JALLOZAI, Pakistan -- With the release last week of photos confirming the destruction of the giant Buddha statues of Bamiyan, Afghanistan's Taliban leaders lost their last remote hope for a reconciliation with the world over the act.
Across the Pakistani border in Jallozai, home to more than 50,000 Afghan refugees who have arrived in the past eight months, there is even less hope for a decent future. These refugees have little expectation of returning to their homeland any time soon, especially as prospects for international reconstruction assistance diminish further.
Says Walid Khan, an Afghan school teacher who arrived here in January with his five children, his wife and his elderly parents, "the Taliban are now completely isolated from the world and there's no hope for Afghanistan."