(21 Nov 1994) Eng/Nat
Rival Afghan factions traded rocket and mortar fire in the capital of Kabul, on Sunday, ignoring a U-N plea for a one-week ceasefire.
At least six people were killed and 28 wounded.
Civilians face daily rocket attacks by Islamic groups fighting for control of the city and as winter approaches, hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing.
APTV visited Afghanistan recently and reports exclusively on one the world's most vicious civil wars.
Kabul lies in ruins.
Whole sections of this city have been destroyed and after two and a-half years of civil war, fighting between Islamic factions continues unabated.
Every day, tens, sometimes hundreds of rockets are fired indiscriminately into residential districts.
Government forces loyal to President Burhanuddin Rabbani control most of Kabul. They're defending it against Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and his allies who are responsible for most of the rockets fired at the city.
Attack follows counter attack as the two sides vie for strategic positions.
Government commanders have repulsed repeated opposition offensives, but their enemy remains determined.
Most of the causalities are civilians caught up in this conflict. Since the overthrow of the former Soviet-backed regime in 1992, more than twenty thousand people are estimated to have died.
Kabulis live in daily fear for their lives.
SOUNDBITE:
"Kabul is extremely dangerous at the moment because one never knows exactly when the rockets are coming or when. Over the last five months, the fronts have shifted back and forth and the fighting has shifted from one end of the city to the other. And on top of that there seems to be an opinion that the opposition are targeting their rockets at the most populous areas, trying to cause fear and disturbance amongst the locals."
SUPER CAPTION: Steve Masty, Country Director, CARE International.
At Jamhuriat Hospital in central Kabul there is a continuous stream of casualties, many of them children.
The government and opposition are using heavy weaponry and the wards are filled with people suffering from the most horrific wounds.
This little girl was injured by a rocket which landed in her garden. She was lucky to survive.
This year alone, some eight thousand people have been killed and a hundred thousand wounded in Kabul. The International Committee of the Red Cross says more people are dying here than in any other war zone.
Funeral processions are a daily sight on the streets of the capital.
SOUNDBITE:
"With the cold weather approaching, every morning more than a thousand people go down to the bus stations and truck stops in Kabul to head east to the warmer climate and lower altitude of Jalalabad. They go because their houses were rocketed. They go because their relatives have gotten sick and because there's no medicine available or they go because they've simply hit the end of their money. There's no more food left for them. They have to choose between fuel and food, and in despair and panic, they leave the city. And we suspect those numbers will increase."
SUPER CAPTION: Steve Masty, Country Director, CARE International.
During the Soviet occupation, in the 1980's, the population of Kabul stood at about two and a-half (m) million. Since the beginning of the civil war in 1992, that number has dwindled to three quarters of a (m) million and aid agencies predict that this winter a third of the population may flee.
With mass unemployment and the economy shattered, many have no choice but to leave their homes.
SOUNDBITE:
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