Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Sunday
Rebuilding Afghanistan Will Be No Easy Task
Aired December 16, 2001 - 17:48 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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: The oppressive weight of the Taliban has been lifted from the Afghan people, but the burden of rebuilding could be just as heavy. ITN's Tristana Moore reports from Kabul.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TRISTANA MOORE, ITN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Taliban are no longer to be seen. The talk of peace now in Kabul. We went to the city's main bazaar today to meet the money changers. For them, business has never been better.
(on camera): Yesterday, I exchanged some money, and it was worth 35 cent. Today, it's 32 cents. And what is your rate?
(voice-over): The Russians are now helping to print the national currency, the afghani, which economists say has stabilized. But there are still daily fluctuations. As a parting gesture last month, the Taliban plundered more than $5 million from the central bank.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The afghani is down. There's no agriculture, no industry to speak of here. We fought more than two decades of war. Many people have no jobs. It's little surprise that the currency has lost its value.
MOORE: At Kabul telephone exchange, United Front, or Northern Alliance, soldiers took up to the nerve center of operations, a room buzzing with activity. The Germans donated this phone system 50 years ago, and it has survived repeated bombings. Today, only half of Kabul residents can make a call, and even then it's pretty unreliable. The engineer told us that it often takes him more than an hour to phone a local number.
And what about the postal service here?
(on camera): Well, I have come to the only post office in town, Baksar (ph) Speedy Post, to see if I can send this letter.
(voice-over): There is no state-run post office in Kabul, only this privately run company, which ironically was set up by the Taliban.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All government offices right now, they are not operated. We are picking up from here and from our sources to Pakistan, we are sending to England. MOORE: Almost two-thirds of power lines in Afghanistan don't work. In Kabul, there are daily power cuts. At the city's biggest sub station, Abdullah Sultani (ph) told me he hasn't been paid for six months. The United Front hasn't been able to give him a salary either.
Half of the buildings in Kabul were destroyed in the civil war of the early '90s, hardly surprising then that many institutions barely exist. With four million Afghans living in exile, including doctors and teachers, the new interim government needs massive foreign investment, but must also involve Afghans themselves in rebuilding their country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It needs security as a precondition for that, and it needs a lot of resources, and it needs somehow to have this delicate sense of Afghan ownership for the whole process. And it's going to be very difficult to weigh a lot of conflicting issues as we move forward.
MOORE: With the fighting in Kabul now over, many refugees are starting to come back, occupying ruined houses. Fazia (ph) lives her with her husband and four children. She says food is still expensive and water supplies erratic.
"I want my children to become doctors, engineers or teachers," she says. "They must go to school."
After a month of power in Kabul, the United Front claims life is improving for Afghans. Major public works programs are already under way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Our first priority is to rebuild the roads in Afghanistan. We have started working on the road from Kabul to Mazar and Jalalabad. Then, we will able to link up all the big cities.
MOORE: A third of all Afghans depend on food aid for their survival. These women in Kabul have been waiting for three days to get their 50 kilos of wheat. Despite talk of liberation now that the Taliban days are over, the women are still wearing their burkahs, and many don't have any jobs.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We've suffered so long under the Taliban, I couldn't go out and work. I'm a teacher, but I have no job. Why should I be forced to queue to get food?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I see my people here, I became very unhappy. If our country has enough (UNINTELLIGIBLE), many -- our people never came here for 50 kilos of WFB. This is not (UNINTELLIGIBLE) people.
MOORE: The World Food Program is now organizing the biggest distribution of aid in Kabul, but outside the capital many Afghans have still not received any food at all, because roads are blocked by bandits and warlords. Rebuilding Afghanistan will depend on the ability of the interim government to maintain law and order, as well as the long-term commitment of the international community.
Tristana Moore, Channel Four News, Kabul.
(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
