INTERNATIONAL DONORS PLEDGE LONG-TERM COMMITMENT TO AFGHANISTAN. International donors and aid organizations Thursday pledged to make a lasting commitment to the reconstruction of Afghanistan, one day after a landmark agreement on an interim Afghan government, AFP reports.
Delegates at the Afghanistan Support Group (ASG) wrapped up a two-day conference in Berlin with a statement promising to go beyond funding temporary relief efforts and "join efforts for the long-term development of the country". The ASG hailed Wednesday's accord on an Afghan government, struck at a UN-sponsored conference in Bonn, as laying the foundations for Afghanistan's recovery and providing an encouraging basis for their efforts to help.
The conference, opened Wednesday by German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, was one of a series of meetings intended to lay the groundwork for a major donors gathering in Tokyo next month at which a long-term aid scheme is expected to be announced. Up to $10 billion in long-term aid has been mooted for Afghanistan, but ASG delegates did not release a specific figure for a new aid package.
The resolution said it was crucial that the 15 largest donor countries, the European Commission, United Nations aid agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which comprise the ASG, closely coordinate their efforts in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, Der Standard (Austria) reports the designated Afghan Minister for Reconstruction, Mohammed Amin Farhang, has asked for a Marshall Plan for Afghanistan. He says he doesn't yet know where to start with the reconstruction efforts. Commenting on the estimates on how much the reconstruction will cost Amin Farhand says, "We have to take an inventory before we can confirm numbers."
Also reporting on the newly-appointed Afghan interim administration, BBC Online says Afghanistan's former central banker has been asked by the leader of the Northern Alliance to return to run the country's monetary policy. The 38 year-old Abdul Qadeer Fitrat left Afghanistan in 1996 to attend the World Bank's annual meeting, but while traveling through New Delhi, Kabul was overrun by the Taleban. Fitrat was granted asylum in the US and has since been working as an insurance and carpet salesman in Washington. If he accepts Burhanuddin Rabbani's offer, he will have a tough job rebuilding a country after two decades of war, says the story.
Meanwhile, the IHT (p. 1), the New York Times (p. A1), the Washington Post (p. A1), the Washington Times (p. A1) , BBC, CNN.com, and the Christian Science Monitor report that Afghanistan's Taliban militia said Thursday that it had agreed to surrender its last remaining stronghold, the southern city of Kandahar, to a prominent anti-Taliban commander and would begin giving up its weapons on Friday. The surrender of Kandahar, says the story, would be the biggest breakthrough in the war since the fall of Kabul, the capital, to Northern Alliance fighters in mid-November.
The news comes as German Development Minister Wieczorek-Zeul says in an interview with Die Zeit (Germany) that the whole international community--and especially Germany, which is currently presiding the Afghanistan Support Group--have the responsibility to make sure that the reconstruction project in Afghanistan is successful.
She adds that women will play a crucial role. That's why Germany will try to strengthen the position of women through its development aid. She reiterated that she will commit herself to making sure that the Germany and the other industrialized countries extend their partnership with the developing countries. Otherwise more violent acts are bound to take place.