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Live From...
Afghanistan: Targeting Terrorists in Georgia, Philippines; Four-Year Drought Ends; Detainees in Camp X-Ray Go on Hunger Strike
Aired February 28, 2002 - 20:00 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.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Nic Robertson in Herat. Tonight, we'll have reports on the ending of four years of drought and reports from the newest front lines in the war on terrorism, in the Philippines and the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. That's all in LIVE FROM AFGHANISTAN.
ANNOUNCER: Targeting the terrorists from Afghanistan to the Philippines to the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. We'll have reports from three battlefronts in the War on Terror, a land of displaced people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: Safta (ph) and his family live in this mud room. In the six months they've been here, baby Tequila (ph) has been born. He complains he has no home to go to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: For more than 100,000 people, this makeshift camp is home. A dismal and often deadly diagnosis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. NODRULHODA SALIAMAN ZAY, FAIZ-E-AAM CLINIC (through translator): I think about 60 percent of today's patients will have acute respiratory infections.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: But for a mother who's already lost one son to pneumonia, this clinic may just be a lifesaver. LIVE FROM AFGHANISTAN, Nic Robertson.
ROBERTSON: Tonight, LIVE FROM AFGHANISTAN comes from Herat, where one of the largest camps of displaced people inside Afghanistan, displaced not by fighting but by drought. Recent rainfalls will perhaps persuade some of those farmers to head back home. We'll have a report on that later.
First, we'll get the latest from the U.S. marine base in Guantanamo Bay, where Taliban and al Qaeda detainees have been on hunger strike. The incident started earlier when a prison guard there removed a makeshift turban from one of the al Qaeda detainees. All the other al Qaeda, the majority of the other al Qaeda and Taliban detainees stopped eating.
Now the U.S. commander of the base has said the al Qaeda and Taliban detainees can return to wearing turbans. Now, only 88 al Qaeda and Taliban detainees are on hunger strike. Bob Franken, CNN's National Correspondent, reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The protest seems to be spreading at Camp X-Ray. We are now told that at 9:45 in the morning, about half the detainees started chanting and throwing bedding from their cells. Their chant is loosely translated as "God is great. There is no God but God."
After the protest started, the clamor started growing more incensed, security forces, armed security forces surrounded the camp for a short while before they were withdrawn when the protest quieted down.
It is an outgrowth of a hunger strike that began after a Tuesday incident. The hunger strike began on Wednesday. By noon on Thursday, it had grown to 194 of the 300 detainees were refusing their food. All of the protest was something that happened on Tuesday. At that time, one of the inmates was seen wearing a turban he has fashioned out of a sheet. Turbans are forbidden. Security people worry that there could be something concealed in the turban. Guards repeatedly, according to officials, repeatedly ordered him to remove the turban.
The detainee seemed to be ignoring the order, so finally they burst into his cell, shackled him, only to find that he was involved in the prayer observance. And, as officials now admit, Muslims are trained that when they are praying they are to ignore everything that's going on around them to focus entirely on the prayer.
All of this was admitted this morning. At a later part of the afternoon, the General Michael Lehnert went to the prison camp to address the detainees over a loud speaker and to talk to the guards. Bob Franken, CNN, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: Now the very latest from Guantanamo, that 88 of those Taliban and al Qaeda detainees are still on hunger strike. In the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, the United States is already preparing to lend military assistance in the form of helicopters. There is a possibility of sending some 200 U.S. troops. These moves are causing tensions in the region, but CNN's Moscow Bureau Chief, Jill Dougherty, now reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF (voice over): The last checkpoint at the entrance to the Pankisi Gorge, the mountainous and lawless region in the northeast part of this former Soviet republic now independent country.
High in those mountains, rebels from neighboring Chechnya, bandits, drug and arms traffickers, and now fighters allied with the al Qaeda terrorist network. The weakened Georgian military has been powerless to stop them.
Now the United States if providing combat helicopters and military advisers, up to 200 troops who will train the Georgians to fight terrorists. The Pentagon says they will not take part in any combat. On the streets of the capitol Tbilisi, people who in the past 10 years have lived through a civil war, ethnic clashes, and attempts on their president's life, now see a more positive picture emerging.
"They look at us like a tiny country without any power" he says. "This will give us authority and respect."
"If you're here to train and help" this man says, "that's fine. But we have to solve our own problems."
(on camera): Many people here in Tbilisi are relieved the United States is going to be helping them fight terror and instability. But many of them also are concerned about the reaction of what they call their neighbor to the north.
(voice over): In other words, Russia. Russia's foreign minister claims a U.S. presence could exacerbate an already tense situation. Georgia's President Eduard Shevardnadze terms the Russian outcry "hysterical." He says the U.S. presence will support his country's sovereignty and help secure its borders. He plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week to discuss the matter.
But Georgia is beset with problems, including 7,000 refugees who fled the war in Chechnya and settled in the Pankisi Gorge. A senior U.S. diplomat tells CNN, the military training will help but may not be the whole solution. It's a signal to the Georgians he says, they must take care of their own security.
Jill Dougherty, CNN, Tbilisi, Georgia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: In another front on the war on terrorism, 660 U.S. troops are now in the Philippines, training the army there to fight terrorists. For the first time since their arrival, CNN has been invited along on one of their dangerous missions. Maria Ressa now reports from the southern Philippine island of Basilan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA RESSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Before we boarded this Special Forces helicopter, we were given flack jackets, necessary says the U.S. Army for travel to combat zones.
For the 660 U.S. troops in the Philippines, this they say is the safest way of getting to the war torn island of Basilan, where the Philippine military has been fighting its War on Terror for nearly nine months. But even getting there this way can be dangerous.
Exactly a week ago, these men finished their mission, burying the last of the 160 U.S. Special Forces now based in Basilan. They boarded their helicopter for the last time. It crashed into the ocean, killing all 10 U.S. servicemen on board.
These men have volunteered for their jobs and this mission. In varying stages, they said they felt shock, disbelief, anger, and grief.
MAJOR RALPH SATER, U.S. AIR FORCE: Anytime something happens so unexpectedly and so huge where you have absolutely no control, where you're utterly powerless, I think you have to feel anger.
RESSA: American soldiers are armed and can fire only in self- defense, but it's against the Philippine Constitution for any American to go into actual combat.
RESSA (on camera): This is the forward operating base for the U.S. Special Forces on the island of Basilan. Most of these men are involved in planning, logistics, communications. Given the sensitive nature of conflict here though, a lot of time is spent explaining their presence to the residents.
RESSA (voice over): Colonel David Maxwell commands the troops here and emphasizes the importance of civic action.
COLONEL DAVID MAXWELL, COMMANDER IN BASILAN: One of the things that we know is that the problems here are problems that need to be solved with the people. We show movies every night for the children. The children have been great to us. Be nice to them.
RESSA: This is what they will face away from the camp, the guerilla war in tropical jungle. Twelve U.S. Special Forces will be deployed with each of the 10 Filipino battalions here. For these men, the mission is just beginning. Maria Ressa, CNN, Basilan Island, the Philippines.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: The Taliban is being blamed for a mortar attack on a school. One child was killed and 27 injured at the elementary school in Sorobia (ph) about two hours drive from Kabul. The interior ministry blames the Taliban, and local witnesses say operatives at a military checkpoint sympathetic with the Taliban carried out the attack.
High on the list of all Afghan's needs is good medical care. As CNN's Brian Palmer now reports from Kabul, doctors are struggling to meet even basic healthcare needs.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN PALMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Faiz-e-Aam Clinic is packed just moments after it opens. There are not male patients here. The doctors will see only women and children today, upwards of 100 in five hours.
Doctor Nodrulhoda Saliaman Zay's first patient of the day is three and a half year old, Shekeeb (ph). His mother Nadia (ph) has brought him to the clinic, a cooperative effort of Afghan doctors and a western aid group called Hope Worldwide.
For the past few days, Shekeeb's had a fever, cough and nasal irritation says his mother. The doctor's diagnosis the beginnings of a lower respiratory infection, a serious winter ailment among Afghans. Respiratory infections, principally pneumonia and tuberculosis, are among the nation's biggest killers.
ZAY (through translator): I think about 60 percent of today's patients will have acute respiratory infections. Among those patients, about 10 to 15 percent will be common cold. The rest will be lower respiratory infections.
PALMER: His prescription, antibiotics and an analgesic. Nadia picks up the medication from the clinic pharmacy. The doctor also tells Nadia to keep Shakeeb warm and serve him nourishing food. For Nadia, that's easier said than done.
NADIA (through translator): As you know, the situation in Afghanistan is not ideal. Only two or three out of 100 people will be able to act on that advice.
PALMER: Nadia is not one of those two or three. She slips her burka over her face for the walk home, just a few blocks away through deeply rutted, trashed-strewn streets. Nadia and her two children, Shakeeb and baby Rowena (ph) and her husband share this single room with Nadia's sisters-in-law and their families.
NADIA (through translator): When one child gets sick, all of the kids get sick.
PALMER: Shakeeb caught his cold from his baby sister.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Last year, her son died of pneumonia.
PALMER: Nadia hopes she detected Shakeeb's illness in time. As in most developing nations, women and children often suffer most for what are preventable illnesses in the West. The reasons are often cultural.
DR. HANIFA WAFI, FAIZ-E-AAM CLINIC (through translator): When men get sick, they take themselves to the doctor. Women must first get permission from their family, then ask for money for the exam.
PALMER (on camera): Faiz-e-Aam Clinic has been in this neighborhood for about three years. Residents say before it was set up, they were forced to go to the local hospital or to more expensive private clinics to get treatment. They say Faiz-e-Aam does not answer all of their healthcare needs, but it's much better than what they had before. Brian Palmer, CNN, Kabul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: When we come back, how recent rainfall is ending four years of drought, and encouraging farmers to return back home.
ANNOUNCER: Next, U.S. marines hand out hope for those with very little. And later, the fast and the furious.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Basically what we're doing is driving cross- country at about 40, 50 miles an hour comfortably.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: We'll take a ride on a vehicle that keeps American forces ahead of the enemy. LIVE FROM AFGHANISTAN is back in two minutes. But first, should U.S. officials force feed the detainees on a hunger strike at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base? To take the quick vote, head to cnn.com, AOL keyword CNN. A reminder: this poll is not scientific.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: The World Food Program has delivered more than 46,000 tons of flour, sugar, and cooking oil to northern Afghanistan since the Taliban were ousted last fall.
ROBERTSON: In Kandahar, 350 miles south of here, the first humanitarian aid began arriving at the airport there. The first aid aircraft unloaded plastic sheeting and blankets for delivery to displaced Afghans in the region. For the last four years, there has been a drought in Afghanistan. The largest camp of displaced people has been outside this city, the city of Herat.
This time last year, I watched as desperate farmers were arriving with their families by the truckload. Now, winter rainfall for the first time in four years, has brought an opportunity for the farmers to return back to begin to plant their crops.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON (voice over): With hopes high, drought-stricken Afghans prepare to go home, the first in an experimental program to be leaving Afghanistan's largest camp of displaced people, driven from their homes over the last few years, not by fighting but failing crops. The trip is made possible as after four years of drought, recent rainfall means crops may now grow.
DANNY GILL, IOM SENIOR OPERATIOINS OFFICER: We've got roughly a month, month and a half window and they need to be there and get their crops in.
ROBERTSON: Seventy families are volunteering for the pilot scheme, in which they each receive 50 kilos of special wheat seed, fertilizer, tools, and a guarantee of food until the harvest is ready.
"If there is rain" says Ismael "then with God's help, something good will happen."
For the aid officials overseeing this project, it's success is important.
ROY BRENNEN, DACCAR: If the wrong message comes back, it's going to be discouraging to the people and they won't be encouraged to return to their places of origin.
ROBERTSON: One hundred and fourteen thousand people live in this camp. It has, for many, become a place of permanent refuge.
ROBERTSON (on camera): A year ago, everyone in this camp lived in tents. Now most people live in mud homes and that's part of the problem aid officials say, convincing people who have made their lives here more comfortable that it really is time to go home.
(voice over): Safta and his family live in this mud room. In the six months they've been here, baby Tequila has been born. He complains he has no home to go to.
"As long as the aid keeps coming, we will stay here in the camp" he says.
(on camera): While life here is tough, no one seems to be starving. In fact, until the Taliban left, an accurate head count could not be made. Accordingly, food deliveries will now be cut back from 90 to 50 tons a day.
Those gathering around to share their views say they feel the pressure to go and plant their crops, and although a handful are concerned about security, most worry about getting enough help to survive.
"Of course I am ready to go back" Ismael says "but I don't believe the aid organizations when they say they will support us."
Success in this relocation effort will be measured in the numbers leaving the makeshift city. One-third by summer is what aid officials hope.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: In Kabul, there was good news too and smiles on faces as U.S. marines handed out teddy bears, candy, woolen hats and gloves for children of the city's biggest orphanage, home to 500 children. The marines were taking a break from their guard duty at the U.S. Embassy in the Afghan capitol. When we come back, a full wield way to fight terrorists.
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, in the market for a new car? Check out the military's desert patrol vehicle. It's well armed, and fast.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No one can really track us with the laser trackers, things like that, like if you're going up against tanks. They can't get a laser target on us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: We'll take a test drive when LIVE FROM AFGHANISTAN returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTSON: Up next, in LIVE FROM AFGHANISTAN, it's fun. It looks like fun. It's fast and it may be the best way to catch terrorists in the Afghan desert.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: Afghanistan is divided into three distinct geographical regions, the fertile Northern Plains, the mountainous Central Highlands, and the Southwestern Plateau, which is mostly desert.
ROBERTSON: If catching Osama bin Laden is proving tough, then maybe U.S. Navy SEALS at Kandahar Airport have the answer. As Martin Savidge now reports, it's fast, it's air-cooled, and it comes fully loaded.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Looking for a car with plenty of go, plenty of guns, and can turn on a dime? Scotty our cameraman can attest to that. Then the U.S. Navy SEALS have just the car for you, a DPV, Desert Patrol Vehicle. These DPVs have been in storage since Desert Storm.
Now they're back and badder than ever. Originally built in California by a company that makes racing cars, DPVs have racing suspension, racing tires, and driver's trained at, you got it, racing school.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Essentially what we're doing is we're driving cross-country at about 40, 50 miles an hour comfortably.
SAVIDGE: That's three times the speed of most other military vehicles. DPVs are powered by souped-up Volkswagen engines. Why Volkswagen you ask? Because they make air-cooled engines, so there's no coolant to leak when the bullets start flying.
Speaking of bullets, take a look at these options the SEALS have. The passenger operates a Mark 19 automatic grenade launcher that fires 350 explosive rounds a minute. The gunner has a .50 caliber machine gun facing forward and an M-60 machine gun facing backwards to ward off any tailgaters. Then there are the anti-tank rockets, plus the SEALS own weapons.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No other vehicle carries that amount of armament.
SAVIDGE: No kidding. Even the six seat family truckster version has a .50 caliber machine gun to keep the folks in the back seat occupied. But the DPVs biggest weapon is speed. It's hard to hit an object moving this fast, which is a good thing since DPVs have no armor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No one can really track us with their laser trackers, things like that, like if you're going up against tanks. They can't get a laser target on us.
SAVIDGE: So what's the ride like? Scotty, the cameraman, strapped himself into the gunner's seat and started shooting, video that is. If by now you want to have your own DPV, they cost about $100,000 each, weapons not included. For the Special Forces operating in Afghanistan, just tracking down remaining Taliban and al Qaeda forces may be half the battle, but the admit with their DPVs, it's also half the fun. Martin Savidge, CNN, Kandahar.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: At $100,000, it's a bit beyond my budget. It would be nice though with the thousands of miles of highway in this country. Only a few hundred are paved, and I've got the bruises to prove it.
Thank you for watching. I'm Nic Robertson. LIVE FROM AFGHANISTAN will be back next week. Up next, "THE POINT" with Anderson Cooper, and for our international viewers, please stay tuned for regular programming.
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