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CNN Saturday Morning News

Kabul Stadium Once Again Used for Soccer

Aired December 08, 2001 - 07:12   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: There are more signs of new life in Afghanistan. A soccer game in Kabul. It's the soccer field the Taliban used as their public execution ground.

CNN's Harris Whitbeck with the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wednesday afternoon at Kabul's national stadium, a soccer match between the top two local teams well under way, and drawing quite a crowd. The crowd and the players seem pleased to be here and pleased to be at a game they know won't be interrupted for the administration of Taliban justice.

"No, no, I couldn't bear to watch it," says Saidul Jum (ph), a football player who on at least three occasions had to stand by as Taliban police led convicted thieves to the field, then surgically amputated their hands or feet.

(on camera): A routine, friendly football match like this one, interrupted and turned into one of the grisliest expressions of the Taliban's interpretation of Islam.

(voice-over): Stadium officials say dozens were executed and hundreds more punished on the soccer field by the Taliban. Doing it in public was a way of warning the population of the price of breaking the law.

So was leaving the evidence in sight.

Football coach Zaid Mahsiam Masari showed me the exact spot where the punishments took place -- center field, where everyone could see.

"One morning I came out here, and there was a big barrel on the field," he says. "It was filled with amputated hands and feet. The teenage players out for morning practice were so upset they could not continue playing."

How, then, to erase the grisly memories from a place built for sportsmanship? "We have to get support for a sports program," he says, "have resources to train our players and to send our young people abroad to see how other sportsmen in the world play, because for five years," he says, "my players were in darkness." The new sports authorities have begun by erasing the official name of the Taliban regime from the stadium wall. Erasing the memory of what happened inside will likely take much longer.

Harris Whitbeck, CNN, Kabul, Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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