International
Kabul gets over $1b. in aid
By Amit Baruah
TOKYO, Jan. 21. Aid worth over one billion dollars was pledged by the European Union, Japan, the United States and Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan for the next one year to keep the Hamid Karzai interim administration running and help in the reconstruction of the devastated nation.
The overall figure pledged by a host of national and institutional donors may well be over the three billion dollar figure. The pledges were made (Saudi Arabia committed to spending $220 million in the next three years) at the opening session of the two-day International Conference on Reconstruction Assistance to Afghanistan, which began here this morning. Japan pledged $250 million, the European Union $550 million and the United States $296 million immediately to Afghanistan, promising annual aid announcements for the coming years. The Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, the U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, the U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, and the Chairman of the Afghan interim administration, Hamid Karzai, were among those who addressed the meeting.
Mr. Koizumi said Japan would provide $250 million in the coming year and a total of $500 million in the next two-and-a-half years to Afghanistan. "We also intend to assist de-mining itself, as well as to support victim assistance schemes," he said. "Japan will do its utmost to support the reconstruction of Afghanistan. Japan's assistance will focus on supporting the process towards peace and national reconciliation, as well as people-building," he said.
Mr. Powell said the American people were with Afghanistan for the long-term. He also announced that hundreds of million dollars in frozen assets under the Taliban would be returned to the Karzai interim administration. Mr. Powell said it was necessary that Afghanistan set up an army and police force. He said the U.S. had arrested a large number of Al-Qaeda terrorists and was pursuing others.
Mr. Karzai engaged in some gentle criticism of the international community while setting out the details of what Afghanistan neededComparing Afghanistan to a "wasteland", Mr. Karzai said the primary focus was to "revive and build the State apparatus, a system of democratic governance with active participation of the citizenry".
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