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CNN Sunday Morning

Mourners Pay Respects to Slain Afghan Vice President

Aired July 07, 2002 - 10:05   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: Now to Afghanistan where mourners are paying their respects to a slain vice president. Haji Abdul Qadir was gunned down yesterday outside his office in Kabul. Today he's being laid to rest after a prayer service.

CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is in Bagram. Actually he will be coming to us -- he is back. Nic Robertson live from Bagram. Nic, what's the latest?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, Haji Abdul Qadir has been laid to rest in his hometown in the east of Afghanistan -- Jalalabad. He was buried in a plot immediately next to his brother, Abdul Haq, who was killed by the Taliban last year.

When his coffin, we are told, was lowered into the grave, seven shots were fired over the grave.

As he was taken to the grave site his coffin was strapped on the back of a gun cortege and it was followed by some 300 or so soldiers marching along behind his coffin on the gun carriage.

Now to get there he had been flown by helicopter from Kabul.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Wrapped in the Afghan flag, Haji Abdul Qadir's flower-strewn coffin is borne shoulder high by relatives beginning the former warlord's final journey home.

Crowds gathering around government helicopters watched as his body was put aboard for the flight to Jalalabad and burial in his native eastern Afghan stronghold.

Earlier, amid tight security, government ministers and several thousand well-wishers gathered at Kabul's main Ega (ph) mosque to hear funeral prayers.

Overhead a helicopter of the international security and assistance force, ISAF, kept watch supplementing protection provided for dignitaries by Afghan forces on nearby rooftops.

Investigations into Qadir's assassination are still ongoing. The government blames terrorists, however, much as Qadir had a popular following among some in his ethnic Pashtun group, he had made many enemies in his years as a warlord.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A national figure who has a history of struggle for freedom and independence in the country also has enemies.

ROBERTSON: While ISAF forces here are supporting government investigations, spokesmen for the 4,000-man Kabul-based peacekeeping force are clear they bear no responsibility for the minister's death.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ISAF's mission is to assist the transitional authority in maintaining security. It is not our main mission -- it is not our responsibility for providing loss (ph) protection to persons.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON: Just how politically destructive is Haji Abdul Qadir's death proves to be is not yet clear. But what is clear from people in Kabul -- they say if he can be gunned down in broad daylight in the middle of the city then -- such an important and influential minister -- then what hope is there for security for normal Afghans -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Nic Robertson live from Bagram. Thanks, Nic.

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