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CNN Live At Daybreak

Afghans Deny Omar Captured

Aired January 04, 2002 - 05:04   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.
CNN's John Vause is in Kabul with more on this developing story -- John, why the discrepancies about what happened to Mullah Omar?

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol.

I didn't quite pick up that question, I'm afraid, but I think you're asking about the discrepancies. Well, the statement came from the reconstruction minister overnight, from the reconstruction minister, Amin Farhang, who was speaking on German television. He did, in fact, say he thought that Mullah Omar had been arrested. Well, CNN could not contact the reconstruction minister directly today, but we have contacted a number of other spokesmen for a number of other ministries here in the capital of Kabul.

All pretty much the same story, all playing down that, pouring cold water on that report. The defense spokesman, Mohammed Abil (ph), did, in fact, tell CNN that if Omar had been arrested he would know about it. He doesn't know about it. Therefore his conclusion is that Omar has not been arrested. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry described the statements by the reconstruction minister as possibly being a mistake.

Now, CNN also contacted a senior intelligence figure in Kandahar who told us that he believes that Omar is still in the Baghran area in southern Afghanistan and that he is, in fact, surrounded.

Now, the defense spokesman, Mohammed Abil (ph), also told CNN that negotiations had been ongoing with Omar and the new Afghan government for his surrender but those negotiations were going nowhere. He told us that Omar had, in fact, been very stubborn. He also told us that the former Taliban leader could be surrounded by as many as 1,000 soldiers -- Carol.

LIN: John, you've got some news about some other reconstruction projects going on in this very devastated country. What's happening on that front?

VAUSE: Yes, well, perhaps the reconstruction minister should speak to reconstruction issues, and there is one very big one going on just north of Kabul here right now. It's out in the Hindu Kush Mountains and it's the Salang tunnel (ph). We were up there the other day and when you get up there it's quite a sight. There's traffic jams. What's happening is that they've actually reopened part of the tunnel. It was built by the Russians when they were here. It was blown up by the Northern Alliance. It's remained closed for the last four years. But they've now managed to reopen part of the tunnel for foot traffic.

So we've got this situation now where refugees are being driven to one part of the tunnel. They then make this mile and a half walk through fairly difficult conditions. There's a lot of rubble there. It's very cold. It's extremely dark and dusty. But they make this mile and a half walk, they get through to the other side and then once they get out they pick up a taxi, $40 to drive down to Kabul and they're back home to the villages that they fled when the Taliban were here.

Now, they're talking that this reconstruction project, which is being done in conjunction with the Halo Trust, which normally clears mines here in Afghanistan, as well as a number of Russian engineers. They're hoping to have all this cleared out, all that debris and all that rubble cleared out of the tunnel by the end of the month.

Now, that's very important because once it's cleared and once the, you can actually drive a car through that tunnel, they say a trip from Kabul here up to Mazar-e Sharif in the north will only take about eight to 12 hours. Right now if you want to drive from here to Mazar- e-Sharif, it can take anything up to four days.

They also say that once this tunnel is cleared and the road is usable and workable and you can actually make this drive, it'll be very symbolic for the country because in many ways it will unify the north and the south that have been divided for so very long.

One other issue, too, Carol. I understand you're digging yourself out of about 10 inches of snow in Atlanta. Fantastic weather here in Kabul today. It's the warmest day we've had. It's actually gone over zero degrees for a change.

LIN: A sense of humor when it gets a little chilly.

John, a quick question for you on this rebuilding. Does it seem to you that the Afghans are taking the initiative in rebuilding their country while the world basically decides how much aid for reconstruction should go to Afghanistan and who should actually be responsible for the building?

VAUSE: Well, the Afghans are wasting no time in trying to recover after the years of the Taliban. They've obviously got great hopes that there will be something like $9 billion of aid coming into this country. But some aid is already starting to come in. We're seeing the work up there in the Hindu Kush Mountains. We're also seeing a lot of work around other places.

And they really are taking the initiative that they know that they now have this opportunity to recover after the years of the Taliban. But they are very much dependent upon that millions and millions of dollars which they have been promised to come into the -- which they have been promised from aid agencies and the international community.

But, yes, they are very much taking the initiative. There's a number of projects which are waiting to get off the ground and they're very crucial for this country. It's also going to be very crucial for Hamid Karzai to get a lot of money on the ground very quickly to show that his government is effective and that it can actually perform for the people so they can actually show that they're doing something so that it can maintain the support which he's got after the swearing in ceremony -- Carol.

LIN: All right, thank you very much.

John Vause reporting live on a sunny day in Kabul, Afghanistan. Stay warm.

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