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American Morning

America's New War: Growing Refugee Crisis in Countries Around Afghanistan

Aired September 25, 2001 - 10:39   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And we're going to take a few minutes to talk about the growing refugee crisis in the countries around Afghanistan.

We've got a report from Sid Ackbar, a reporter with the CNN student bureau. The student bureau works with colleges and high schools around the world, equipping students with cameras and CNN staff to help produce their stories. Before the September 11th attack, Sid took his camera on a trip to Pakistan. Here's what he found.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SID ACKBAR, CNN STUDENT BUREAU: We're traveling along the Afghanistan border in Pakistan. I'm on my way to volunteer at an Afghani refugee camp, not really knowing what to expect.

This is Jalozai, home to 300,000 people who have left Afghanistan to escape the internal fighting. Families live in makeshift tents in the intense desert heat.

There are many difficulties, he said. I had a home in Afghanistan, but there is so much war that you have to take sides.

Some of the children have never lived anywhere else. This woman sits in her tent spinning cotton, carrying on her traditions.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): When you ask them why they are here, the common response is war. Everyone is fighting Afghanistan. Even though I was born there, I had to leave, because of war.

This is a tribal leader, who led his 300 families from Afghanistan instead of aligning with the Taliban.

There is no running water. The water for drinking must be brought in by truck. There is not enough for bathing. This is their toilet, nothing more than a hole in the ground. This is a kitchen.

After working two weeks in Jalozai, I left to work at another camp called Shamshatoo. It's older than I am. It was opened 23 years ago when Afghan refugees began pouring into Pakistan when the Soviets invaded their country. Instead of tents, these refugees built homes out of clay.

They also have something I did not see in other camps. This is Abdulbecca (ph) school, the center of hope for young refugees. The teacher is also a refugee. He says it's sometimes difficult to convince parents that their children need an education. Notice: there are no girls allowed in this class.

This boy is 13 years old, yet he's only in the second grade. He says he wants to become a doctor.

Along with reading and writing, there are classes on their religion -- Islam. Here, these boys learn how to pray to Allah.

For more than two decades, millions of Afghan people left their homeland to escape war and to wait for peace. Yet the prospects of war have only increased. The camps near the border will get even more residents in the days ahead as more families seek refuge.

Sid Ackbar, CNN, Student Bureau.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Sid Ackbar of our the CNN student bureau joins us now in the CNN Center to talk more about this piece.

Wow. You shot these pictures in June. Tell me where you are going go to school and what made you decide to even do this?

ACKBAR: I got to Kasumnis River College (ph) in Sacramento, but I work for a nonprofit organization that deals with youth issues. It's an international organization called "Earth Ring." I was free for my summer, so they said, since I'm Pakistani by heritage, they sent me to Pakistan to work in refugee camps, and if I could document the issues and volunteer my time, and come back with a story to show to our youth within our organization.

PHILLIPS: Let's talk about how you volunteered your time and the sanitation conditions and how you took part in trying to help with that situation.

ACKBAR: Yes. They had me do, everything, you know. It was Very disorganized. It's difficult, because they don't have enough water, enough food, so you have to figure out who to coordinate to at certain times, who gets the meal chips. Had to dig those latrines that you saw, which were just holes in the ground. We had to coordinate the water truck coming in, and if you do the math, there's 300,000 refugees in the camp called Jilosi (ph). That' only half a gallon per day per person. You can drink, you can cook with that, you can't bathe, so sanitation is a big problem, especially for the women.

PHILLIPS: And there's religious issues, too, to take into account, right?

ACKBAR: Yes, there's Sunnishia (ph). There's some pagan tribes. There are religious issues. But the real center (ph) is the political issues. They people are mostly refugees, because they don't want to pick sides on the wars that are going on inside there. So you've got 2.5 million displaced people in Pakistan alone, the same number in Iran -- that's five million people, who don't war, who are victims of the Taliban and the other factions within Afghanistan.

PHILLIPS: When you hear U.S. airstrikes, when the refugees hear U.S. air strikes, is that a concern?

ACKBAR: Yes, it is. A lot of innocent people are already victims. If a superpower like the U.S. were to go in and add to the already existing wars in that country, that would mean more displaced people, that would mean more suffering, that would mean an influx into the refugee camps that are already very, very difficult. The hardships would only be worse for the people there and the people coming in.

PHILLIPS: I know you talked about this in the piece. The school and tents, they're really looking still toward the future, even though they're in these refugee camps.

ACKBAR: It's fascinating. I interviewed a couple of the teachers, and they said we have to realize that that this is not just a temporary issue, that we could be here for a while. The war has been going on for 23 years in Afghanistan, so they're studying. They're using tents. They only go to school from 6:30 until 8:30, because it gets too hot afterwards, and they're finding difficult to recruit refugee students, because their parents want them to cities to work, or beg, or steal, as opposed to be refugees and go to school.

PHILLIPS: Sid Ackbar, thanks for your amazing story about survival. We appreciate you sharing it with us.

ACKBAR: Thank you.

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