Pubdate: Fri, 28 Dec 2001 Source: State, The (SC) Copyright: 2001 The State Contact: http://www.thestate.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/426 Author: Tasgola Karla Bruner, Cox News Service HYPOCRISY REIGNED SUPREME UNDER TALIBAN RULE Afghans Say Double Standard Was Evident In Virtually All Aspects Of Life KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - They had music at their weddings, but others were arrested for doing so. They banned opium production on grounds it was against Islam, but reportedly did so to raise its market price by reducing the supply. They cut off the hands of thieves, but looted United Nations offices and stole thousands of dollars in equipment and supplies as they fled. Since the fall of the hard-line Taliban regime, stories of their hypocrisy have come to light in this city that was their stronghold. The Taliban launched their movement here in 1994 in predominantly Pashtun Kandahar, the most conservative of Afghanistan's major cities. Gul Mohammad, a doctor who works at a pharmacy in one of the city's busiest shopping areas, said the double standards were practiced even by the Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar. When asked if Omar was a good Muslim, he laughed. "He was not a good person. He destroyed our country," he said. "For us, he said Islam is this way. But to the Taliban he said: 'If you want something, do it.'??lt;p) Mohammad Daud, a drug salesman at Mohammad's pharmacy, said Omar would buy opium from farmers for $1,000 a kilo (2.2 pounds) and then announce on the radio that opium production was banned, in order to raise prices. "Then he'd send smugglers to sell the opium for $4,000 a kilo," he said. Omar's accumulation of personal wealth was another example of hypocrisy, Daud said. "Mullah Omar said we shouldn't take the government's money. But he had 12 Land Cruisers, a pick-up truck, a big house," Daud said, questioning how the religious leader, who has been reported to have lived a simple life, could have had enough money to pay for all this on his own. Huma Amerzai, a nurse at Kandahar's Mirwaiz Hospital, said the Taliban only cared about themselves, not their country. "The Taliban said they supported Islam, but they didn't care about our lives. It was difficult for us. They weren't listening to us. They were listening to Arabs," she said. The term "Arabs" refers to non-Afghan supporters of the Taliban in Afghanistan. At Mullah Omar's former compound in Kandahar, 23-year-old Sher Shah, Omar's neighbor, reflected on life under the Taliban. As Shah listened to music on his radio from the Kandahar radio station that recently started broadcasting music again, he said he was glad to be able to hear it openly instead of hiding in his car to listen to a tape or being forced to clandestinely listen to tapes inside his home. Shah said he sometimes saw the one-eyed cleric going in and out of his compound. He never met Omar, but said he knew about his reputation. A shopkeeper named Ahmad closed his luxury goods store for about four years while the Taliban were in power. He said the Taliban lost support because they betrayed the people's trust. For Chini Ghola, the hypocrisy became evident when she was asked to sing at a Taliban wedding. Non-Taliban Afghans were arrested if they had music at their weddings, but nothing happened to her that day. "I cannot understand why. I was thinking, 'They will come take us now,' but they didn't," she said. Offices at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Kandahar were looted by Taliban troops as they relinquished power under intense U.S. bombing early this month. They stole computers, copy machines, printers, walkie talkies, cameras, televisions, VCRs (though the Taliban banned television watching), carpets, blankets, pillows, tents, curtains and other items. Doors on the safes are wide open, the safes empty. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake