This piece was shot during a one week driving from Peshawar in Pakistan to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan mid-October, 1996, after the  Taliban-militia conquered Kabul and during the latest round of fighting.

The piece tells stories of individual Afghans, living in the villages along the road, about the Talibans who came with peace, and the former heroes, to Mujahedeen, who turned to villains. In Kabul a woman and her daughter explains the terror of the Talibans at great personal  risk, a Judge in Islamic Law (sharia) quote the Koran and curse Satan, and a medical doctor returns to Kabul, only to find his old home in ruins- And the Afghans hope of getting peace, seems as far away as ever.

(02.02 -- BORDER):

Afghanistan begins where a modest string divides the country from neighbouring Pakistan to the east and the south.

(02.16 BOY)

This is the road to Kabul, the road which countless warlords and armies have fought over for centuries. Now Afghans are fighting Afghans to control the old caravan-route.

(02.28 BOY)

This is a road cutting deep through wild mountains and hostile deserts, and passing gentle and fertile steppes -- a road for modern-day transportation as well as transportation of the past.

(02.41 -- CARAVAN)

This time of the year the caravans are trekking south, away from the north before the ice-cold winds and temperatures of the Afghan winter freeze the county.

(02.51 -- CAMP)

Nowadays the caravans camp close to the road -- mines have killed too many camels, goats and people since the Afghan tragedy began.

(02.59 WATER).

Here, along the streams and narrow rivers, the harvests are rich.

(03.10 -- DIGGING)

In some places the' peasants harvest three times a year... poppy for opium, coal, wheat, and sugar cane.

(03.20 - CATTLE)

But the last years have been tough, especially the last four. The heroes, the Mujahedeen who threw out the Soviet invaders, turned into villains.

03.27 -- INTERVIEW: FARMER, -- GULRAEUM)

"THE MUJAHEDDEEN HAD A CONTROL-POST AND A CHECKPONT HERE. THEY CONTROLLED THE ROAD. WE KEPT OUR HARVEST HERE. SOMETMES THEY CAME TO HARRASS US. WHEN THEY LEFT IT WAS PEACEFUL"

(03.50 WOMEN)

It was the Talibans who made peace here, and the fact that they enforced tough and prohibitions for women's behaviour and decrees for men, is not considered any problem out here.

(03.57 INTERVIEW: FARMER - GUL RAHIM)

"WE, TOO, WANT ISLAMIC LAW, AND TO GROW BEARDS AS PROPHET HAS RULED. WOMEN SHOULDNT LEAVE HOME. IT DOESN'T LOOK PROPER. THIS IS WAY WE LIKE IT.”

(04.15 ROAD)

And the Talibans, armed with weapons, quotations from the Koran and their conservative decrees on proper behaviour, conquered region after region with unexpected speed.

(04.23 RICKSHAW)

The provincial capital Jalallabad, halfway between the border and Kabul, was conquered in September - almost without firing a single shot. The Talibans got their way by handsomely bribing the officers of the Mujahedeen-forces -- never really anything but a rif-raf of former militia-officers and their private warriors.

(04.41 --NTERVIEW: DAULAT KHAN, Medical Student, JALLALABAD)

"PREVIOUSLY, THE PRESSURE ON WOVEN WASN'T SO HEAVY. NOW THEY HAVE MADE IT DIFFICULT FOR THEM. BUT IN JALLABAD, THE TALIBAN STARTED SOLVING THE PROBLEMS WHICH WERE THERE. THEY (THE TALIBANS) TOOK THE WEAPONS AWAY FROM THE IRRESPONSIPLE ELEMENTS (THE MUJAHEDDEENS), WHO HARRASSED PEOPLE. THAT LEAD TO PEACE AND ORDER IN THIS PROVNCE SO THAT PEOPLE COULD GO ON WITH THEIR WORK, NOW IT IS A PEACEFUL CITY',

(05.11 )

In Jalallabad, as in the rest of South-Eastern Afghanistan and the Northern Pakistan the population is 'Pashtu", a proud and energetic people, with its own language, own tradition, an inbread animosity and distrust towards the variety of Other peoples and tribes of Afghanistan. The Pashtuns have through history controlled both values and power for long periods.

(05.31--1 STREET-SCENES)

The Soviet invasion in 1979 however, tied the many peoples of Afghanistan together in an alliance against the common enemy from the North - the Soviet army, The road from Jalallabad tells its own story about the fighting then - and the fighting after the Soviets were thrown out.

(05.42- ROAD)

Not a square-meter of asphalt is left of what was the highway to capital. First Soviet bombs, rockets and mines made their impact. Then new bombs, new mines, new rockets, used by the Afghans themselves took care Of the final destruction. With the defeat of the common enemy the victorious Mujahedeens returned to centuries of traditional internal warfare. The former heroes timed against each other in ever changing and unpredictable alliances, this time, however, armed with the modern equipment.

(06.02 TOWARDS A WATERHOLE)

Years have past since any Afghan government offered just the slightest basic assistance to a needy and often desperate population. The outside-world did step in — when the interest and focus was there. But foreign money has only been a trickle.

(THROUGH WATER)

Western countries have provided aid to the Afghans - mainly however, the the six millions refugees, scattered in the Afghan borde-areas, and inside Pakistan and Iran.

For years, Afghanistan has been a basket case. Dozens and dozens of intonational aid organizations work in the country. Lately most organizations have withdrawn their expatriate staff.

(06.25 REPAIRING ROAD)

But foreign aid doesn't destroy private initiative along their road. Children and people with no others means of survival repair the road here and there expecting a tip from drivers, who prefer to get their cars and trucks through the bumpy road shape.

This road is the economic life line to Kabul...originally built by the United States during the Cold War when the great powers competed for favours in this strategic country.

(07.01 BENZIN)

There is not a single 250-kilometer road from the border. Gas is supplied from Pakistan in canisters.

(07.14-JEEP)

Support for the Taliban is also said to come from Pakistan as the Mujahedeens got it before the Talibans. Pakistan denies this, but no Afghan believes that the young students of the Koran (Taleb meaning person who attends a school for the mullahs singlehandedly are capable of fighting regular battles - and win over seasoned warriors.

We do, however, only SEE very few Talibans south of Kabul these days. The Talibans have gone to the capital consolidate their new-gained prize and defend it against the coalition of the former Government-troops and the war-lord Dostums well-organized and -trained Uzbeks from North-West.

(07.42 ROAD/CONTAINER)

Kabul to say, however, not much more than a heap of ruins and a mountain of human misery

The capital was destroyed long before the Talibans entered the city. The industrial sector lies like a shallow shell, deserted and the tens-of-thousands of workers long gone.

The new masters are hard to engage in talks about the future. The Talibans are hostile to foreigners and especially the press. There are, however, exceptions. This biking Taliban and his passenger, who happened to be a judge in the Islamic Court, offered these remarks:

 (08.02 INT. WITH JUDGE KABUL)

THE JUDGE: “YOU TELL HIM!”

MAN: “NO YOU DO, PLEASE, YOU KNOW MORE ABOUT IT.”

JUDGE: “IN THE NAME OF GOD, I GREET THE PROPHET, AND I CURSE SATAN.

YOU ASK ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE HOLY STUDENTS (THE TALIBANS) AND THE MUJAHEDEENS. THERE IS A GREAT DIFFERENCE. THE TALIBANS FIGHT FOR GOD AND PEACE, AND TO REMOVE ALL OTHER PARTIES (GROUPS)”

VOICE OVER: AND COMMENTING ON WHY GIRLS ARE NOT ALLOWED TO ATTEND SCHOOL, HE SAID:

“WHEN NORMAL CONDITIONS RETURN, THE WOMEN WILL ONCE MORE BE ALLOWED TO RECEIVE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION”

(08.55) Again Kabul is the prize for this this wartorn country's warlords. Since the Talibans conquered Kabul, the forces loyal to the former leader Massoud and his new ally, the Uzbek Dostum have fought north of the city, and the Talibans are on the defense.

Their initial success made them arrogant. They wanted more than Kabul. They wanted the whole country. As often before in Afghan conflicts, former enemies/turned allies. Massoud and Dostum joined forces to beat back the Talibans who have vowed to fight to the very last in the ruins of the capital.

(09.26) Because Kabul is not much more than  heap of ruins, a paralysed capital where 50.000 have lost their lives, tens of thousands survive as cripples and where hundreds of thousands are homeless.

(09.38) One homeless man is Jallal Atmar, an Afghan doctor, who fled to Pakistan with his family to return only a few days ago to see his family-home.

(09.47) INTERVIEW; JALLAL Medical doctor,

"FOLLOW ME .. I WAS BORN IN THIS HOUSE AND WE STAYED HERE UP TIL THE LAST FOUR YEARS WE THE MUJAHADEEN COME INTO KABUL AND UNFORTUNATLEY THIS AREA WAS THE FIRST PLACE THE MUJAHADEEN WAS INVOLVED IN BATTLE WITH RASHID DOSTUM'S FORCES. THE BATTLE WAS SO HEAVY AND THEY USED HEAVY GUNS AND CANNONS. FOR THE FEW DAYS IT WAS VERY DIFFICULT TO COME OUT OF ROOMS. WE STAYED IN BASEMENT FOR ABOUT THREE DAYS AND NIGHTS, THEN WE COULD SEE A LITTLE OF WHAT WAS GOING ON OUT HERE. AT THAT TIME WE SAW MANY OF OUR NEIGHBOURS WERE KILLED, PEOPLE WE KNEW AND WE BURIED THE FAMILY MEMBERS IN THEIR HOUSES. FOLLOWING THAT THE AREA FELL TO RASHID DOSTUM PEOPLE WHO WERE ACTUALLY CAN SAY THEY AREN'T AFGHANS. THEY ARE WILD PEOPLE AND THEY DO NOT SPARE ANY DISCRIMINATION TO THE LOCAL PEOPLE THEREFORE WE ESCAPED FROM THIS AREA, LEFT EVERYTHING HERE AND I MANAGED TO GO TO PESHAWAR.

(10.46)

REPORTER: "WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO YOUR FAMILY?"

ATMAR: "FOR INSTANCE TWO OF MY BROTHERS WERE JAILED DURING THE KARMUL GOVERNMENT - WHEN WAS KARMUL WAS IN POWER – TWO OF THEM WHO WERE MEMBERS OF A STUDENTS UNION, WERE IN JAIL - ONE FOR SIX YEARS, THE OTHER FOR ONE YEAR. FOLLOWING THAT THEY LEFT FOR PESHAWAR AND THEY TREAT PEOPLE AS A WILD ANIMAL DOES.'

REPORTER. "SO PEOPLE WERE HAPPY WHEN THE TALIBAN CAME?"

ATMAR "FOR A WHILE YES BECAUSE THE TALIBAN COULD BRING PEACE HERE BUT AS YOU SEE THEY HAVE IMPOSED SOME LAWS ON PEOPLE AND AGAIN PUT THE PEOPLE IN TROUBLE FOR EXAMPLE FOR THE WOMEN WHO MAKE UP THE MOST ACTIVE PART OF OUR SOCIETY.”

 (11.40) The Taliabns armed with their quotations from the Koran and their Russian Kalashnikovs, have forced the old 'tough and conservative pashtun-village-justice over the capital - which they call Islam: You can’t hear music anymore in Kabul. Audio-tapes are confiscated and "executed", as Talibans call it in public squares -- like TV-sets, called "satan-boxes" by the Talibans. Movie-films are burned.

(12.08) The new code and behaviour has led to desperation for thousands and thousands of families. Kabul has sustained more than 30.000 war-widows, of whom more than a hundred thousand people depend on. Now they are not allowed to go to work anymore

(12.30) We found a former teacher in this housing project, a widow, one of the very few women who dared to speak out – and needless to say, anonymously

(12.35) INTERVIEW, WOMAN

WE AREVERY UNHAPPY THAT THEY HAVE ARRIVED THIS CITY. IT IS NOT ONLY ME, WHO FEELS THAT. AT LOT OF OTHERS FEEL THAT. WE HAVE THEM. I WENT TO THE CITY ONE DAY FOR SHOPPNG. THEY BEAT ME WITH THE RIFLES EVEN THOUGH I WOREMY VEIL LIKE THIS. THEY TOLD ME TO COVER MY FACE TOTALLY.

(13:04) She is one of the teacher's five children. The other day the Talbinas beat her up in the street:

(13.08) INTERVIEW DAUGTHER AND MOTHER.

DAUGTHER: "THEY ASKED, WHY ARE YOU OUTSIDE? YOU HAVE TO BE AT HOME!

WHY DO YOU RIDE A BIKE? THET IS PROHIBITED ACCORDING TO ISLAM!

MOTHER: ONE DAY I BOUGHT MEAT IN THE BUTCHER-SHOP. IT COST 15.000 AFGHANI PER KILO. THE GOOD COST 16.000 AFGHANI AND THE BAD MEAT 15.000 AFGHANI PER KILO.

WE BOUGHT THE GOOD MEAT, EVEN THOUGH IT COST A THOUSAND EXTRA. AT THE BUTCHER THERE WAS A SPY FOR THE TALIBANS. HE ASKED, WHAT WE HAD PAID. 1 SAID 16.000. THEN HE LEFT. A LITTLE LATER A TALIBAN SHOWED UP AND ASKED THE BUTCHER FOR THE PRICE OF THE MEAT.

HR ANSWERED 16.0OO

THE TALIBAN SAID: "WE HAVE FIXED THE PRICE AT 15.000”, AND HE CONTINUED:

"PUT YOUR HAND HERE",

THEN HE CHOPPED OFF FOUR OF THE BUTCHER'S FINGERS.

(13.59) The daughter is not allowed anymore to go her high-school — only boys are allowed that privilege, and only after being frisked.

(14.08) The University of Kabul is closed - like the Economics Department.

(14.12) And the economy is the crux of the matter for most Afghans. The mere survival is a constant struggle. Inflation is outpacing the value of the Afghani. The little you could get on the market, gets less and less by the' day. One single egg costs 20 percent of a construction worker’s daily salary -- if he has one.

(14.30) The International Red Cross is supplying emergency-relief and the lines of women waiting grows faster than the lines of men — we not allowed to film the women.

(14.45) In Kabul's famous tea-houses the latest rumours, brought by the bazaar-wind, from the front, from Talibans, from those in power - here every little single piece of information is turned and twisted in the hope of finding just a little piece of good news, now when the artillery - salvoes from the battlefields north of the city, once again echo through the night.

Sipping their small cups of tea in these tea-houses, the various people of Afghanistan - the Pashtuns, the Uzbeks, the Tadjiks, the Hazaras - here they chat. Outside the tea-houses they fight, as they have done for centuries.

(15.08) And the Pashtun-Talibans are nervous, not to be able to defend the capital against the combined forces of the Tajik Masoud, the Uzbek Dosttun and the Hazara Karim Khalili. In a split second the calm vanished the other night, during one of each day's many power-cuts....

(15.18) GUNFIRE…

(15.24) It was not fighting. It was Talibans shooting in the air to celebrate the arrival of re- enforcements from the south.

(15:31) DE-MINING

A million Afghans have lost their lives during 17 years of war, Land mines – or rather, the ones who lay the mines, are responsible for many of the deaths.

Land mines fare still being searched for - with dogs and with electronic equipment. We are at one of the roads leading to Kabul...lethal until just a few days ago.

Just in this spot, a dozen mines are found daily - anti-tank mines, anti personnel mines and unexploded granates. So far, this team of Afghan de-miners, supported by the UN, cleared a one-metre wide area along both sides of the road. Many thousands of un-exploded mines lie hidden a few meters away, waiting for their victims. That's between 30 and 40 per day.

Before they start their dangerous work as de-miners, they receive 2 months of training.

Last week, one of the de-miners lost his left leg. The team never start its work before nurse and para-medics are ready - just in case.

NTERVIEW: MAHMOOD De-mining director

"ONLY FOR DAYS WE FIND 12 ANTI-PERSONNEL MINE AND 10 ANTI-TANK MINE."

REPORTER:  “Is THIS AREA ALSO COVERED WITH MINES?"

HAMAYOON: "YES SIR. THEY SET THE MINES IN ALL THIS AREA AND ALSO AFTER THATCOLUMN - ALL OF THIS AREA YOU SEE HERE - OF MINES.”

Each day, land-mine victims are taken to the hospitals -together with victims of the war, fighters as well as civilians.

The medical staff works over-time as the Taliban have ordered most of the female employees to stay at home.

The Taliban have relaxed the rules a bit, though - after their own casualties have grown.

Most heart-breaking is the children's ward. There, few of the patients will ever regain their entire mobility. Mine victims.

C17. 37)

INTERVIEW WITH FATHER (anonymous) (17:37):

FATHER: THE POOR THING WAS ON HIS WAY TO SCHOOL, AS HE PICKED UP A BALL-PONT-PEN FROM THE STREET, IT EXPLODED AND HE LOST HIS EYES AND DESTROYED TWO OF HIS FINGERS".

That is the kind of tragedies the de-miners to prevent in the future...BUT:

(17:58)

"WE PULL OUT 20 - SORRY - 12 ANTI-PERSONNEL, P-MEN 2 MINES FROM THIS COLUMN AND WE PUT THEM ON THE WALL TO CALL THE ALL THE PEOPLE TO DESTROY THESE MINES OR TO SHIFT THEM FROM THIS AREA TO THAT PLACE. BUT UNFORTUNATELY, THE OTHER PEOPLE COME AND TAKE OUT ALL THESE MINES AND CARRY THEM AWAY BY THEMSELVES."

REPORTER: 'THE OTHER PEOPLE BEING THE TALIBAN?"

HAMAYOON: '-YES SIR YES SIR. THEY TELL US WE NEED THESE MINES AND THEY CARRY THEM WITH THEMSELVES."

REPORTER: "WHAT DO THEY NEED THESE MINES FOR?"

HAMAYOON: "MAYBE THEY WILL SET THEM OFF IN OTHER PLACES FOR THE PROTECTION OF THEIR SECURITY, FOR SAVING THEMSELVES."

REPORTER: "BUT HOW DOES IT FEEL AS A PERSON RISKING YOUR LIFE DOING THIS KIND OF WORK AND THEN SOMEBODY JUST PICKS THEM UP TO USE IN ANOTHER PLACE?"

HAMAYOON: 'WE HAVE PROBLEMS WITH THESE GUYS, BUT WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH FORCE TO FIGHT WITH THESE GUYS OR TO SAY SOMETHING ELSE. IF WE DO THEY WILL PUNISH US. WE HAVE TO SAY 'OKAY, YOU CAN CARRY THESE"'

V/O. That is one of the absurdities of war.

INTERVIEW JALLAL ATMAR, Medical doctor (19:16)

THE PROBLEM WITH AFGHANISTAN IS SO COMPLICATED AND THERE ARE MANY INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FORCES INTERESTED IN AFGHANISTAN AND THEY DO ANYTHING ACCORDING TO THEIR OWN WISH AND ACCORDING TO THEIR OWN BENEFIT. THEREFORE FOR THE PRESENT I AM NOT SO HOPEFUL OTHERWISE IF THE UNITED NATIONS DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE PEOPLE OF AFGHANISTAN, SURE WITH SOME TYPE OF SYMPATHY… OTHERWISE I AM NOT SO SURE THE FUTURE WON'T BE AS DARK AS IT WAS IN THE PAST?'