Hope Rising from the Ashes

Tuesday, July 2, 2002

Torn by war for 23 years, Afghanistan can be likened to the biggest war museum in the world. Shells of tanks, land mines and the rubble where houses once stood are scattered along the Kabul-Salang Pass route. A large number of the 26.8 million inhabitants live on just two or three slices of bread each day. Only one cause for hope has been pinned upon the government led by Hamid Karzai: that there be a feeling of peace. With peace, the people in this landlocked country are beginning to tidy up. However slow, the wheel of the economy is turning once more. Girls have even mustered up the confidence to attend school. This is the report of TEMPO's Bina Bektiati, who visited Afghanistan recently.

. tempo : 173510802445.

QUEUES of gypsy-like trucks and buses fill the street near the Torkham gate, the city on the borders of Pakistan and Afghanistan. When the 20-meter-wide gate is opened, at precisely 8am, refugees shout enthusiastically and the uniquely Pakistani-style vehicles rumble noisily across the border.

A hard-faced official conducts strict checks of groups and large vehicles carrying refugees back to their own homeland. "Taleban?" he asks

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