Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Sunday Morning

Some Tribal Leaders Throwing Support Behind Taliban

Aired September 30, 2001 - 11:53   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: As President Musharraf has repeated for the past two-and-a -half weeks now, he has supported the U.S.' position right now. But he also continued to walk a very fine line in his own country. And as CNN's Mike Chinoy now reports, some of Pakistan's tribal leaders are throwing their support behind the Taliban.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is a wild baron place with the hills of Afghanistan stretching into the distance, where the border is porous the tribal people who live here have longstanding ties with blood and ethnicity on the other side of the frontier.

(on-camera): This is Moman (ph), one of the many tribal areas straddling Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. So lawless, the government's authority doesn't extend beyond the checkpoint behind me. On the other side, a region that presents President Pervez Musharraf with one of his biggest security headaches.

(voice-over): Ciabal Hach (ph) is one reason why. He's the leading Mullah (ph) in Moman (ph). His goal is to create a Taliban- style system in Pakistan over the government's objections.

"The Taliban have established a true Islamic state in Afghanistan," he says, "We want the same system not juts here in the tribal areas but in the whole Islamic world."

Virtually all the people in Moman (ph) are members of the Pashtun ethnic group, like their cousins across the border. According to Ciabal Hach (ph), they will join in a Jihad, a Holy War if Pakistan backs a U.S. military strike on Afghanistan.

"We will consider a U.S. attack on Afghanistan to be an attack on all Muslims," he warns. "If the government gives bases to the U.S., then there will be no president in Islamabad. The people will revolt and overthrow him."

These are not idol threats. Almost everyone in this area owns a gun. Tribal chieftains move around with armed bodyguards. You can buy a weapon as easily as a cup of tea.

Hakim Gull (ph) is going a roaring business these days, preparing and selling firearms of every conceivable type and there are hundreds of other gun shops like his, catering to a fiercely independent people who have gone about their lives for generations, resisting all outside authority.

And while the Mulls (ph) talk of Holy War in an area, a wash and weapons, outside the mosques, on the streets, many Moman (ph) residents seem less than eager to take up arms for Afghanistan.

Take Mir Ebrahed (ph), he's a trader with business interests on both sides of the border. Like many people here, he knows how to move back and forth while evading the authorities. He's just brought his stock of oil out of the Afghan city of Jilalibad (ph) for safekeeping. For Mir Ebrahed (ph), Holy War is bad for business.

"Most traders have business interests in Afghanistan," he says, "We need peace to run our businesses. If there's war, we have to worry about disorder and looting. It'll make life very tough."

Maybe it's the damage from the last Afghan war. Villagers still pick over Russian shell casings brought form across the border for scrap metal. Or perhaps just being fed up, having to live so close to conflict for so many years. But her in Moman (ph), it seems the calls for Jihad are colliding with a deep-seeded desire just to live a normal life.

Mike Chinoy, CNN, Moman (ph), Pakistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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