mercenaries who came here were linked to al Qaeda. Some were just eager to fight with the Taliban. Many of them are now sitting in prison cells in Kabul. This man is an Afghan who says he worked for the Taliban, but switched sides when Kabul fell. He says he was a night watchman at the old Darmalan Palace (ph) that the Taliban used as a barracks. The foreign mercenaries were housed in this building nearby. "They said they had come here for holy war," he says. "Other than that, the Arabs didn't say much to us.''

Further up the road, we saw these so-called SCUD caves build into the mountains by the Soviets, and now littered with ammunition, and a ledger full of names of Pakistanis who came to fight and die on a rapidly shrinking battleground.

Christiane Amanpour, CNN, (END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Now with the Taliban's days apparently numbered, the hunt obviously now is on for Osama bin Laden and people are saying here that whether he be in the hills and mountains of Jalalabad or, indeed, Kandahar, those mountainous refuges are extremely hard to penetrate -- Donna.

KELLEY: Christiane Amanpour in Kabul, thanks very much.

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