Surprises await the old king on his return to Kabul, International Editor Hamish McDonald writes.

If and when Afghanistan's former king, Zahir Shah, returns from 28 years of exile to help guide his country's transition to peace, he will find few changes for the better and many for the worse.

The centre of his old capital will be recognisable: most of the public buildings, schools and hotels put up before he was toppled in a 1973 coup are standing, though many are damaged by shells, rockets and bombs.

The small white-plastered palace is still there in its park of pines. The Kabul Hotel's lobby has the same pink marble and plush chairs in its lobby, the same black Bakelite telephones. The once modern Kabul Intercontinental is now a shabby time-warp of 1960s style. The Foreign Ministry still has its elaborate walnut armoires and gilded mirrors.

The shops of Chicken Street sell the same mix of indifferent carpets, fur and leather jackets, and lapis lazuli jewellery they have peddled since Kabul was an essential stop on the Hippie Trail between London and Sydney - these days minus the hashish.

The southern suburbs, reached through a mountain pass just behind the shabby central bazaar and money market, are different: a stretch of total devastation that brings to mind pictures of German cities in 1945.

Inside the palace, Zahir Shah, 87, will be saddened by the vandalism of its recent occupants, the Taliban leaders, for whom any depiction of living creatures is forbidden by Islam.

The silk wallpaper in one room, with a pattern of embossed peacocks, has been attacked with white paint, daubed on the head of every one of thousands of peacock figures - a task that must have occupied someone many days.

The former king and his family owned an extensive collection of cars, including a Rolls-Royce, a Cadillac Fleetwood, a Model T Ford and a Mercedes-Benz. He will find them still in a garage next to the presidential palace, previously the royal palace.

On the streets of Kabul, a 1968 Chevrolet Comaro convertible, once belonging to Prince Ahmed Shah, is still zipping around. It was acquired by a Kabul businessman some years back and has just been restored with parts from the United States.

On a spin through Kabul with the businessman, who asked not to be named, I found the white convertible car to be an attention-stealer in streets where utes full of turbanned warriors armed with Kalashnikovs and rockets no longer turn heads.

Small boys ran alongside, and many bystanders gave friendly greetings, such as "Hello Mister" and "How are you?" A small regal wave seemed to be in order.

Zahir Shah can expect a more tumultuous welcome, if the comments of ordinary people across Kabul count. They say they are heartily sick of the warring Islamic warriors, mujahideen and Taliban, who brought such ruin and suffering over the past decade and tarnished their victory over the invading Soviets.

The king's 40-year reign is now regarded in retrospect as an era of peace and progress. The intervening years seem futile.

[ 03 January 2002: Message edited by: HTWLSS ]

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