Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Some of Damage Done by Taliban May Be Difficult to Reverse

Aired March 25, 2002 - 07:40   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: Turning now to the war in Afghanistan. The Taliban have been driven from power, and the interim government this week reopened some schools to women. And some of the damage done by the Taliban may be far more difficult to reverse.

You might remember a year ago this month, the Taliban ignored pleas from around the world and destroyed two 1,400-year-old Buddhas, because they called them "an affront to Muslims." It took only a day to attach the explosives to the pair of historic Buddhas, and only a few seconds to reduce them to rubble.

And CNN's Nic Robertson has made his first trip to the Bamiyan Valley, site of the Buddhas, and he joins us now -- good morning, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. One of the first things that surprised me when I came here, I was told that these two Buddha statutes -- and if you look over my shoulder, you can see all that remains of them. The one that we are looking at here was a statute of a Buddha woman, and further along the mountainside is a statute of a Buddha man. But in between those statutes as well are children -- Buddha children. Those were also destroyed by the Taliban, because they said that they were un-Islamic, because they represented the human form.

But the Taliban's destruction here went way beyond these Buddhas. If you look at the foot of the hillside there, you can see caves. Now, there are actually people living in those caves, and the reason they are living in those caves is because the Taliban destroyed their villages in the outlying areas. Some 1,200 families are now living there, and they say they can't go back to their homes. They are completely destroyed.

Now, we are over 8,000 feet up in the mountains here, and it gets extremely cold at night. And the people in these caves tell us they don't have windows, they don't have doors and many of them are without blankets. We were up there today, and they are literally cooking and doing their washing and laundry right on the mountainside.

Now, there isn't malnutrition, international aid officials tell us, and there is plenty of food getting into the city and this region in general. This community is a Hazara, an ethnic Hazara community. They make up, they say, about one-fifth of the population of Afghanistan. They say they want a bigger political representation inside the interim government. But for the people who are living in these caves in the mountains here, what they really want, Paula, they say is just to be able to go back to their homes. They want the international community to step in and help rebuild those homes in the outlying communities here. Then, they say they can get back to their farming, which is their way of life. And of course, stuck in these rocky outcrops here and the freezing temperatures at night, they are just not able to do that -- Paula.

ZAHN: So, Nic, it's one thing to rebuild the homes; it's another thing to attempt to rebuild these monuments. Is there any plan to try to reestablish what once stood?

ROBERTSON: Well, UNESCO has tried to protect some of the rubble remains of these Buddhas. They put some tarpaulins over some of the larger boulders, but the majority of the actual original stonework is gone. There is nothing there. There has been talk of raising international funds to help reconstruct. Japan has offered to put forth some money, as well as other countries.

Some experts are gathering now in Kabul for a conference on fixing a lot of the religious sites around Afghanistan that have been damaged over the years. Of course, the Buddhas are one of those. But to reconstruct them the way they originally were would be tremendously difficult. There is nothing left to pick up and put back essentially on the hillside.

This area was once an important area for tourism going back 20-25 years before the fighting here began. If the Buddhas were reconstructed, people here think that perhaps that could bring the tourists back in. And this area of Afghanistan in the central highlands here, about 100 miles northwest of Kabul, is perhaps the most beautiful that I have seen around the whole country.

It is truly spectacular, and perhaps reconstructing those Buddhas would encourage tourists to come back here when -- maybe when the country is safe and secure. Certainly the people here hope that that would be another element that could help revive their economy -- Paula.

ZAHN: Yes, you have talked about the importance of making the commitment to this area, if these people are going to get back up on their feet. Just some personal reflections as you had the opportunity to talk with the folks that live in these caves and areas so decimated by the Taliban.

ROBERTSON: Their problem, they said, is that they can't go home, because they don't -- they say they just don't have the wherewithal to go back to their houses. Many of the houses we have seen have been reduced to rubble or perhaps the roofs are missing. There is just a wall standing. They say they need the roofs, they need the doors, they need the windows and they need all the utensils you have in a home.

Now, international aid organizations are in the city. They are working in the hospital. There are books appearing now in the schools for the children as they go back to school, but nothing is yet happening for the people in these caves who houses have been destroyed.

Now, this is a symptom of problems all across Afghanistan. This community here is the Hazara community. They are an ethnic group that make up perhaps one-fifth of this country, and they were a different type of Islam to the other Sunni Afghans here, and they feel that that's why the Taliban picked on them particularly violently, and that's why their plight is perhaps worse -- is perhaps one of the worst of all of the communities here -- Paula.

ZAHN: Thanks, Nic. We really appreciate that update. It's fascinating being able to revisit that site -- thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.