In at the birth of a new nation

AS he walked through the market square, Jon Hutchison had a feeling he was being watched. Nothing unusual in a city where the presence of a Westerner attracts stares from the curious to the downright hostile, but the Regimental Sergeant Major felt there was something different this time. He looked up, to see a smiling Afghan soldier - pointing a gun at him.

"He was just messing around - he just thought it was funny. Their value on human life is nothing compared to ours," says Jon.

"You can see people looking at you with a bit of apprehension - you hear comments that the Russians came here giving out sweets and ended up shooting people on the streets."

RSM Hutchison has been in Kabul for about a month now, as part of the Royal Logistic Corps detachment charged with keeping the British troops in the Afghan capital supplied with everything from fuel to toilet rolls. And the dad-of-three, from Redcar, admits it is the most extraordinary posting of his 23 years in the Army.

"It is the most hostile place on the planet, including the Middle East, and you have got to keep that in the back of your mind. The Taliban is still around, al Qaida is still around, it is still very unstable.

"I have lived in Ireland and that is nothing compared to the problems they have got here. People change allegiances at the drop of a hat, and there are kids here who have never experienced anything apart from war.

"A lot of the adults are welcoming but some of them are suspicious, and after what the Russians have done, it is no surprise they are a bit wary."

British troops are in Kabul as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), made up of 19 nations and invited into Afghanistan by its Interim Administration, the temporary government formed by the Bonn Agreement at the end of last year.

As the lead nation in ISAF, Britain provides the largest contingent of troops, about 1,400 out of the 4,000 total, but next month will scale down its commitment after handing over lead nation status to Turkey.

Army commanders are keen to make the distinction between the ISAF commitment, Operation Fingal, and the British troops trying to hunt the remnants of the al Qaida movement in the mountains and caves east of Kabul, part of Operation Veritas.

One of the first of the British troops to arrive in Kabul as part of ISAF was Jacqui Wearmouth. The 23-year-old Senior Aircraftwoman, from Bishop Auckland, had to cope with the worst of the conditions. Based at Kabul Airport, when she arrived the main terminal building was filled with excrement and the whole area was heavily mined.

"It was minus 19 and it was very basic. We didn't have showers and there was nothing really here. We were doing everything when we first got here to get set up - it was really long hours," she says.

"No one really knew if we were going to be welcome. We didn't have time to worry about it, we just got stuck in. When we first got here there was no one around, but now you are driving around and there are people waving at you and there are stalls and they're getting things moving."

But mines are still a big problem. Although the airfield itself has been cleared, anything other than the tarmac is strictly off limits, home to an estimated 2,000 mines. Already, experts from ten nations have disposed of about 250,000 mines, 1,100 rockets, more than 2,000 grenades, 126 bombs and 219 guided weapons. Afghanistan is the most heavily mined country in the world.

These mines are a daily hazard for Craftsman Andy Wilson. The 21-year-old, from York is an Army driver, which sees him cover many of Kabul's bomb-cratered roads, as well as tracks further afield.

"All you can do when you are driving is stay on the main tracks and make sure the road is clear. If it has been mined overnight there is nothing you can do about it. But at least the scenery is spectacular," he says.

And his job has also given him regular experience of the reaction of the city's 1.3 million citizens to the presence of foreign troops.

"Some of them see us as trying to sort their country out and they see it as a good thing that we're here and they wave and cheer when they see us. These are mainly the younger ones up to about their 20s.

"The older ones have seen it all before and I don't think they really believe that anything is going to change. But there are people who need help and we're here to help them. They are human beings, after all, and we have got to help them. They're in dire need."

Although a relative calm has settled over the city since the arrival of ISAF, there are still potential shocks in store for newcomers to the city. Within a week of landing at Kabul Airport, the danger was brought vividly home for Matthew Griffiths.

Based at the airport as part of the Royal Engineers detachment, the 20-year-old sapper from Marton, Middlesbrough, was caught in a night-time rocket attack.

"It was about 11 and I was just lying in bed and I heard this sound like a whistle going overhead and then there was an explosion. We all got out of bed, grabbed what we could and legged it to the shelter.

"If the airfield had got damaged we would have had to go out straight away but fortunately it wasn't," he says.

Flight Lieutenant Ali Gray, 25, from Darlington, just finished hosting a dinner to welcome a new squadron to the airport when the missile went overhead.

"I heard something go over and then heard the thud as it hit. When something like that happens it is just straight into your training - there was no panic, everyone just went about what they had to do," she says.

"When you are in a situation like this, it is not that you're expecting this to happen, but you don't get as scared as if it happened at home. You automatically get into drill-mode. I don't think you have time to really get scared."

While there is no doubt that the risks are greater than for any other posting, most of the British contingent in Kabul seem to have no regrets about being there. Not just because it makes a change from being in barracks back in the UK, but also because it offers them an extraordinary experience.

Not only are they living in a country as far removed from the pampered comforts of the West as it is possible to get, but, if Afghanistan does have a future, and the different ethnic groups can put aside generations of hostility, by no means a small task, then these British troops may have found themselves effectively in at the birth of a new nation.

"I expected it to be bad but it is worse than I thought - in certain places there is a lot of damage," says Michael Grehan. The 20-year-old private in the Royal Logistic Corps, from Bearpark, near Durham, has only been in Kabul a few weeks, but said the reaction from the local people was generally positive.

"A lot of them are happy that we're here from what I have seen. People come up and wave all the time. Conditions are not too bad, although the dust gets everywhere. Your rifle never gets clean."

"I was a little apprehensive, like anybody else would be, but I'm just determined to make the most of it," insists Senior Aircraftwoman Hazel Mead, 28, a medical assistant originally from Whitby but whose parents now live in Pickering, North Yorkshire.

"Everybody is in the same boat so everybody mucks in together. There is a fairly good atmosphere in the camp - I never had so much fun at bingo."