Military

DATE=1/14/02

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

TITLE=AFGHANISTAN / CRIME

NUMBER=5-50868

BYLINE=ALISHA RYU

DATELINE=KABUL

INTERNET=

CONTENT=

VOICED AT=

INTRO: In Afghanistan, the government's effort to stabilize the country

is being severely undermined by a sharp increase in crime and lawlessness. As V-O-A's Alisha Ryu reports from the Afghan capital, Kabul, many people are demanding a larger international troop presence to protect them, even as some government officials insist the situation is under control.

TEXT: In a cramped room at the Wazir Ahkbar Khan hospital in downtown

Kabul, a doctor is tending to a patient whose story is becoming familiar in

this city of one million.

/// ABDULLAH ACT IN DARI EST. AND FADE UNDER ///

"Abdullah" which is not his real name flips off the blanket covering him

to expose a fresh bullet wound to his leg. He says he got the wound while

struggling with a gunman who tried to rob him and steal his car. Abdullah

does not want to identify his attacker nor does he want to reveal his real

name. He says it would be dangerous for him to talk any more about the

incident.

His doctor, Zahir, stands by silently. In a separate interview, he says

Abdullah is the first gunshot victim the hospital has treated since the fall

of the Taleban two months ago.

/// ZAHIR ACT IN DARI EST. AND FADE UNDER ///

Dr. Zahir says he believes Kabul is getting safer. He says Abdullah is the

exception rather than the rule and he hopes he will never have to treat a

gunshot victim again.

But an English-speaking man named Najibullah says he heard the doctor tell a

much different story.

/// NAJIBULLAH ACT ///

The doctor said to me in private, "It is dangerous for us to explain

everything. About the security of Kabul, we know it is not good. But we

cannot report this to the journalists."

/// END ACT ///

It is not known if anybody has been ordering Kabul residents to keep quiet about what some say is a rising tide of lawlessness. But reports of murders, armed robberies and kidnappings in the city in recent days have deeply troubled and embarrassed Afghanistan's interim government, which has been desperately trying to restore order since it took power late last month.

Last week, two prominent medical doctors were shot and robbed while walking

home at night. The week before, the body of a Kabul taxi driver last seen

picking up Northern Alliance soldiers - was found outside of the city with

four bullet wounds in his chest.

Since the fall of the Taleban, most everyone in Kabul appears to be

convinced that the city's crime rate is getting worse. They have no

statistics, but they say they are scared.

A local shopkeeper, Zami Ullah, is one of them. He says he is scared

because many of the robberies in the city are being committed by Afghan

security men and soldiers serving under various warlords, not common

thieves.

/// ULLAH ACT IN DARI EST. AND FADE UNDER ///

Mr. Ullah says three weeks ago, he was getting his Toyota minivan fixed at a

garage near a police station. He says a man dressed in a police uniform

approached him, and without any evidence, accused him of having stolen the

car from a Taleban soldier. The policeman confiscated the car at gunpoint and

drove away, he says.

In a multi-national effort to restore order, the British-led International

Security Assistance Force with about 15-hundred troops has begun patrolling in and around Kabul during the past few days. Three thousand more are expected to arrive over the next several weeks.

The interim government, for its part, has ordered all armed men to leave the

city and turn in their weapons. It is not known how many weapons the

government has collected so far. But Mr. Najibullah says he believes there are

too many guns hidden away in people's homes for the campaign to have much

impact.

/// SECOND NAJIBULLAH ACT ///

They can collect the weapons from outside of the houses. But the people

have weapons in their homes. Collecting these weapons is difficult for the

government because every house has a weapon.

/// END ACT ///

And the problem does not exist just in Kabul. Throughout Afghanistan,

security remains the number one concern for Afghans, who desperately need

western aid to recover from more than two decades of war.

As one pessimistic Kabul resident points out, it is impossible to rebuild a

country when traveling around could mean death. (Signed)

NEB/AR/KBK