<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 5.50.4807.2300" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><STRONG>washingtonpost<FONT
color=#cc0000>.com</FONT></STRONG>
<P><FONT size=+2><B>Projects to Rebuild Afghan Roads Going Nowhere, Despite
Promises</B></FONT> <BR>
<P><FONT size=-1>By Susan B. Glasser<BR>Washington Post Foreign
Service<BR>Wednesday, August 7, 2002; Page A01 </FONT>
<P>
<P>KABUL, Afghanistan -- For months, the Asian Development Bank had promised
that it would take on one of the biggest headaches in postwar Afghanistan: the
cratered, agonizingly slow highway connecting Kabul with Kandahar. The project
to rehabilitate the major artery between the country's two largest cities was
estimated to cost $150 million, the largest single investment in Afghanistan's
infrastructure since the collapse of Taliban rule last November.</P>
<P>Instead, the deal fell apart.</P>
<P>In meetings last month, the bank demanded that the Afghan government accept
loans to finance the project. Frustrated with international donors that have
promised to help rebuild the country, only to impose conditions the fledgling
government cannot meet, the Afghans said no. "They're pulling out," said a top
aide to President Hamid Karzai. "Their excuse is that we won't accept loans, but
in reality it is too big a project for them."</P>
<P>The Kabul-Kandahar project is not the only road work stalled by the
combination of balky donors, the slow pace of bureaucracy and the daunting
logistics of accomplishing anything in a barely functioning country. In fact,
not a single major road project has been started since the fall of the
Taliban.</P>
<P><A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A52452-2002Aug6?language=printer">http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A52452-2002Aug6?language=printer</A></P>
<P> </P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>