Pride of Kabul survives Taliban

Marjon the lion, star of Kabul Zoo, has survived rocket attacks by the Mujahadin, stoning by the Taliban, and a grenade thrown by the brother of a man whose arm he ate. Now the zoo hopes the ousting of the Taliban will entice a veterinary expert to fly in and treat his ailments.

Marjon arrived in Kabul Zoo soon after it opened, as a present from the-then West Germany. In those days, Afghanistan was at peace, under the rule of King Zahir Shah, and foreign governments sent not weapons, but animals. But war came to Afghanistan with the Soviet invasion that lasted from 1979 until 1989, and the zoo decayed around Marjon. Things got worse in 1992, when, after three strife-filled years, the Mujahideen ousted the Moscow-backed regime, took Kabul, and began fighting among themselves.

The worst damage was done by warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who was kept out of the city and took his revenge with a rocket bombardment that killed thousands, and wrecked much of Kabul Zoo. One rocket hit the elephant house, killing the Indian elephant. Another took out the aquarium, 100 metres from the pen Marjon shared with a lioness, Quanni.

"It was a bad time," says the head zookeeper, Sheer Agha. "There were so many rockets, we evacuated everyone. There was just a security guard. For the animals, we would get the food together, and in a lull we would drive in and feed them as fast as possible."

One day during this time of chaos and anarchy a man, for reasons best-known to himself, jumped into Marjon's cage. As he reached out to stroke the lion's head, Marjon bit off his arm. The man later died in hospital. A few days later his brother came to the zoo, went up to the black metal bars at the front of the lions' pen and lobbed in a grenade. Splinters tore into Marjon's legs and slashed the left side of his mouth. Another piece of shrapnel blinded him in the left eye. "I don't understand how they could do it to this animal," says Mr Agha. "These were crazy times."

In 1996, the squabbling Mujahideen were kicked out of Kabul by the all-conquering Taliban, bringing more bad times for the zoo. "A Taliban commander came to me," says Mr Agha. "He said: 'Is there any sentence in the Koran about keeping a zoo?' I said I didn't know. He said:'What use is a zoo?' I thought that was it. I went to the mayor, also Taliban, but more sympathetic. He got a paper from the zoology department at the university. It said the zoo had educational uses and should be kept."

But Marjon's troubles continued. The Taliban gave little money to the zoo, and ordered the female staff be fired as part of its policy to forbid women working. Visiting Taliban came to cause harm: "They would throw stones at Marjon. I made a collection of them," says Mr Agha. "What could we do? Our security guard was not armed and they were."

Rock throwing gave way to theft: as food shortages began to bite in Afghanistan, the deer were taken and eaten - along with most of the rabbits. Other creatures began to die off, and none were replaced. And for Marjon, loneliness arrived with the death two years ago of Quanni the lioness.

As the Taliban regime began to collapse, the money for feeding the animals dried up, as did the keeper's wages, and Mr Agha has begun to borrow money to feed the animals. The incoming Northern Alliance has promised to pay for food and wages, and though the money has yet to turn up, Mr Agha is finally hopeful.

"I have 19 creatures and I love them all. But Marjon is the one I love best," says Mr Agha. "He has a real personality. I just hope now that somebody, maybe from the United Nations, will come and take a look at him. He is not young. I would miss him if he died."