PETER OBORNE
Kabul
The place to stay in Kabul is beyond a doubt the GarKlamack Lodge. It would be idle to pretend that it possesses all the creature comforts of the Paris Rio, but it is far more interesting. Until the fall of the Taleban. Osama bin Laden used it as home for his fourth wife and family. They all left suddenly in the middle of the night, and there is still an angry landlord next door who claims to be owed $500 in back rent by the bin Ladens. After their departure the property was acquired by the war cameraman Peter Jouvenal, a legendary Kabul figure. Jouvenal's many interests include collecting rusty weaponry — the room next to mine has an impressive arsenal of old guns, while propped up in the front hall there is an enormous single-barrelled Holland & Holland elephant gun. Picked up by Jouvenal in north Pakistan, it is soon to go for auction in New York, estimated value S60,000. I suggested there was a danger that someone might pinch this valuable item, but was assured that the thief 'wouldn't get through the front door'. After taking a look at the machinegun-toting guards at the entrance to the guesthouse, I felt no desire to test the proposition.
Jam here with the documentary film-maker Paul Yule. Last autumn Paul and I went to Zimbabwe together to produce a television programme showing how President Mugabe was starving his own people. Now we are making another Channel 4 film about the reconstruction of Afghanistan. It is a good time for a political correspondent to be out of London. Domestic politics is in hibernation on account of the war. Not even the Cabinet reshuffle cuts any ice. though it is worth bearing in mind that the shrewd appointment of Ian McCartney as Labour chairman means that Tony Blair will he able to shunt John Prescott aside sooner rather than later.
Qne of the many merits of the Gandamack Lodge is its very solid breakfasts, but even better is the company at the table. Everyone has a story to tell. There is a Zimbabwe lawyer whose job is to make the rules for next year's Afghanistan general election. Elections like this have not been held here before, and the reason is obvious. Most of the population live up the end of barely passable tracks, haunted by murderous bandits. There is, to put it mildly, a 'cultural problem' about letting women vote. No one doubts that on the day itself local gunmen will make sure that people vote the way the warlords want. Furthermore, there is some reason to suppose that whoever loses the election will promptly embark on civil war. Nevertheless, the election team plugs on manfully and one wishes them luck.
An Afghan journalist friend thinks that this attempt to impose Western values could turn out to he our undoing. He compares the situation to the arrival of the Soviets a generation ago. In many ways the Russians were very popular. They built schools, hospitals, roads and apartment blocks. But they threw all this popularity away by their half-baked insistence on Marxist land reform, which set all the tribesmen against them and led to the rise of the mujahedin. At the moment there is no doubt that the great majority of Afghans are grateful for the security that the American presence brings here. But demanding democracy, equal rights for women. etc. plays straight into the hands of the Taleban. 'We do not want to be told how to behave,' says my friend. To illustrate the point he adds, And I am not like most Afghans; I have travelled in the West and I like the West. But if I find out that my wife has an affair' — pause for dramatic effect — 'I kill her.'
The burka is still a common sight in Kabul and mandatory in many parts of the country. Paul Yule asked our driver if one could tell whether a woman was attractive under this forbidding disguise. The driver perked up at once. No question at all, he said. You could tell by the shape of their hands.
This is boom time in Kabul. Restaurants, all but unknown before, are starting to open up. An Iranian establishment which opened last week is extremely popular just now. The number of taxis in Kabul has risen from just 200 under the Taleban to the impossible number of 40,000 today. Of course, to judge the state of affairs by Kabul is
misleading. What matters is the rest of the country, and it is very hazardous to travel. We were planning to go by road to the old Taleban centre of Kandahar, but no one was prepared to make the journey with us. There have been eight hijackings in the last two months. Still dodgier is the Kandahar-to-Herat journey. This has been beset with hazards. Two American soldiers were shot dead this month by a motorcyclist who sped up alongside their vehicle, waved in a friendly way, then opened fire. But what has really shocked people is the horrible death of a Red Cross worker on a road just north of Kandahar. He was part of a convoy stopped by a group of 40 armed men. Each car and lorry was searched. Eventually the bandits came across one 'international', the Red Cross worker, who was from El Salvador but travelling on a Swiss passport. At this point the militia commander used his Thurayer satellite phone to seek advice in Pakistan. He then ordered the Red Cross worker into a ditch where he was executed. Most chilling of all, the commander in question knew exactly what the Red Cross was. The organisation had saved his life one year before. This intimidation has had an understandably electrifying effect on the international community in Kabul.
There is only one long-term solution to this kind of horror, and that is the Afghan National Army. President Karzai hopes that this new institution, now 4,000 strong, will supplant the numerous militias and private armies that presently control all the country beyond Kabul. Great confidence in the future of the ANA derives from the fact that a contingent from the Royal Anglian Regiment is training the NCOs. It was a real pleasure watching the British army turn this ferocious collection of former mujahedin and others into professional soldiers. Much less confidence, however, reposes in the officers. They are being made up by the French.
Ituned in to BBC World Service television in order to find the result of the Boat Race. The World Service does sport very fully. There were endless reports from minor British football leagues, a full account of the battle at the top of the Dutch Premiership, and a two-and-a-half-minute slot dedicated to an obscure international motorcycling contest, but nothing on the Boat Race. What is the point of the BBC World Service if it is incapable of providing the result of this cherished and thoroughly British occasion'?
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