Soldiers preparing to leave Kabul

02:00

Campbell: Afghanistan may be at peace, but anyone leaving Kabul is advised to take protection.

02:08

Jack:

Campbell: Our supplies for the trip include assault rifles, grenade launchers, pistols and machineguns.

02:17

Campbell: Can you give us a run down, Jack, how many guys we have, what sort of weapons they have to protect us?

02:29

Jack

Jack: Well, we've got 12 guys with Kalashnikovs, RPGs, six extra rockets and a PK machine gun.

02:34

Campbell: Should be enough.

Jack: Should be enough.

02:41

Soldiers preparing to leave Kabul

Campbell: Okay.

Jack: But where I go to war, we bring a lot of bullets.

Campbell: Our convoy leader is a former special forces soldier who goes by the name of Jack.

02:50

Jack: We don't have time for another call, we are leaving right now.

02:55

Campbell: He's a civilian adviser to the Afghan military. Among his many projects is setting up a protection force for aid workers and journalists.

02:59

Jack

Jack: I think we could probably take out about 50 Taliban, as long as they have good direction in what to do.

03:10

Music

Car on road

Campbell: Our journey will be to the eastern city of Jalalabad, along the main route to Pakistan.

03:24

It's considered one of the most dangerous in the country, especially for westerners.

Music

Campbell in car

Campbell: We're now on the road where four journalists were murdered in November, including the Australian cameraman, Harry Burton. The war is now technically over, but outside Kabul, it's still unclear exactly who's in charge, who they serve, and what they might do. Travellers put their faith in God and the gun.

03:57

Narrow strip of road

The four journalists were murdered on this narrow strip of road about two hours drive from Kabul.

04:18

Campbell & Mahtabuddin

Mahtabuddin: We saw them lined up…

04:25

Campbell: Nineteen year old Mahtabuddin was in the same convoy in the car behind them. When he last saw them they were already doomed.

Mahtabuddin: They all standing like in a row, like this, and very shivering to the these cliffs, shaking hand, just saying hello. He throw a stone on her chest. She bent, when she bent, she was shoot with the rifle on her head.

Campbell: The rifle butt on her head?

Mahtabuddin: Yeah. And she threw down. She (?), I don't know what's going on. We escape at this time.

04:35

Campbell: You drove off at this stage?

Mahtabuddin: Yeah, yeah.

05:08

Memorial to the journalists

Campbell: Today, a small memorial to the journalists stands at the hotel in Jalalabad where they spent their last nights. Here, as in the rest of Afghanistan, the gun still rules.

05:09

Sami Ali

We've come here to meet one of the new generation of leaders.

05:22

Sami Ali is 22 and commands 600 men. The Taliban drove his family from power, but thanks to U.S. air strikes, they've resumed their position as the local strongmen. He claims to look forward to the day when he can put away his gun.

05:28

Sami: I would like to be a businessman. This is my country. People tell me to go to London… this country or another country – I’m not going anywhere. This is my country. If I am killed in my country I don’t mind. It would be good for me to become a businessman.

05:45

Sami’s army

Campbell: But there's no sign his men are preparing to become civilians. If anything they're being rearmed. Half his guards have just received brand new uniforms and boots from the U.S. Army. All of them have new state of the art weapons. Most of those from Iran. Both Iran and America are competing for the allegiance of the post-Taliban rulers, funnelling money and weapons directly to commanders or through their factions in Kabul.

06:05

Sami

Sami: I don’t know about this. It’s none of my business where the leaders got the weapons from. The leaders know about this. Whatever the leaders order, I do.

06:32

Sami’s family

Campbell: Sami has not become a commander because of military skill, but because of his family.

06:49

His uncle, Hazrat Ali, is one of the main commanders between the Pakistan border and the outskirts of Kabul. The area is very much his personal fiefdom. Over a cup of tea he told us the world should give generously to help it.

06:55

Hazrat

Hazrat: The hospital that I visited which has 10 to 15 people to a room, is in worse condition than the jail. The doors of the rooms are broken. People are sitting in cold rooms.

07:12

Campbell: But it seems there's always plenty of money for guns and land cruisers.

07:41

Campbell & Hazrat

Campbell: So these are new cars?

07:45

Campbell: Outside their house are two top of the range Toyota four wheel drives, just flown in from Dubai, at a cost of a hundred thousand U.S. dollars. The seats are still covered with plastic. Sami decides to take us all for a spin, an entourage of five cars following.

07:50

Sami in 4WD

Music

Campbell: This is a desperately poor country, ravaged by seven years of drought and two decades of war.

08:21

Music

Campbell: But commanders can always exact tribute from their subjects, or from foreign powers.

Having armed soldiers means power, money and respect. Sami took us to his family village to show how the Taliban tried to take it all away.

08:35

Sami’s village

Sami: I built these two houses. I brought the plans for these houses from overseas and they destroy them all.

08:51

Campbell: The Taliban swept away the old feudal order and its warlords.

08:59

Now the old leaders and their families are reclaiming the country for themselves.

Music

Commanders and party bosses

Campbell: These are some of the other men who now rule Afghanistan. They're the triumphant commanders and party bosses who opposed or recently split from the fundamentalist Taliban.

09:20

They're nominally loyal to the UN installed premier, Hamid Karzai, but they control political movements that have always fought for power with bullets. Just don't call them warlords.

09:32

Karzai in press conference

Karzai: Be sure that warlord-ism is over in Afghanistan. You may not see the signs, ma'am, but it's over. And we'll make sure that it's over. And there too is a good question you ask, we'll have the help of the United States to do that.

09:47

Campbell: Hamid Karzai is the public face of the interim administration, and a public relations dream. English speaking, articulate and modern, he gives the impression Afghanistan has turned its back on the old ways of violence and extremism. He's just what Afghanistan needs to keep the money flowing in.

10:02

Powell & Karzai

Powell: In keeping with American tradition, as the collection plate is passed, the United States will make a significant contribution.

10:24

Northern Alliance soldiers

Campbell: For many in the west, this has been a simple battle between good and evil. The Northern Alliance America's proxy in its crusade against terror.

10:34

Soldier: He wants to write 'long life mujahadin.'

Jack

Campbell: We first met Jack in the closing stages of the war at the al Qaeda stronghold of Tora Bora.

10:48

FX: Gun shots.

Campbell: Like many special forces veterans, Jack came out of retirement to be part of the U.S. campaign.

He's stayed on to help train Northern Alliance soldiers to fight any remnants of the enemy.

11:07

Jack: This is only the start. We have to train them and feed them or al Qaeda will come back in. So we're looking for a fight again. Yeah, they're coming back.

11:16

Campbell: Really?

Jack: I think so. You don't think they're going to run this fast and not come back and try to destroy this country again.

11:24

Campbell

Campbell: Many are hoping the end of this battle of Tora Bora will also mark the end of Afghanistan's near quarter century of fighting. But in a way it's hard to see, because while the Taliban and Osama bin Laden are gone, the conditions that first plunged Afghanistan into civil war are still here. Many of the warlords are back in power, including proxies of some of the butchers who massacred their own people. Building a true peace in this country and rebuilding it from the ruins of the last 23 years will be a harder battle than any of these men have ever fought.

11:31

Abdul Rasul Sayaf

Campbell: Some of the men in charge of rebuilding seem little different than the fanatics they've replaced.

12:06

Abdul Rasul Sayaf is a Northern Alliance powerbroker, and a self confessed fundamentalist. Like many figures in the new regime, he insists Afghanistan must continue with strict Islamic law, including stoning and amputation.

12:12

Super:

Abdul Rasul Sayaf

Islamic Unity Party

Sayaf: All of them want to live under the umbrella of Islamic Law. Therefore, there is no chance for any law, for any constitution, except Islam.

12:29

Campbell: Sayaf is revered by Muslim extremists around the world. The Islamic terrorist group in the Philippines, Abu Sayyaf, is name after him.

12:49

Sayaf: We stand against the Red Army. All the human beings were proud of our struggle in that time.

13:00

Archival: Shelling of suburbs

Campbell: But Sayaf's war continued long after the Soviets left.

13:21

His faction fought rival Mujahadin for control of the central government during a four year civil war. Sayaf's forces shelled entire suburbs, killing countless civilians.

13:28

Amnesty International accuses his men of widespread torture and murder. He denies all the charges.

13:45

Despite his armed militia and his fleet of Toyota Land Cruisers, he insists he's a man of peace.

Sayaf

Sayaf: I prefer to be a professor, lecturer in the university, than to be a soldier in the bunker. When we have a peaceful life, I will go back to the university.

14:04

Parliament Meeting

Campbell: The new government is a coalition of these once warring factions, with some émigré democrats tacked on.

14:24

Sayaf's party -- Islamic Union -- has two ministries, but he's demanding more seats when a tribal council meets in June to appoint a new parliament.

Sayaf

Sayaf: For the favour and for the rest of the nation, for the favour of the peace, we told okay, we should cooperate with this government, and we hope, we do hope, that these things will be repaired.

14:42

Music

Women in burqua

Campbell: The new authorities have removed some of the excesses of the Taliban's rule. Music can once again be played. Girls can go to school. Some jobs can be filled by women. But it continues to be a society dominated by rigid Islam and the constant threat of violence. Almost every woman still wears the head to toe veil called the burqua.

15:08

These women are school teachers, desperate to go back to work. Some fear the consequences of showing their faces now the old leaders have returned.

15:32

Woman in burqua

Woman: They may put acid on our faces, or abuse us so we haven’t removed our burquas

15:42

Women in burqua

Woman: They’re still affected by the Taliban. Under the previous mujahudin regime we lived in fear.

Woman #2: It wasn’t mujahudin.

Woman: Brother it was the mujahudin.

Woman #3: We were afraid that we would be raped and lose our dignity and our honour, because a lot of woman and girls were kidnapped and raped and we still have these fears in our hearts that we will be followed and kidnapped. That’s why we covered our faces.

Campbell: Sayaf claims women want to keep the burqua.

06:21

Sayaf

Sayaf: They like this. They like this. They see their honour in this. They see their dignity in this. They have chosen, they have chosen this for themselves.

16:24

Campbell

Campbell: And what about women working? Do you think women in the city should have jobs?

Sayaf

Sayaf: I think if you go to a society where Islamic law is implemented, then you will see the women, they have comfortable lives when they are not tired like other societies. They are not bothered by other societies. I think if you ask here the women here are so happy, so satisfied.

16:47

Music

Tracking shots through ruins of Kabul

Campbell: Afghans have learned to have low expectations of the men who lead them. Many dream of freedom, but most would settle for peace. We continued our journey through the shattered suburbs of Kabul to the devastated Shomali Plain.

17:34

Music

Campbell: The Taliban and Northern Alliance fought over this valley for five years, each side destroying its villages and peppering the land with mines.

17:53

Music

The mountains of the old Silk Road

Campbell: Out destination was the place where the Taliban's madness reached its climax. It is perhaps the most beautiful and most tragic place in Afghanistan.

18:08

It lies high in the mountains of the old Silk Road.

18:19

Music

Campbell in Bamian

Campbell: This is Bamian, one of Afghanistan's most ancient and isolated cities. Until last year it housed two of the world's greatest archaeological treasures -- until they were destroyed by the Taliban. Now, as much as anywhere, it encapsulates the mindless destruction of the past 23 years of war, and the shattered and divided society it’s left behind.

18:27

Archival: Destruction of the Buddhas

Campbell: The destruction of the Buddhas was only the culmination of the Taliban's terror. During a long siege, then a bombardment, they reduced the ancient city to rubble.

18:58

Inhabitants of Bamian

Today, the former inhabitants live in the caves beside the remains of the Buddhas.

They have brought all their meagre possessions, even their last livestock.

19:16

Kobra

Kobra bears the scars of the Taliban invasion. A deformed thumb from beatings and a torn earlobe from when the Taliban ripped off her earrings.

19:24

Kobra: We have nothing. Everything was burned by the Taliban. We are all poor people and we are farmers. The Taliban beat me and broke my thumb, and took my child from my arms and threw him away. Now he is paralysed. He is at home now.

Red Cross providing aid

Campbell: Aid groups like the Red Cross do what they can to stave off famine, but the aid is barely adequate. Many must travel for days by donkey to get food. And it's strictly rationed. Any who received aid before are turned away.

19:58

Kobra

Kobra: They pushed the door closed. I told them that this food is for us – for needy people like us.

20:19

Karim Khalili

Campbell: This is the man they turn to for help. Karim Khalili is the long strongman and another key member of the Northern Alliance.

His forces were also accused of atrocities in the civil war. But here too, foreign powers are competing for his allegiance. His soldiers have new American uniforms, and new Iranian weapons. Outside his compound, camera shy special forces soldiers wait their turn to see him.

20:39

Khalili: The number of troops is not very high. We have a group of eight Americans and four of five British troops. Since the Northern Alliance captured Bamian they have been engaged with aid distribution to civilians.

21:01

American troops at HA

Campbell: The American troops let us film a humanitarian aid drop, called an HA, on condition we not show their faces.

21:36

Eight pallets of aid were dropped from a darkened plane in the dead of night, amid near paranoid security.

21:48

The U.S. military handles the biggest aid drops in Afghanistan in total secrecy.

American: Not long ago, we had the largest HA drop in history. Right here in Bamian.

22:03

Campbell: Our presence here was not welcome. Early in the day, the same soldiers held us at gunpoint after we filmed their base. They erased our footage, but let us here as a trade-off.

22:19

The food and blankets don't go to aid groups like the Red Cross or World Food Program. The U.S. military gives it all to the local strongman.

It takes just one glance at the blankets in his compound to see that some of the aid stays with him. The rest would be useful to any strongman trying to entrench his position in the new Afghan order. Every day, the poor and hungry come to beg Khalili's assistance.

22:48

Man

Man: We have 60 crippled people who were disabled after they were stuck in the snow. I hope first in God and then in you. If no-one helps us our life will be even worse so now we have come here to ask for your help.

Music

Afghani people in village

Campbell: In the war on terror, even aid has become a political tool for propping up America's preferred regime -- a regime representing men who were once called warlords.

23:34

The West has fought hard to make itself safe from Afghan terror. It seems the warlords will now be left to rule in peace.

23:50

Credits:

Afghanistan

Reporter: Eric Campbell

Camera: Sebastian Phua & Michael Cox

Editor: Stuart Miller

24:18