The Northern Alliance has taken Kabul but the war isn’t over.

The World Food Program is reporting that there is pillaging in the northern city of Mazar-I-Sharif as well ascivilian kidnappings, armed men out of control and fighting in the streets. The WFP says that 89 tons of food inU.N. warehouses has been stolen since the Northern Alliance took Mazar several days ago. The Northern Alliance saysthe city of Kandahar is in “total chaos” and the Taliban have lost control. It is not clear whether NorthernAlliance troops are in the city.

Meanwhile, the U.N. announced yesterday that it is to take over the administration of Kabul and send in an emergencymultinational peacekeeping force to prevent further descent into chaos. Diplomats at the UN said the bulk of theforce would have to be Muslim to avoid the appearance that Afghanistan was being colonized by the west. The USsecretary of state, Colin Powell, said Turkey, Bangladesh and Indonesia had offered soldiers for a multinationalforce.

Once a week in cities all over the world, a group of women dressed all in black gathers on street corners to protestwar. They wear black as a symbol of mourning for victims of war, and they stand silently because, according to onemember, words cannot express the tragedy that wars and hatred bring.

Their group is Women and Black, an international movement which began in Israel in January 1988, one month after thebeginning of the first Palestinian Intifadah. Once a week at the same hour and in the same location–a major trafficintersection–a small group of Israeli women donned black clothing and raised a black sign in the shape of a handwith white lettering that read “Stop the Occupation”.

Tape:

• Women In Black, In Columbus, Ohio Protest.