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Afghanistan -- Where there is Nothing Left that's Worth Bombing
September 18, 2001

The hardline Taliban, hailed as liberators after the endless Afghanistan civil war, have taken the country back to the Dark Ages.

There is little to bomb in Afghanistan that has not already been destroyed, aid workers have warned.

There is little electricity, no money, no television and no music. Illiteracy is rife and the road system is virtually non-existent.

About a quarter of the nation's 23 million inhabitants are on the verge of starvation.

UN aid worker Tahir Mohammed (31), said: "It is a brutal place. One of the Taliban leaders said there was nothing in Afghanistan worth the price of a single American missile and he was right."

The fundamentalists who now rule Afghanistan have cut the country off from the outside world and banned anything they view as un-Islamic.

Men must grow beards and women must wear a veil at all times or face a lashing.

So-called criminals face being shot in the back of the head in Kabul's football stadiums. Thieves have their hands cut off. Women can be stoned to death for adultery.

Girls are forbidden to attend school and the only jobs available to women are in the health sector.

Hindus, who make up just 1% of the country's population, must wear a yellow badge on their clothing.

It is reckoned that 85% of people in Afghanistan earn a living from the land.

But four years of drought have driven many across the borders or to the refugee camps near the country's major cities.

Dominic Nutt, an emergency worker for Christian Aid, said: Ten years of Soviet occupation and four years of drought have crippled Afganistan.

"Malnutrition and disease are rife in the camps. At one camp, whose name in the local language means 'slaughter', it was estimated 40 children a day were dying.

"Before at least some food was getting through to these camps, but with the closure of the borders and the threat of air strikes, this food is now drying up."

Life in the major cities, like the capital, Kabul, or Kandahar, is not easy.

The buildings bear the scars of two decades of strife and the few vehicles make their way slowly along the potholed streets, which are patrolled byTaliban soldiers armed with Kalashnikov machine guns.

Children in the countryside are almost all illiterate.

Boys in the cities receive some education, being taught hardline Islamic fundamentalism, while girls are virtually forced to remain behind doors.

Mr Nutt said: "A country without education is storing up even more trouble for itself.

"To develop an economy you need children being educated now so you can reap the benefits in the future.

"Life was already intolerable.

"War will make the situation a thousand times worse."
(Source)
Sabawoon Online, © 2000
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Dan