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CNN Sunday Morning

Inside Afghanistan

Aired December 22, 2002 - 07:23   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.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: About this time last year, American-led military forces were blasting out caves in Tora Bora, Afghanistan, in the search for al Qaeda and Taliban holdouts. At the same time, Hamid Karzai was being sworn in as interim country leader.
It's been quite a year for that country, still in transition post-Taliban rule. We wondered, as the U.S. poises itself for another war with Iraq, what about Afghanistan and its people? How has war there hurt or helped? In a weeklong series we'll answer those questions. Here now, is the first part of my special look, "Inside Afghanistan."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD (voice-over): Rich in tradition and culture, this is also a nation accustomed to extremities -- harsh unforgiving winters, years of drought so severe native fruit trees no longer blossom, and this, majestic rugged mountains turn battlefields over 24 years; the fighting most recently involving U.S. and allied forces looking for al Qaeda and Taliban holdouts.

Fourteen months after the war on terrorism began, the thunder of artillery today silenced by blaring new signals of a rebirthing nation.

In the capital city of Kabul, around the clock gridlock, yellow cabs, dump trucks, overstuffed buses, and bikes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at the traffic...

WHITFIELD: Content with being stuck in the middle of it all...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

WHITFIELD: ... trapped in traffic, like everyone else here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the other hand, it is a problem.

WHITFIELD: Omar Samad (ph), information director of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This guy was just selling food, for example, and the other person is selling just one kind of fruit maybe.

WHITFIELD: On this day, he's our backseat tour guide, on the dusty streets of downtown Kabul. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Afghans have returned, are returning, or coming back, small businesses, are booming to the extent that right now, you cannot even find commercial space for storage or for offices. This is good on one hand; on the other hand obviously it puts a burden on the government and on the private sector to accelerate the rate of building housing and offices.

WHITFIELD: That, plus persistent post-war obstacles, like getting treated safe water flowing to the 87 percent of the population still without it. Getting electricity to more than 50 percent of households without it. Finding skilled laborers among the unknown number of unemployed. And then, there are health issues, like increasing respiratory problems, mostly caused by pollution from old diesel engines.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a major problem, and it's obviously a problem in other parts of the country also.

WHITFIELD: And it's evident, plus resources are drying up. Already most of the nearly $2 billion received from other nations and international groups spent on shelter, food, medical care.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But the question is -- where has this money gone, why do you not see it, why is it not visible? Why do the Afghans feel that nothing is really happening?

WHITFIELD (on camera): What are answers?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The answers are somewhat complex and technical.

WHITFIELD (voice-over): For one, he says, much of the international aid promised has yet to arrive, and some of the funds received should have been earmarked for job training, building more roads and infrastructure.

Now, some of the most disadvantaged before the war on terrorism began, unable to keep up with the pressures of progress; some falling even further behind. Begging a primary source of income among mostly uneducated widows, representing 60 percent of the nation's women. Their husbands among the war dead, buried in neighborhood cemeteries marked by rocks. Widows, like this woman, who immediately caught Omar's (ph) attention in a marketplace.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She said that she didn't have enough money to buy her daughter's medicine, and I just told her, well, people are poor, there's no doubt about that. .

WHITFIELD: In the crush of buyers and merchants in this downtown market, he says, it's been humbling. Returning to his childhood home of Kabul like other expatriates after living in Europe and the United States for two decades.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're coming back to the same situation. We're coming back to the same environment that they are living in, and we are breathing the same air, and eating the same food, and also dealing with the same rests (ph) that are surrounding that -- so, I think they appreciate that very much.

WHITFIELD: Among the triumphs appreciated in math, from Kabul to Kandahar.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Women, girls, you see women on the streets -- I mean, I came here last December, you could hardly see any woman that was unveiled. Now, it is just unbelievable how many there are women in offices working, teachers, university professors, lawyers, even women in the army.

WHITFIELD: Now, signs of rebuilding from the ground up -- one brick, one person, one step at a time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Up to 8,000 U.S. and allied troops remain stationed throughout Afghanistan 14 months after the war on terrorism began. Their primary mission -- peacekeeping. Tomorrow, I'll show you how a fiercely competitive survival of the fittest mentality is influencing this rebirthing country's economy.

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






Aired December 22, 2002 - 07:23   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: About this time last year, American-led military forces were blasting out caves in Tora Bora, Afghanistan, in the search for al Qaeda and Taliban holdouts. At the same time, Hamid Karzai was being sworn in as interim country leader.
It's been quite a year for that country, still in transition post-Taliban rule. We wondered, as the U.S. poises itself for another war with Iraq, what about Afghanistan and its people? How has war there hurt or helped? In a weeklong series we'll answer those questions. Here now, is the first part of my special look, "Inside Afghanistan."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD (voice-over): Rich in tradition and culture, this is also a nation accustomed to extremities -- harsh unforgiving winters, years of drought so severe native fruit trees no longer blossom, and this, majestic rugged mountains turn battlefields over 24 years; the fighting most recently involving U.S. and allied forces looking for al Qaeda and Taliban holdouts.

Fourteen months after the war on terrorism began, the thunder of artillery today silenced by blaring new signals of a rebirthing nation.

In the capital city of Kabul, around the clock gridlock, yellow cabs, dump trucks, overstuffed buses, and bikes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at the traffic...

WHITFIELD: Content with being stuck in the middle of it all...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

WHITFIELD: ... trapped in traffic, like everyone else here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the other hand, it is a problem.

WHITFIELD: Omar Samad (ph), information director of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This guy was just selling food, for example, and the other person is selling just one kind of fruit maybe.

WHITFIELD: On this day, he's our backseat tour guide, on the dusty streets of downtown Kabul. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Afghans have returned, are returning, or coming back, small businesses, are booming to the extent that right now, you cannot even find commercial space for storage or for offices. This is good on one hand; on the other hand obviously it puts a burden on the government and on the private sector to accelerate the rate of building housing and offices.

WHITFIELD: That, plus persistent post-war obstacles, like getting treated safe water flowing to the 87 percent of the population still without it. Getting electricity to more than 50 percent of households without it. Finding skilled laborers among the unknown number of unemployed. And then, there are health issues, like increasing respiratory problems, mostly caused by pollution from old diesel engines.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a major problem, and it's obviously a problem in other parts of the country also.

WHITFIELD: And it's evident, plus resources are drying up. Already most of the nearly $2 billion received from other nations and international groups spent on shelter, food, medical care.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But the question is -- where has this money gone, why do you not see it, why is it not visible? Why do the Afghans feel that nothing is really happening?

WHITFIELD (on camera): What are answers?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The answers are somewhat complex and technical.

WHITFIELD (voice-over): For one, he says, much of the international aid promised has yet to arrive, and some of the funds received should have been earmarked for job training, building more roads and infrastructure.

Now, some of the most disadvantaged before the war on terrorism began, unable to keep up with the pressures of progress; some falling even further behind. Begging a primary source of income among mostly uneducated widows, representing 60 percent of the nation's women. Their husbands among the war dead, buried in neighborhood cemeteries marked by rocks. Widows, like this woman, who immediately caught Omar's (ph) attention in a marketplace.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She said that she didn't have enough money to buy her daughter's medicine, and I just told her, well, people are poor, there's no doubt about that. .

WHITFIELD: In the crush of buyers and merchants in this downtown market, he says, it's been humbling. Returning to his childhood home of Kabul like other expatriates after living in Europe and the United States for two decades.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're coming back to the same situation. We're coming back to the same environment that they are living in, and we are breathing the same air, and eating the same food, and also dealing with the same rests (ph) that are surrounding that -- so, I think they appreciate that very much.

WHITFIELD: Among the triumphs appreciated in math, from Kabul to Kandahar.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Women, girls, you see women on the streets -- I mean, I came here last December, you could hardly see any woman that was unveiled. Now, it is just unbelievable how many there are women in offices working, teachers, university professors, lawyers, even women in the army.

WHITFIELD: Now, signs of rebuilding from the ground up -- one brick, one person, one step at a time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Up to 8,000 U.S. and allied troops remain stationed throughout Afghanistan 14 months after the war on terrorism began. Their primary mission -- peacekeeping. Tomorrow, I'll show you how a fiercely competitive survival of the fittest mentality is influencing this rebirthing country's economy.

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