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nce an e music is drowned out by the blaring TV behind the bar. I am the only customer. The bartender politely stares at me and after one insipid beer I figure I've had enough partying for one night. I sleep for the first time in days, There is not much noise after 8:00PM in Dushanbe. A New Day in Dushanbe After breakfast I sit in the lobby and make some notes. A woman who I had at breakfast comes up and asks if I am a journalist. I say no, I am just traveling looking to hook up with the UN. Disa is a 50-something Swedish journalist will be traveling to the south with the UN this morning. Synchronicity is a big of travel. She needs a photographer to cover the refugees returning from fighting in Afghanistan. It seems I am to become a photojournalist for the n few days. The head of the UN mission in the CIS tells me I am in luck. Accor I We have lunch with the UNHCR folks in their steel-gated the word on the street there is to be a kidnapping today. These are the same group of UN people who were kidnapped by a warlord to ensure the safe passage of his brother out of Afghanistan. The people were stripped and marched through the snow and went through mock s. Not much fun but part of the job hazards in Tajikistan. John brushes the kidnapping as similar to the Walter Brennan croaking out " Ah've cum to ma boy" mentality of the warlords. Here there are many private armies, with being paid about $5 a day. Many military commanders control governme nq to His wo is pa reports must every day to be gathered and col lated at headquarters. How many refugees, from where, to which village, how many tons of flour, liters of cooking oil, pounds of sugar, hundreds of blankets and so on all must be requisitioned, shipped, distributed and accounted for under very loose and stressful conditions. The UN here is truly a United Nations of peoples. Thai, British, American, Swedish, Ethiopian and Taj ik people all work side by side. We load up our white, large-lettered UNHCR truck and drive at breakneck speed southward through the warzone. The south was the site of the heaviest fighting during the civil war. Now it is quiet, except for the occasional outbreak of violence. The Kurgan Turbe region is the nexus of the conflict by the opposition for control of the government. Now Nuri, the leader of Islamic fundamentalist fighters, is in Dushanbe and things have quieted down to occasional bombing, shooting and execution of dozens of soldiers. is still the threat of a kidnapping so our driver drives a little faster n would be normal. I feel like I am part of the director's cut of Bul/itt. Upon A Time in the South are in a hurry to meet a train with about 300 Tajik refugees on board. refugees have come from Mazar by truck, barge and train and will be offloaded, fed, then sent off with their goods to their bombed and well as private armies. There are also plain old fashioned gangsters and m�rTVla •• snlat1ren�a villages in the region. There have been casualties from the o do their best to control resources like aluminum and cotton. My UN host, Jonathan, is based in Herat, Afghanistan and has come up refugees will be. help with repatriating thousands of refugees back into the war zone while ings are calm in Mazar i Shariff. He makes around $80,000 a year and can sal most of it away. There is also subsistence pay, hazardous duty pay and ghting in Afghanistan and no one quite knows in what condition the Down near the southern border the land is brown and sparse. is a single building, a water tower and an ancient dilapidated Russian train. The pale blue sky and the dry hills far beyond frame the incentives. He figures by the time he is 50 he will have put half a million away. scene perfectly. The train is comprised of passenger cars followed by e concept of making your bundle is strong motivation in the UN. But I there must be something more than money to encourage someone to in Afghanistan and Tajikistan. I am about to see how hard his job actually is. open cars piled high with the refugees' personal possessions. These refugees have been waiting five years to come home. Back in Afghanistan, two people were killed and 20 were wounded in the only to end up in the middle of the fighting in Afghanistan when the Tal entered Mazar. The Taliban have been repulsed now but no one knows how I will be iet. He has desks, fax machines and all the The refugees are Tajiks who fled the fighting in the south of Tajikistan recent fighting. Their camp was looted and most lost whatever they had brought on their backs from their homes. The children are covered with sores and the people are tired and dirty. Men break down and cry in their