AFGHANISTAN: Five years after the 9/11 attacks in the US, Afghanistan struggles to find way

Life is grim when you can't pay the rent on a scorpion-infested cave, there is no job in sight and desperate people are waiting to take your spot. As Afghanistan struggles to rebuild five years after the September 11 attacks and the fall of the Taliban, hundreds of families are trapped in a sprawling web of caves in the lush Bamiyan valley, surrounded by stark, desert mountains and famous for two giant Buddhas blown up in 2001. 50 year-old Abdullah, who lives with his nine family members in one of the caves near the destroyed Buddha said his family has no shelter, so they cannot live anywhere else other than the caves. "Our life is the same it hasn't changed at all. We never received help from the government nor any foreigners, so we have no choice other than living in these caves and nobody is asking us what we need," said Abdullah. Five years on, Bamiyan is both a symbol of the progress that has and has not been made in Afghanistan. Bamiyan has Afghanistan's first and only woman governor and is trying to rebuild a tourist trade. But it remains desperately poor, dragged down by what some believe is the failure of President Hamid Karzai and his Western backers to kick start a non-opium dependent economy. With the Taliban and other militant groups at their strongest since 2001 and opium production soaring to record levels, widespread violence is blocking efforts at economic development. Habiba Sarabi, the governor of Bamiyan, said she is not happy with the process of reconstruction going on in the country because it has been over shadowed by alleged corruption in the government and international community which is trying to help rebuild Afghanistan. "The process of reconstruction in Afghanistan, this process is very slow the corruption is everywhere not only among the Afghans but I think among the international community also the amount of money which is promised for Afghanistan it is sometimes of course the half or we can say 50 percent of them will go back to their country," said Sarabi. The building of the first big shopping mall in Kabul is seen as one of the signs of the progress Afghanistan has achieved in the last Five years. Many men and women covered with Burqas and bared faces visit the mall, most of them happy with the changes happening in the country. "September 11th attack changed our lives. The Taliban were overthrown from power which paved the way for us to move forward in life," said school teacher, Nassema. During their five-year rule, the Taliban barred women from going outside without a male escort and from most work. Girls' were denied education. The Taliban staged public executions, banned music and cinema because they were deemed un-Islamic. But many are not happy with the international and Afghan government -led reconstruction process in the country. Some analysts believe with the process of reconstruction had not been effective. Hamidullah Tarzi, a leading academic, writer and former cabinet minister, says what reconstruction has taken place has done little for ordinary people. "There has been reconstruction, but not a positive one it has not been going on in a way to benefit the common people. There is no job, no shelter for people and most of people who have come from Iran and Pakistan are now leaving the country again," said Tarzi. In the cliffs of Bamiyan, all the safe caves are full, sometimes sleeping more than 20 head-to-toe and side-by-side on threadbare carpet. Chunks of rock fall from the bare ceiling and walls and scorpions infest every crack. "We are not happy nothing has changed for us. We are living the life we had and nothing has been done for us," said Abdullah. It's a dusty, filthy life with dung from donkeys, calves and goats littering the paths and lying outside the oven-like caves.

ITN Source | September 9, 2006

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