00.00.01 View of Kabul
Boy singing with men playing instruments My God, why is Kabul being destroyed ? The shells and the rockets have left a city of ruins...
00.30 Map
00.39 Girl 1 crying, screaming in hospital with amputated girl
Girl 2 on bed It was nearly midnight when the rocket hit our house. My brother’s wife was injured, and he and his son were killed.The rocket came from the Taliban. I don’t know why.
01.12 Tank driving down street in ruins, boy on bicycle v/o
It’s hard to imagine a city which has suffered more then Kabul. Through 17 years of war, it has endured endless hardship, but today it’s facing what may be it’s darkest hour. Kabul is surrounded by an army of Islamic fundamentalists, the Taliban, committed to its takeover or its destruction.
01.48 People walking down street
Man 1 talking
They didn’t keep their word. They said they’d target military area, but now they fire at civilians. The rockets have been falling in this area - one just here. They’re hitting a lot of houses.
Man 2 talking
We thought the Taliban were good people - real Muslims. They are not the people that they seem.
02.23 Slow motion - man touching with his beard
v/o
The Taliban were widely as a quirky, naive movement when they first came pouring out of religious schools in the refugee areas of Pakistan. But they came armed with much more than just the Koran, fuelling accusations that the Pakistani military were providing massive support.
02.44 Secret film of Taliban
Last year I secretly filmed the Taliban when they took over Kandahar in Southern Afgahanistan.
Taliban leader
When someone steals with their hand, it should be cut off.
v/o
Within days they began to implement their version of Islamic law. Women were banned from the streets, games and music forbidden, and amputations dealt out for a random array of offences.
03.11 TV set hanging from tree Executed TV sets were fair warning that cameras and journalists were not welcome. Last October in a stunning advance, the Taliban army swept North towards the Afghan capital, Kabul.
Snow covered Minuet
03.38 Massoud walking out of doorway
The city’s last line of defence now lies with this man, Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Mujahadeen commander whose reputation reached almost legendary status in the war against the Russians.
03.56 Men galloping out on horseback
The world was fascinated by the hardy Mujahadeen who took on the might of the Russian army and won.
Massoud addressing his men
Massoud was their most charismatic and successful leader. An architecture student who turned scattered bands of fighters in his native Panjshir valley into an army to match the Soviets.
Guns firing across mountains
He became known to Russians and Afghans alike as the lion of the Panjshir.
Helicopters circling
04.31 Men standing up after praying
I was given rare access to Massoud as he prepares for the battle of his life. To the Taliban, the moderate Islamic state which Massoud fought for and now defends is simply not Islamic enough.
04.57 Interview with Ahmad Shah Massoud, Defence Minister of Afghan Government
The Taliban are narrow minded people. They know nothing of human rights or democracy. They do not accept any rights for women. In the provinces where they have taken power, they have closed the girls’ schools, closed the cinemas and smashed television sets. They even stopped ordinary games like football and volleyball. They claim these things are not Islamic. Without any real court or hearing, they’ve started to cut off people’s hands and feets.
Washing hands with holy waterEating meal
v/o
These men were the frontline troops in the West’s cold war with Russia. But when the Mujahadeen were finally victorious, international interest and funds evaporated almost over night. Today Massoud and his inner circle stand alone in a war that the world has forgotten.
06.15 DawnBabette Zaugg, Field Nurse, Red Cross entering hospital
06.43
Nurse Babette Zaugg
We have people getting injured in the market place, trying to do shopping, trying to find something to eat. Just a normal - what we would call a normal life - go out of your house, go shopping, take your bicycle and go to school and a rocket can hit at any moment.
By a girl’s hospital bed
The rocket came and hit the wall and all the pieces hit me.
Nurse Babette Zaugg
And this is a shell injury.
Boy in hospital
We went down to the river on our bikes. There were three of us. I was sitting beside the river when the shell landed.
Nurse Babette Zaugg
Most of the roads are closed, no supplies are coming in, people have a very hard time, so they send out their kids to find whatever they can find to eat., to cook, maybe to sell and there they step on mines.
07.35
Girl sitting up in hospital
I went with the other ladies to cut some twigs for the fire. As I went to hit the bush it just exploded. I was thrown a long way.
07.52 Soldier coming out of shelter, walking through trench
v/o
These soldiers are fighting with their backs literally to the wall. There is nowhere to retreat. The city’s suburbs lie just behind them.
Mark Davies (journalist) walking with two soldiers
The bitterley cold winter with temperatures as low as minus 20, slowed down the Taliban ground assault. It has given Massoud’s troops an opportunity to dig into camps around the city. The Taliban aren’t the first army in history to grind into halt in the snow.
08.47 Massoud getting into car
The winter hasn’t stopped the rockets but it has bought Massoud about a month to re-organise and he’s using every day like it’s his last.
Car drives off into desert
Men walking with Massoud
Massoud is charging from front to front for endless meetings with his commanders, preparing for the coming onslaught with ever dwindling resources.
09.32
Massoud at meeting table
Voice off Sir, it’s just not enough money...
Massoud You can see our problem. All of Afghanistan is in this position. If we go to see President Rabbani now to get 138 billion - he can’t even pay for 38 billion! He says “Check with the bank.” Two times he told me - “You know what’s in the bank - go and have a look. Can I pay anything from an empty pocket?”
Commander 1 at meeting
As long as the government can stand on its feet, we’ll be with you.
Massoud
When your enemy is defeated your name will be in history and your reward will be with God.
Commander 2
We’ll work without wages.
v/o
Over the next three days, Massoud virtually halved his troops in an attempt to create a smaller but tighter army. The type he had in his Panjshir days. Any soldier without a gun was dismissed. Divisions without firepower disbanded.
10.45 Massoud
It’s like this - bring to the depots anyone who commands a division - big or small. He must wait there for us. When we see his weapons then we will pay him accordingly. I am a generous person.
11.14 Jeeps and bicycle v/o
With virtually all roads into Kabul closed, food and fuel are running out and prices are sky rocketing. Even to a person who is lucky enough to have a job, this flour may as well be gold dust.
Old Man at market
Go to Macraroyn, my brother. Eleven people poisoned themselves there. They took rat poison.The baker refused a man some bread on credit. He went home and poisoned his children and then himself. Eleven people in one home.
12.08 Young man at market
Should I steal or rob? My children are hungry. I am looking for someone to lend me money. God help me!
Woman hanging out washing
12.29 Bob McGregor Red Cross / Red Crescent
What we are seeing here is clearly is a city of a million people or more starving to death. I mean - there’s no electricity, there’s no water, there’s no sewerage. Virtually every tree which was once on the hills of Kabul has been chopped down. People are burning furniture, chairs, tables. You look here and you see every window has been broken either by direct or indirect bomb blast. I mean - the pockmarks of all the bullets and the fighting which has ceased a few days ago.
v/o
Relief workers like Bob readily admit that the trickle of aid they can provide is just too little for too few.
Bob McGregor enters building, door opens, family inside
This couple are both blind, she by disease, he by landmine. Their son starved to death and their daughter was dying when Bob McGregor heard of their plight. But tens of thousands of similar families no one comes to help.
13.57 Husband
A man can’t leave his home to search for food for his children. People are terrified and frightened. If they hear a door banging, they think it is a rocket attack. They have lost their nerve.
14.17 Crowds waiting for food to be distributed
v/o
There’s more than a million people in Kabul and aid groups estimate that up to half of them are on the starvation line.
Food being unloaded from truck This food has been airlifted in to break the blockade. But it’s only enough to feed 10,000 widows. Many more who desperately need help get nothing.
14.56 Woman 1
They don’t call the names of the poor people. We are not on the list.
Woman 2
I swear by God, she has nothing to eat.
Man in dark glasses
My children are hungry. I have no fuel to warm us. Go to my home and see. I am blind. My family depends on me.
Woman 3
Our home is freezing. We have no fuel - nothing. My husband is very weak.
15.42 Interview with Massoud
The blockade has been implemented to break the resistance of the peole of Kabul. According to the information I have as the economic seige continues and the blockade tightens the Taliban will re-launch their attack as instructed by Pakistan.
Massoud touring round bombed out factory
v/o
Locked off from the world and without any major allies, Massoud is scrambling to re-arm in the next few weeks. Over the past month, bombed out factories have been converted into smelters turning scrap metal into mortars and guns. Bits and pieces from wrecked planes, bikes and cars are putting rusting Russian tanks back on the road. Another chapter in the Afghan tragedy is about to begin.
16.46 Massoud instructing his men
The government will help you with some arms. Raise a thousand men from each of your provinces. You’ll have one month. You’ll have one month to prepare your commanders and arrange your base. In one month your men should be ready to attack.
Kite flying in sky
The end of this freezing winter will bring some relief to the poor of Kabul. But the thaw will also bring new mobility to the Taliban army. To most of the world the prospect of Spring brings hope of renewal. To the people of Kabul, it holds a promise of yet more terror and death.
ENDS.
Boy singing with men playing instruments My God, why is Kabul being destroyed ? The shells and the rockets have left a city of ruins...
00.30 Map
00.39 Girl 1 crying, screaming in hospital with amputated girl
Girl 2 on bed It was nearly midnight when the rocket hit our house. My brother’s wife was injured, and he and his son were killed.The rocket came from the Taliban. I don’t know why.
01.12 Tank driving down street in ruins, boy on bicycle v/o
It’s hard to imagine a city which has suffered more then Kabul. Through 17 years of war, it has endured endless hardship, but today it’s facing what may be it’s darkest hour. Kabul is surrounded by an army of Islamic fundamentalists, the Taliban, committed to its takeover or its destruction.
01.48 People walking down street
Man 1 talking
They didn’t keep their word. They said they’d target military area, but now they fire at civilians. The rockets have been falling in this area - one just here. They’re hitting a lot of houses.
Man 2 talking
We thought the Taliban were good people - real Muslims. They are not the people that they seem.
02.23 Slow motion - man touching with his beard
v/o
The Taliban were widely as a quirky, naive movement when they first came pouring out of religious schools in the refugee areas of Pakistan. But they came armed with much more than just the Koran, fuelling accusations that the Pakistani military were providing massive support.
02.44 Secret film of Taliban
Last year I secretly filmed the Taliban when they took over Kandahar in Southern Afgahanistan.
Taliban leader
When someone steals with their hand, it should be cut off.
v/o
Within days they began to implement their version of Islamic law. Women were banned from the streets, games and music forbidden, and amputations dealt out for a random array of offences.
03.11 TV set hanging from tree Executed TV sets were fair warning that cameras and journalists were not welcome. Last October in a stunning advance, the Taliban army swept North towards the Afghan capital, Kabul.
Snow covered Minuet
03.38 Massoud walking out of doorway
The city’s last line of defence now lies with this man, Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Mujahadeen commander whose reputation reached almost legendary status in the war against the Russians.
03.56 Men galloping out on horseback
The world was fascinated by the hardy Mujahadeen who took on the might of the Russian army and won.
Massoud addressing his men
Massoud was their most charismatic and successful leader. An architecture student who turned scattered bands of fighters in his native Panjshir valley into an army to match the Soviets.
Guns firing across mountains
He became known to Russians and Afghans alike as the lion of the Panjshir.
Helicopters circling
04.31 Men standing up after praying
I was given rare access to Massoud as he prepares for the battle of his life. To the Taliban, the moderate Islamic state which Massoud fought for and now defends is simply not Islamic enough.
04.57 Interview with Ahmad Shah Massoud, Defence Minister of Afghan Government
The Taliban are narrow minded people. They know nothing of human rights or democracy. They do not accept any rights for women. In the provinces where they have taken power, they have closed the girls’ schools, closed the cinemas and smashed television sets. They even stopped ordinary games like football and volleyball. They claim these things are not Islamic. Without any real court or hearing, they’ve started to cut off people’s hands and feets.
Washing hands with holy waterEating meal
v/o
These men were the frontline troops in the West’s cold war with Russia. But when the Mujahadeen were finally victorious, international interest and funds evaporated almost over night. Today Massoud and his inner circle stand alone in a war that the world has forgotten.
06.15 DawnBabette Zaugg, Field Nurse, Red Cross entering hospital
06.43
Nurse Babette Zaugg
We have people getting injured in the market place, trying to do shopping, trying to find something to eat. Just a normal - what we would call a normal life - go out of your house, go shopping, take your bicycle and go to school and a rocket can hit at any moment.
By a girl’s hospital bed
The rocket came and hit the wall and all the pieces hit me.
Nurse Babette Zaugg
And this is a shell injury.
Boy in hospital
We went down to the river on our bikes. There were three of us. I was sitting beside the river when the shell landed.
Nurse Babette Zaugg
Most of the roads are closed, no supplies are coming in, people have a very hard time, so they send out their kids to find whatever they can find to eat., to cook, maybe to sell and there they step on mines.
07.35
Girl sitting up in hospital
I went with the other ladies to cut some twigs for the fire. As I went to hit the bush it just exploded. I was thrown a long way.
07.52 Soldier coming out of shelter, walking through trench
v/o
These soldiers are fighting with their backs literally to the wall. There is nowhere to retreat. The city’s suburbs lie just behind them.
Mark Davies (journalist) walking with two soldiers
The bitterley cold winter with temperatures as low as minus 20, slowed down the Taliban ground assault. It has given Massoud’s troops an opportunity to dig into camps around the city. The Taliban aren’t the first army in history to grind into halt in the snow.
08.47 Massoud getting into car
The winter hasn’t stopped the rockets but it has bought Massoud about a month to re-organise and he’s using every day like it’s his last.
Car drives off into desert
Men walking with Massoud
Massoud is charging from front to front for endless meetings with his commanders, preparing for the coming onslaught with ever dwindling resources.
09.32
Massoud at meeting table
Voice off Sir, it’s just not enough money...
Massoud You can see our problem. All of Afghanistan is in this position. If we go to see President Rabbani now to get 138 billion - he can’t even pay for 38 billion! He says “Check with the bank.” Two times he told me - “You know what’s in the bank - go and have a look. Can I pay anything from an empty pocket?”
Commander 1 at meeting
As long as the government can stand on its feet, we’ll be with you.
Massoud
When your enemy is defeated your name will be in history and your reward will be with God.
Commander 2
We’ll work without wages.
v/o
Over the next three days, Massoud virtually halved his troops in an attempt to create a smaller but tighter army. The type he had in his Panjshir days. Any soldier without a gun was dismissed. Divisions without firepower disbanded.
10.45 Massoud
It’s like this - bring to the depots anyone who commands a division - big or small. He must wait there for us. When we see his weapons then we will pay him accordingly. I am a generous person.
11.14 Jeeps and bicycle v/o
With virtually all roads into Kabul closed, food and fuel are running out and prices are sky rocketing. Even to a person who is lucky enough to have a job, this flour may as well be gold dust.
Old Man at market
Go to Macraroyn, my brother. Eleven people poisoned themselves there. They took rat poison.The baker refused a man some bread on credit. He went home and poisoned his children and then himself. Eleven people in one home.
12.08 Young man at market
Should I steal or rob? My children are hungry. I am looking for someone to lend me money. God help me!
Woman hanging out washing
12.29 Bob McGregor Red Cross / Red Crescent
What we are seeing here is clearly is a city of a million people or more starving to death. I mean - there’s no electricity, there’s no water, there’s no sewerage. Virtually every tree which was once on the hills of Kabul has been chopped down. People are burning furniture, chairs, tables. You look here and you see every window has been broken either by direct or indirect bomb blast. I mean - the pockmarks of all the bullets and the fighting which has ceased a few days ago.
v/o
Relief workers like Bob readily admit that the trickle of aid they can provide is just too little for too few.
Bob McGregor enters building, door opens, family inside
This couple are both blind, she by disease, he by landmine. Their son starved to death and their daughter was dying when Bob McGregor heard of their plight. But tens of thousands of similar families no one comes to help.
13.57 Husband
A man can’t leave his home to search for food for his children. People are terrified and frightened. If they hear a door banging, they think it is a rocket attack. They have lost their nerve.
14.17 Crowds waiting for food to be distributed
v/o
There’s more than a million people in Kabul and aid groups estimate that up to half of them are on the starvation line.
Food being unloaded from truck This food has been airlifted in to break the blockade. But it’s only enough to feed 10,000 widows. Many more who desperately need help get nothing.
14.56 Woman 1
They don’t call the names of the poor people. We are not on the list.
Woman 2
I swear by God, she has nothing to eat.
Man in dark glasses
My children are hungry. I have no fuel to warm us. Go to my home and see. I am blind. My family depends on me.
Woman 3
Our home is freezing. We have no fuel - nothing. My husband is very weak.
15.42 Interview with Massoud
The blockade has been implemented to break the resistance of the peole of Kabul. According to the information I have as the economic seige continues and the blockade tightens the Taliban will re-launch their attack as instructed by Pakistan.
Massoud touring round bombed out factory
v/o
Locked off from the world and without any major allies, Massoud is scrambling to re-arm in the next few weeks. Over the past month, bombed out factories have been converted into smelters turning scrap metal into mortars and guns. Bits and pieces from wrecked planes, bikes and cars are putting rusting Russian tanks back on the road. Another chapter in the Afghan tragedy is about to begin.
16.46 Massoud instructing his men
The government will help you with some arms. Raise a thousand men from each of your provinces. You’ll have one month. You’ll have one month to prepare your commanders and arrange your base. In one month your men should be ready to attack.
Kite flying in sky
The end of this freezing winter will bring some relief to the poor of Kabul. But the thaw will also bring new mobility to the Taliban army. To most of the world the prospect of Spring brings hope of renewal. To the people of Kabul, it holds a promise of yet more terror and death.
ENDS.