Posted on 10/04/2001 8:57:10 PM PDT by al-andalus
Thursday October 4, 4:23 PM
International media create havoc as they pour into Afghanistan
JABAL SERAJ, Afghanistan, Oct 4 (AFP) -
As the world waits for a US attack on Afghanistan, scores of international journalists have poured into this remote country, ill-prepared to accommodate for such an invasion.
Barred from entering Taliban-ruled Afghanistan because the regime has refused to issue a single visa, several hundred Western journalists have converged on the opposition-held zone in the north.
All routes are virtually blocked apart from through neighbouring Tajikistan. Most reporters, who flew to Dushanbe a fortnight ago hoping to hop across the border, spent days waiting to get into the inaccessible region.
With just six transport helicopters, which it needs to ferry military supplies, the opposition Northern Alliance finally chartered a plane to take journalists to Faizabad, in the mountainous northeast.
Promised a 15-hour overland journey to Jabal Seraj, a small town in the plains north of Kabul that is the closest you can base yourself from the Afghan capital, many endured a four-day ordeal driving across treacherous highland roads.
As more and more new arrivals come here, local resources are becoming dangerously overstretched as the authorities crowd reporters into increasingly squalid buildings set aside for them.
With 140 to 150 journalists in Jabal Seraj, in two of the "guesthouses," dozens of people are reduced to sharing one toilet.
One Italian newspaper correspondent was hospitalized with amoebic dysentery, health a concern for everyone because of the poor sanitary conditions.
But for the army of drivers and translators required by correspondents and television crews from around the world, from CNN to France's TF1 television, it is like manna from heaven.
With a limited supply of English speakers, some translators have been able to charge up to 100 dollars a day or more -- a fortune here -- the same price it costs to hire even a battered Russian-made Volga car.
Those journalists lucky enough to have made it before the main influx were able to buy their own generator for 500 dollars -- there is no supply of electricity, gas or running water in the town.
But others are asked by authorities to pay 30 dollars a day each for a few hours of power -- even though 10 litres of diesel is enough to last a generator the whole evening and costs less than 15 dollars.
In the local bazaar in Jabal Seraj, the value of the dollar has plummeted as journalists with wads of crisp 100 dollar bills flood money-changers with greenbacks to change into the local currency.
While a dollar changed hands for 70,000 Afghanis a week ago, now it will get you only 40,000 Afghanis.
Supplies of granulated coffee, Nescafe smuggled in from Pakistan, have already dried up, while the price of low-budget short-wave radios -- the few still available -- has doubled virtually overnight.
A fortnight ago, the Northern Alliance's chief spokesman, Abdullah Abdullah, would sit on the floor with a handful of journalists sipping tea.
Now he gives crowded press conferences in the garden of a logistics base.
His office has started to issue press cards as the Northern Alliance keeps tight control on the movements of journalists, who increasingly require permission for every reporting trip they make.
To visit one of the front lines at Bagram, a disused airfield that was once the main military airbase in Afghanistan and lies less than 40 kilometresmiles) from Kabul, you now need to make advance bookings.
Getting in and out of Afghanistan remains a major headache, taking up to a week or more, and could become impossible once US strikes begin, since all non-military flights are likely to be suspended.
The receipt for the 300-dollar return fare by helicopter warned: "The flights to Afghanistan are not scheduled and therefore this receipt does not necessarily guarantee the availability of flights on specific dates or times."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.