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American Morning

Afghanistan Needs Serious Help After Decades Of War

Aired November 19, 2001 - 08:04   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The noose, of course, is tightening. U.S. officials say Osama bin Laden is running out of places to run and hide.

So what is the strategy to find the terrorist leader? For the very latest on this and some other news from the war front, we turn to Christiane Amanpour in Kabul.

Welcome back, Christiane. Good morning.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN NEWS, KABUL: Well, Paula, good morning.

Several things to report today, first, on those international journalists. We, too, are trying to nail down exactly what might have happened, and to whom it might have happened.

As Bill Hemmer reported, a car was stopped in the convoy on its way to Kabul. And about four western journalists, and perhaps also a Pakistani colleague driving with them, were taken out and escorted away. The convoy turned back -- the rest of the convoy -- and we are still trying to nail down the details of what may have happened to some of our colleagues.

On the other front, although the military situation proceeds very, very rapidly, the political situation is lagging quite far behind.

And to that extent, U.S. Special Representative to the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, Ambassador James Dobbins, and the U.N. Special Representative, Francesc Vendrell, are having intense talks with members of the Northern Alliance and other factional leaders to try to get a political grouping together to hammer out the future of Afghanistan, because the insecurity here is still quite severe and they must have a political framework to operate in.

At the same time, many, many people here and around the world are calling for the United States and the international community to rehabilitate Afghanistan.

When it comes to all the indicators of the human condition, Afghanistan ranks around the lowest in the world -- life expectancy, 43 years, compared with 61, for other developing countries. And the people here want, now, some kind of reconstruction effort to at least bring them a modicum of human dignity. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)

AMANPOUR (voice-over): Imagine being born in Afghanistan. You have a 25 percent chance of dying before you reach your fifth birthday.

Imagine being pregnant. Every 15 minutes, a woman dies giving birth from entirely preventable causes.

Eighteen percent of Afghan babies will die before they reach the age of one. And those who do make it beyond that, as well as their parents -- in all, half the country's 20 million people -- can look forward to a life entirely dependent on handouts from the international community.

"Our minds are in a bad state," says Abdul Latif. "Even our children are suffering from nervous disorders."

After 20 crushing years of war, Afghanistan's children are virtually a lost generation. By 1998, the U.N. declared the nation's education system totally collapsed. Ninety percent of girls and two- thirds of boys are not enrolled in school. Barely a school remains intact.

(on camera): It's almost unbelievable, but this is these elementary students' classroom. There are no tables, no chairs, and this is all that's left of the blackboard.

(voice-over): No doors, windows or walls either.

We asked this group to show us how they took class. Eleven-year- old Abdul Salid (ph) lined up his classmates on the wintry concrete floor.

We asked him how he imagined schools in America would look like.

"They would have tables and chairs and real lessons. And the teacher would come to school every day," he says. Here, this is all they know.

They don't know about clean water, either. Only 12 percent of the country has access to that. And only a third has access to health care.

The International Red Cross is among the biggest providers, especially in rehabilitating victims of one of Afghanistan's most vicious killers -- land mines.

Forty thousand wounded, 400,000 dead since 1979. Mines have been left everywhere, near homes, in cities and in fertile fields. Even if there were no new victims, Alberto Cairo (ph) expects his prosthetics center to be here another 50 years, treating existing patients.

But he does think that finally there may be a bright side to this dark vision.

ALBERTO CAIRO (ph): All the world is looking at Afghanistan. And before, I remember speaking to friends in Italy. Some of them, they did not even know where Afghanistan was. Now, everybody knows. So there are great expectations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

AMANPOUR: Expectations at the maternity hospital that they may update their 25-year-old operating rooms. Expectations that if things were different, they may have been able to save another life. As it is, they have struggled in vain to keep this mother from losing her newborn child.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(on camera): So, this is a society in total collapse. Civil society doesn't exist. The family structure has been almost completely devastated.

And in its deal on this war on terror, the U.S. and the international community have pledged not to turn away again from Afghanistan, and to help rebuild it. And those who watch Afghanistan and who know it well have said that if that doesn't happen, this will remain a fertile breeding ground for terrorism.

Paula.

ZAHN: Christiane, thanks so much.

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