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CNN Live At Daybreak

Tribal Factions Struggling Over Power of Kandahar

Aired December 10, 2001 - 05:16   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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Back to southern Afghanistan. Nic Robertson, the first Western journalist to report in the city of Kandahar there after the fall of the Taliban, joins us now live.

Nic, as we understand it, a power vacuum has developed there. Can you tell us who is in charge of the Taliban's former stronghold?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there are two factions vying for power. One is a military tribal faction under control of a military commander called Gul Agha Sherzai. He was a former governor of Kandahar. And the other faction is under Mullah Naqib. Mullah Naqib, a very close associate with the Taliban, we understand, and he was the one the Taliban handed the city over to.

Now, Mullah Naqib holds 30 percent of the city, Gul Agha, 70 percent of the city. And intense negotiations were under way over the weekend, chaired by the head of Afghanistan's new interim government, Hamid Karzai.

Now, Hamid Karzai met with both sides. He also met with a lot of other tribal leaders to gauge popular opinion here. And what he has done to try and resolve the tension here is he has made Gul Agha a new governor and he has offered Mullah Naqib to be the new military head of Kandahar Province. Now, Mullah Naqib has decided not to take that post and appoint some else for it.

Both these positions are dependent on ratification by Afghanistan's interim government and the head of that government, Hamid Karzai, says we can expect still to see some soldiers on the streets for some time to come.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAMID KARZAI: Soldiers will be on the streets for a while. You cannot avoid that. We are, we have removed a major obstacle in Afghanistan and we have removed a major obstacle in Afghanistan mainly through peaceful means. All the provinces that have fell so far in southwest Afghanistan have been done without fighting.

You will have, for a while, some chaos around Afghanistan. It's inevitable. We have to establish a fresh order. Until that comes, there will be, here and then, some difficulty. But overall, things are very good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: Now, some smaller commanders inside the city have yet to sign onto this new deal and there were exchanges of fire through the night. And we are told a couple of fighters were killed in those exchanges of fire.

But for the most part the city is relatively calm. It is tense. There are people out on the streets. They are shopping. The stores are open. People are going out to tea houses and little restaurants at the side of the road.

But having said that, there's still a huge level of expectation of the people here to see which way the situation goes. After 22 years of war, they're very aware that even these current peaceful moves, and even despite the fact all the commanders involved say they want to resolve this peacefully, most people in this city are still quite apprehensive.

There are reports of looting still ongoing and they're very wary about which way this could turn out, though obviously everyone in the city, all the civilian population at least hope that it is and does continue to be resolved peacefully -- Carol.

LIN: Thank you very much.

Nic Robertson reporting live from Kandahar.

And Nic, we'll see you in the next hour, as well.

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