FEAR AND FEUDS PLAGUE TREACHEROUS ROAD TO KANDAHAR

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Pamili has not heard from his three
brothers and two cousins since they left Kandahar four weeks ago to
ply the ancient trade route that funnels fuel and drugs between
Pakistan, Iran and Central Asia.

But friends who recently returned from the city of Herat, 400 km (250
miles) to the northwest, told him the five were among 80 ethnic
Pashtun drivers hijacked, robbed and thrown in jail there by ethnic
Tajiks.

"We sent relatives to go and look for them, but they were hijacked
too," said Pamili, chief of a village on the outskirts of Kandahar.

"It was only because they were Pashtun. If this continues, we will do
the same here. We will arrest anyone from Herat and take their vehicles."

Tribal turf squabbles such as these -- which can quickly escalate into
bloodshed in a country awash with AK-47s -- were largely suppressed
under the austere rule of the Taliban.

Convoys of brightly enamelled trucks, many smuggled from Europe,
lugged Uzbek cotton, Iranian gasoline, and Afghan opium in safety
across the deserts and mountain passes of the old Silk Road.

Since the Taliban lost hold of their birthplace, Kandahar, tribal
leaders have once again started jostling for control of the roads that
are the only real source of income for many in an area bereft of
industry and agriculture.

Now many Pashtuns fear a return to the days when feuding warlords set
up checkposts every few miles on the roads around Kandahar, demanding
extortionate tolls for a safe passage, or pillaging and murdering at
will.

"At least the Taliban brought us peace and stability," said Pamili,
sitting cross-legged on a moth-eaten carpet in his packed mud house.
"Now all that is gone."

FEUDS DATE BACK CENTURIES

The tensions between Kandahar and Herat date back centuries. Kandahar
is predominantly Pashtun -- Afghanistan's largest ethnic group which
makes up 40 percent of the population and is mainly Sunni Muslim.

Herat, about 100 km (60 miles) from the Iranian border, is made up
largely of Persian-speaking Tajiks and Shi'ite Muslims.

But even among the Pashtun, there are intense rivalries between
various tribes -- the Achakzai, Noorzai and Popalzai to name but a few
- -- who have carved up the areas around Kandahar.

For the moment, the tribes are bound together in a delicate alliance
under the nominal authority of Gul Agha, a former dog-fighter, who has
resumed his pre-Taliban position as Kandahar governor.

However, reporters who arranged an escort from the Pakistani border to
Kandahar with a close relative of Gul Agha quickly found themselves in
the clutches of a rival tribe.

"Those people have no power here. The Achakzai control this part of
the road," said one of the leaders of the group, a Kalashnikov slung
on his shoulder, before locking the reporters in a room until they
agreed to switch escorts.

TRANSPORT MAFIA

It was precisely this feuding that tore Afghanistan apart after the
Soviet withdrawal in 1989, and helped to bring the Taliban to power
five years later.

In 1993, the author and Afghanistan specialist Ahmed Rashid says he
passed through more than 20 checkpoints on the 130-mile road from the
Pakistani city of Quetta to Kandahar.

"The transport mafia who were trying to open up routes to smuggle
goods between Quetta and Iran and the newly independent state of
Turkmenistan found it impossible to do business," he wrote in his
best-selling book, "Taliban".

After they took Kandahar, the Taliban cleared the checkposts, set up a
one-toll payment system, and patrolled the highway from Pakistan -- to
the delight of the truck-driving mafia.

Under the strict gaze of the Taliban mullahs, heavily sponsored by the
transport godfathers, the road teemed again with convoys.

As well as cotton, fuel and drugs, they brought smuggled cars,
electronics and consumer goods into Pakistan.

Under a transit-trade agreement dating back to the 1950s, Islamabad
has permitted land-locked Afghanistan to import goods duty-free that
land at the Pakistani port of Karachi.

The bulk are promptly smuggled back into the Pakistani border towns,
where shop shelves spill over with brand-new video recorders,
computers and televisions.

U.S. BOMBS RAIN DOWN

But since U.S. bombs began to rain down on the Taliban stronghold, the
caravans have slowed to a trickle.

The price for bringing one container from Herat to Quetta has risen to
25,000 rupees ($417), compared with 5,000 rupees under the Taliban,
say shopkeepers in the Pakistani border town of Chaman.

"A few of us kept going even when the bombing was going on, but it was
dangerous and expensive," said Mohammad Ullah, leaning out of his
rusting truck piled high with Iranian tyres.

"It is still very uncertain," he says. "You can never be sure who is
in control of which part of the road."

Kandahar Governor Gul Agha says he has sent a letter to his
counterpart in Herat, Ismail Khan, to complain about the imprisoned
Pashtuns.

But the dispute goes beyond that.

Gul Agha also accused Khan of inviting Arab radicals of the al Qaeda
network -- blamed by Washington for the September 11 attacks on the
United States -- to live and train in Afghanistan.

Such allegations appear to have one aim only -- to direct U.S.
firepower against Gul Agha's rival.

"There will be more fighting," says Pamili scratching his dense grey
beard with a sigh of resignation. "I don't know when and where but
there will be more."

"Our biggest enemy is ourselves."