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01.00 | Pictures start |
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01.05 |
| Afghanistan and still the scene of one of the world's bloodiest conflicts. Scores of men, women and children are killed each day in battles between the Taliban and rebel forces. |
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01.35 |
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| I want it to be peaceful again in my country. I've had enough of this war! |
01.57 | ITW Yasmina Sharifi, headteacher at Taloquan primary school |
| Women and girls want peace and security. The war is exhausting our children. |
02.08 | ITW Major Ahmad Shah Massoud
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| I want peace for my country too. I want to be the leader, the Muslim who is able to bring peace to the region. The war is no good to anyone - it's useless. |
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02.40 | Views of town | This is Rostaq, close to the Tadzhiskistan border, it's one of the few remaining towns in Afghanistan not under Taliban rule. It's controlled by the rebel leader Major Ahmed Shah Massoud, a formidable military chief who continues to oppose the Taliban command in Kabul. The market town with 40,000 inhabitants it's become a safe haven for Afghanis escaping the advancing Taliban forces. |
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03.13 | Market GV's | Because of Rostaq's geographic isolation it's a town which has preserved its medieval Muslim character. And although the town has never been subject to the ravages of war, its people are in an economic wilderness. |
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03.30 | Market GV's | 20 years of fighting has reduced the population to living on the breadline. With the war just a stone's throw away few provisions can get through. Now there are major food shortages and the people are suffering. |
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03.52 | ITW Knife-seller in the market
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| ‘Since the war started, I haven't been able to sell my knives and earn my living. At the end of the month, I only have 5000-10000 Afghanis. What can you do with that?' |
04.04 | Man counting money | 5000 Afghanis is the equivalent to about 4 dollars, a miserly sum considering a family in Afghanistan needs at least 10 times that amount for a decent standard of living. Although there's local produce for sale, few Afghanis can afford it. |
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04.21 |
| And as long as the conflict continues the influx of refugees looking for work multiplies daily. |
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04.31 | ITW Kassim, refugee engineer in Rostaq. |
| ‘In the territories occupied by the Taliban militia, they establish how many people live in each area using mollahs, which are population figures. This census allows them to enrol 16 men per area and per mosque whenever they need to. I didn't come here to join Massoud's forces. I just came to work. I think that my future as an engineer is here, if freedom of speech and actions come back to Afghanistan. I want to work for my country freely. But if the military pressure continues, I want to leave Afghanistan.' |
05.24 | Outside butcher | He's not alone, the poverty and lack of jobs has driven thousands to flee their homeland for work in the west. |
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05.34 |
| Besmellah, like so many other afghans was lucky to find a way out. He works as a chauffeur for an international organisation and receives around 150 dollars a month enough the allow him to own a 2 room house, which he shares with his 4 children. Even so his family are still living under severe hardship. |
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05.58 | ITW Besmellah, chauffeur |
| ‘At the moment, my children go to school, and the hospital is still open , but there's a lack of medication, because it never reaches us. Our children and our sick are not properly cared for. But the other daily problem is food - we don't have enough of it.' |
06.35 | Children | Schooling highlights one of the major divides between the Taliban fundamentalists and the rebels. Here under the liberal Afghan system, girls are allowed to go to school, a rare privilege especially since so few children receive an education. Although schooling is officially free in Afghanistan only about one child in a hundred goes to school. |
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07.02 | School playground | In Rostaq it's better than average with over 650 children attending this school, a little over one per family. But with the influx of refugees the classes are swelling and the teachers are struggling against the odds. Their modest monthly salary of 7 dollars hasn't been paid for several months. |
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07.30 | classroom | Islam is so entrenched in Afghanistan that even in a secular school the Koran is revered. The teacher has asked his pupils to read from the holy scriptures. |
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07.45 | Boy at blackboard | 'The Koran is the book of God'. ‘We believe in the Holy Book' 'And we are in a secular school! |
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07.55 | ITW Yasmina Sharifi, headteacher at Taloquan primary school
| This woman is a primary school headteacher in Taloquan, a town to the south of Rostaq. She's trying to encourage the children and staff to take pride in their school again, but it's not easy. The girls' school has just reopened after it was closed down by the Taliban. Although Massoud's rebels have reclaimed the town and liberated the school the constant upheaval is taking its toll. |
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08.25 | ITW Yasmina Sharifi
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| You know this dirty war has been going on for twenty years. It's taken our young people away, who were the pride and joy of the country. Women and girls, young and old have died, and many are in exile.
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08.45 | ITW Yasmina Sharifi |
| Yet despite all that, some day when peace and quiet prevail children who are thirsty for knowledge will come here to study. |
08.55 | ITW Yasmina Sharifi |
| Not everyone has taken up arms in our country. Some are fighting and some want to learn. Women and girls want peace and security. The war is exhausting our children. They were afraid as soon as they heard the first kalashnikov shots. In order for our children to learn, the UN needs to bring back the peace. |
09.16 | Children & teacher | This brave teacher will say no more - the Taliban could return anytime. |
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09.27 | Military truck
explosion | It takes ten hours by truck to cross the 150 km which separate Taloquan from Rostaq. The few vehicles which cut through the region have to use impossible mule tracks and river bed channels to navigate. The road network is either completely destroyed or mined.
Sifting the earth sometimes uncovers surprises such as these unexploded bombs. |
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10.00 |
| Everything that's found on the roadside is used for rebuilding. The shells are used to reconstruct the same roads they were supposed to destroy. |
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10.12 | Children with water | These dusty tracks are also home to the trail of supplies which are usually carried by children to farms several kilometres away. Although it can be dangerous they have a crucial role in carrying a precious supply of water into an otherwise arid desert. |
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10.34 | Flocks of sheep | Flocks of sheep and long-haired goats can also be seen on the trail. Legend has it that in north east Afghanistan this long-haired variety originates from the legend of the golden fleece, because they can be used to recover the gold which abounds in these parts. But such prosperity is long gone. |
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11.00 | Interior pharmacy | With each year the life expectancy in Afghanistan reaches new lows. The health of the nation is rapidly deteriorating. Although Taloquan's pharmacies may seem fairly well stocked none of these shelves contain basic medicines. |
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11.23 | Exterior hospital | They can only be found in the Medecins Sans Frontieres, hospital pharmacy, and then only in insufficient quantities. |
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11.38 | Baby girl | Each year 268, 000 children under the age of five die uncessessarily of diseases which with the right medicine are simple to control. And in this desperate climate infant mortality rises. Here it is 30 times higher than in western Europe at 163 deaths per 1000. Each year more than 8000 patients are hospitalised in Taloqan. The most serious injuries are from the war. The Taliban wounded as shown here are still treated by the doctors without being ostracised despite the turmoil they have caused the medical staff during their relentless assaults on the town. |
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12.28 |
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| ‘My name is Mallah Nematollah, I was injured at Takhart. Will you fight with the Taliban afterwards? No, no.'
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12.41 |
| The doctors will not easily forgot the weeks of fundamentalist army occupation.
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12.47 | ITW Dr. Wofi, surgeon at the Taloqan hospital.
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| As a general rule we didn't have any particular problems after the Taliban arrived. But they did cause difficulties when it came to the women. This was because of their general policy. The Taliban consider the duty of women to be separate from that of men. Some of our doctors therefore couldn't treat women as freely as they can today.' |
13.33 | ITW Dr. Aziza, gynocologist, Taloqan hospital.
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| ‘The difference between the period of Taliban occupation and now is enormous. Under the Taliban, women were unable to come for a consultation without being accompanied by a man, which is not easy for a female doctor. Apart from that they used to stop us and beat us up. Every day we lived with this obsessive fear. We were not able to freely practice our profession. If a woman came into casualty, the theology students wouldn't let her into the hospital. She would stay in the street, and I couldn't go near her.
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14.10 | Militia on guard | Being only 5 kilometres from the frontline, the distant dull rattle of artillery means the people of Taloqan live constantly to the rhythm and pulses of the war. |
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14.25 | Busy market | Despite the constant tension, life here buzzes with an unexpected air of normality. People get by as best they can for a town in the centre of a region which has seen some of the conflict's most viscous fighting. |
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14.51 | CU guns Strapped to backs | The numerous militia are indicative of the region's struggling economy. Each soldier receives a dollar for every day spent at the front line.
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15.10 | Political gathering | Just a few metres away from the bazaar, in a lavish setting Major Massoud is receiving guests. The rebel leader knows that he won't be able to conquer the fundamentalists with only his Tadjik forces. He needs to gain support from district mayors, neighbouring clans. So he plays the role of an intermediary moving between meetings to listen to the region's power brokers.
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15.40 | WS men sitting | The recapturing of the town has enabled him to remove all risk of isolating his Panshir valley, and to secure crucial delivery routes with Tadzhiskistan. What he has to do now is form a united front with clans which were formerly enemies.
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16.00 | Group walking | In the evening, Massoud takes his staff and other key figures to a hilltop to survey the town's defence lines.
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16.10 | Off: Major Ahmad Shah Massoud:
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| ‘If you take up your positions here and fire in this direction, no Taliban will be able to touch you.'
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16.19 | WS town
explosion | It was a brief meeting, as fighting resumed a few hours later. The Taliban launch an attack 5 km away from Taloqan.
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15.33 |
| After this initial surprise flurry, Massoud 's forces organise their counter offensive. While the population prepares to flee from another battle the soldiers make their way up to the front to defend the town from their trenches. |
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17.00 | Men looking up | Often the only sign of fighting in this drawn-out civil war is the Taliban planes, flying stealthily above them to attack the front line.
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17.10 | Anti aircraft fire | The Taloqan people observe the sky as if they were watching a display. But then the reality of fighting strikes home. The taliban planes begin to target the town.
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17.24 | Civilian crowds | The first bomb hits the wasteland of a residential area. Luckily there are no victims, but five houses are seriously damaged.
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17.30 | 2 men inside house | This house in the suburbs has been blown up and its eight occupants killed. Some neighbours remain in a state of shock. The aftermath of a bomb is a solemn reminder that the war in Afghanistan like all wars has the greatest impact on the population.
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18.00 |
| At the hospital, amidst the sound of wailing, dead or injured civilians are brought in on carts. Their mutilated bodies a stark realisation as to severity of fighting. |
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18.18 | People looking | As people look on they help but remember their own dead killed during the twenty years of war.
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18.34 |
| As other carts arrive it's clear that children have also been killed in the latest round of bombing. During the course of the war between 300,000 and 400,000 children have lost their lives. |
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18.50 |
| A Pakistani vehicle seized from the Taliban carries the bodies of Massoud's rebel soldiers killed at the front line. They were taken prisoner early this morning by the Islamic militia are executed in cold blood by a Taliban major. They're bodies are laid in a makeshift morgue. Such atrocities are undermining the local people's endurance for the continued fighting. |
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19.25 | Taloqan inhabitant |
| ‘I'd like my country to be at peace again -
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19.31 | Taloqan inhabitant |
| I want it to be quiet again in my country - I've had enough of this war! |
19.37 | ITW Major Ahmad Shah Massoud
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| ‘I want peace for my country too. I want to be the leader, the Muslim who is able to bring peace to the region. The war is no good to anyone - it's useless. There's no doubt that the Afghans are tired of this long war. Every Afghan is demanding peace, but peace with freedom and pride.
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20.00 | Solders on hillside |
| For us as well as the Taliban, if we want the country to regain peace, if we want to find a solution for Afghanistan, the best form of peace is to go to the nation and allow the Afghan people to choose their own destiny in a democratic manner. The only way to find a solution for the Afghan problem is through elections.
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20.25 |
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| In the same way we defended ourselves against the Soviets, we are obliged to defend ourselves against Pakistan. We have to rise up and resist them. I consider this war to be for the national liberation of my country. |
20.42 | Man opening garage | The attack on Taloqan has left 55 dead and 100 injured, but it hasn't been a bad day for Major Massoud. His forces have managed to halt the taliban's advance and capture a number of militia. |
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20.58 | CU Prisoner | Here are fourteen of them, four of them are Pakistani.
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21.08 | Chains removed | The camera's presence encourages Massoud's men to remove the irons which are chained to the prisoners' feet. |
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21.16 | Men entering container | These men will be sent to a detention centre before being exchanged for rebel prisoners. But nothing in this war is clear cut. Fighters frequently defect to the opposing forces maintaining the conflict's long uncertainty. Here 12 majors have just left the Taliban camp to rejoin the ranks of Massoud's rebel army.
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21.45 | Night gathering | After making them wait Massoud receives them in the early hours of the morning. He'll use this opportunity to de-brief the soldiers. In order to save their necks, they claim they chose their moment to defect. When the rebel forces arrived in their village they could leave the Taliban and rejoin the famous Massoud.
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22.18 | Woman on road | The next day, the fresh bout of bombing has convinced some women to take their children and leave Taloqan. Heaped awkwardly into one truck their destination is uncertain.
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22.40 | Two women | But many women decide to stay, there's little for them anywhere. There are 97,000 war widows in Afghanistan and they live in the utmost misery struggling from day to day to make ends meet.
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22.51 |
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| It's like this - one day we eat and another day we don't. If I buy clothes, I can't feed my children. If I feed them, I can't dress them - that's life. |
23.04 |
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| I make stuffed pastries and chickpeas, and my children try to sell them on the market. I have pawned my house to survive, and came here to seek refuge. My husband wasn't even a rebel, but a delivery man in the town. He disappeared when the Taliban were chased out.
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23.26 | MS women | Nozi believes her husband was murdered by the Taliban. She has a message for the outside world. |
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23.33 | Nozi |
| I want to send our greetings to the French women, and ask them to help the Afghan women who are just like their mothers and sisters.
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23.44 |
| In recent years there have been few concessions given to the rights of women whether under rebel or Taliban command. The iron rule of the Islamic fundamentalists makes the tchadri compulsory and women are unable to go out of their houses without wearing it. The conservatism of this region adds to the weight of tradition in this male-dominated society.
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24.09 | ITW Dr Aziza |
| ‘No, I don't accept the tchadri. I wish I could be free like I am at work, and could walk about in the street or market like that.' |
24.28 | Nozi
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| 'Now that I'm old, the tchadri is a good thing for me (laughs).
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24.35 |
| The touch of irony is light relief from what most women really think of the tchadri. |
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| Nozi |
| They have to get rid of our tchadri'' |
24.47 | Street GV's | The following day, a Taliban retreat, returns life here to some sort of normality. The famous Taloqan cameras reappear on the streets and public speakers begin to harangue the crowds once more. Since September 1996, the civil war has claimed the lives of 20,000 Afghans, three quarters of them civilians. An airlift is organised. Major Massoud's helicopters evacuate the injured and bring in new weapons, according to some observers, kalachnikovs from Iran, and mines.
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25.35 | Youths playing volleyball | But the war here has been going on for so long that some of these men have never lived without it. For them the war is in their blood.
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25.53 |
| Near Massoud's headquarters, his men are giving prayers to Allah just as the Taliban are a few kilometres away. A shared God in the face of a divided land.
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26.08 | Ends: |
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