WHITE SUIT STAINED RED

"I was wearing a white suit that day and I saw my suit was red. I can't walk fast now. You know, I was a boxer. I can't box any more.

"When I think about these things, it brings tears to my eyes. When I think about these things and put them together it makes me want to leave this country."

Frustrated by the failure of President Hamid Karzai and his Western backers to bring peace, and increasingly angry at the lack of jobs and reconstruction despite billions of dollars in aid, many Afghans are growing ever more disillusioned, analysts and ordinary people say.

Despite abuses by the Taliban, rural Afghans with no income are turning to the insurgents, who pay more than many formal jobs, including the police force, they say.

In its report, Human Rights Watch also urged Pakistan, the Taliban's former backers, to do more to secure the border. The Taliban, drug-runners and criminals easily slip across the porous and rugged frontier.

Afghanistan and its foreign allies say the Taliban, who draw their support from ethnic Pashtuns on both sides of the border, have been bolstered by the ability to shelter and train in Pakistan.

Pakistan denies any formal support for the Taliban, says it is doing all it can to seal the border and insists the main problem lies inside Afghanistan.

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