05/28/2002

"I returned to Bamyan from Ghazni ten days ago. We lived in this cave before we left, and we fled from here because the Taliban killed many Hazaras. They killed my brother. In Ghazni, we worked as peddlers and rented a place to stay but it was expensive so we returned here. We are happy to be back in our town. We haven't received any assistance and we eat bread and tea every day. This cave is difficult to live in. There is no water, no windows. We would like to move to another place, but we don't have any land. We don't want anything. We just want to work-to be busy, to buy our own food, to send our children to school and to buy them things. My son wants to study but because of our economic situation he has to spend the day collecting firewood. I will do whatever job is offered to me."