Post by vgp on Jun 9, 2008 7:20:17 GMT 12
Laura Bush welcomed to Afganistan by NZ troops
5:00AM Monday June 09, 2008
United States first lady Laura Bush has been welcomed to the backblocks of war-weary Afghanistan by New Zealand troops, who performed a haka.
Mrs Bush, on her third unannounced visit to the country, flew into the Afghan capital, Kabul, then boarded a helicopter for a 50-minute flight to the New Zealand base in Bamiyan Province -- the farthest she has travelled from Kabul on any of her visits.
Her chopper touched down in a dusty field at the New Zealand compound, where 150 NZ troops in the country are based as part of Nato-led forces.
From there she could see the empty niches in a cliffside where two giant Buddha statues once stood.
They were carved into the sandstone cliffs more than 2,000 years ago but were demolished by the Taliban, which considered them idolatrous and anti-Muslim, in March 2001.
In the shadow of the now-empty spaces, where the Buddhas once stood, soldiers from New Zealand's provincial reconstruction team -- one of 26 across the country -- performed the traditional haka, thrusting spears, and poking out tongues as US presidential bodyguards looked on slightly nervously, Reuters reported
The reconstruction units are aimed at bringing aid and development meant to undercut the insurgency, but Reuters reported that Bamiyan, one of the most peaceful places in Afghanistan, has received much less aid than other provinces.
The US and others have focused their assistance on the more violent south where the Taliban insurgency is most virulent.
Mrs Bush also met female trainees at Afghanistan's National Police Bamiyan Regional Training Centre.
The first lady's visit came ahead of a donors conference in Paris, where the US hopes billions of dollars in international aid will be pledged to help the embattled nation. Afghanistan was ruled by the repressive Taliban until US. forces invaded following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"The people of Afghanistan don't want to go back and live like that," Mrs Bush told reporters on her plane as it made the nearly 14-hour flight to the Afghan capital.
"They know what it was like. The international community can't drop Afghanistan now, at this very crucial time."
President Bush, in an interview in Washington on Friday with RAI TV of Italy, said bluntly: "Afghanistan is broke."
Afghanistan is seeing a resurgence of violence and a spiralling heroin trade. Last year, more than 8000 people were killed in insurgency-related attacks -- the most since the 2001 invasion -- and violence has claimed more than 1500 lives this year.
Mrs Bush is also spending several hours meeting President Hamid Karzai, and visiting US troops.
President Bush has defended Mr Karzai against critics who say his government is weak and isn't doing enough to battle corruption and drug trafficking. Mrs Bush said the US and other nations should not blame Karzai unless they are going to give him credit for all the progress that's being made.
"It's really not that fair," she said.
"I think it's undermining, frankly, to blame him for a lot of the things that may or may not be his fault. He inherited -- just by becoming president -- a country that's been totally devastated. It is very, very difficult when you have al Qaeda and Taliban all over the borders and making incursions into Afghanistan, and it's intimidating for everyone."
The first lady's trip is more sharply focused on hopeful signs of progress.
She is also going to a new learning centre that will double as an orphanage; celebrating the construction of a road; and meeting with university students and members of the US-Afghan Women's Council.
The council was set up to help women gain the skills and education deprived them under years of the Taliban.
"A group of Afghan women who visited me most recently at the White House said: 'You know, we're really afraid. We think it is our chance right now, and if we don't get this chance -- if Afghanistan backslides back into the Taliban -- then we'll never get it,"' Mrs Bush said.
"It's more important than ever for the international community to continue to support Afghanistan -- certainly for the US to continue to support Afghanistan -- because we don't want it to be the way it was when the Buddhas were destroyed."
www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10515209&pnum=0
5:00AM Monday June 09, 2008
United States first lady Laura Bush has been welcomed to the backblocks of war-weary Afghanistan by New Zealand troops, who performed a haka.
Mrs Bush, on her third unannounced visit to the country, flew into the Afghan capital, Kabul, then boarded a helicopter for a 50-minute flight to the New Zealand base in Bamiyan Province -- the farthest she has travelled from Kabul on any of her visits.
Her chopper touched down in a dusty field at the New Zealand compound, where 150 NZ troops in the country are based as part of Nato-led forces.
From there she could see the empty niches in a cliffside where two giant Buddha statues once stood.
They were carved into the sandstone cliffs more than 2,000 years ago but were demolished by the Taliban, which considered them idolatrous and anti-Muslim, in March 2001.
In the shadow of the now-empty spaces, where the Buddhas once stood, soldiers from New Zealand's provincial reconstruction team -- one of 26 across the country -- performed the traditional haka, thrusting spears, and poking out tongues as US presidential bodyguards looked on slightly nervously, Reuters reported
The reconstruction units are aimed at bringing aid and development meant to undercut the insurgency, but Reuters reported that Bamiyan, one of the most peaceful places in Afghanistan, has received much less aid than other provinces.
The US and others have focused their assistance on the more violent south where the Taliban insurgency is most virulent.
Mrs Bush also met female trainees at Afghanistan's National Police Bamiyan Regional Training Centre.
The first lady's visit came ahead of a donors conference in Paris, where the US hopes billions of dollars in international aid will be pledged to help the embattled nation. Afghanistan was ruled by the repressive Taliban until US. forces invaded following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"The people of Afghanistan don't want to go back and live like that," Mrs Bush told reporters on her plane as it made the nearly 14-hour flight to the Afghan capital.
"They know what it was like. The international community can't drop Afghanistan now, at this very crucial time."
President Bush, in an interview in Washington on Friday with RAI TV of Italy, said bluntly: "Afghanistan is broke."
Afghanistan is seeing a resurgence of violence and a spiralling heroin trade. Last year, more than 8000 people were killed in insurgency-related attacks -- the most since the 2001 invasion -- and violence has claimed more than 1500 lives this year.
Mrs Bush is also spending several hours meeting President Hamid Karzai, and visiting US troops.
President Bush has defended Mr Karzai against critics who say his government is weak and isn't doing enough to battle corruption and drug trafficking. Mrs Bush said the US and other nations should not blame Karzai unless they are going to give him credit for all the progress that's being made.
"It's really not that fair," she said.
"I think it's undermining, frankly, to blame him for a lot of the things that may or may not be his fault. He inherited -- just by becoming president -- a country that's been totally devastated. It is very, very difficult when you have al Qaeda and Taliban all over the borders and making incursions into Afghanistan, and it's intimidating for everyone."
The first lady's trip is more sharply focused on hopeful signs of progress.
She is also going to a new learning centre that will double as an orphanage; celebrating the construction of a road; and meeting with university students and members of the US-Afghan Women's Council.
The council was set up to help women gain the skills and education deprived them under years of the Taliban.
"A group of Afghan women who visited me most recently at the White House said: 'You know, we're really afraid. We think it is our chance right now, and if we don't get this chance -- if Afghanistan backslides back into the Taliban -- then we'll never get it,"' Mrs Bush said.
"It's more important than ever for the international community to continue to support Afghanistan -- certainly for the US to continue to support Afghanistan -- because we don't want it to be the way it was when the Buddhas were destroyed."
www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10515209&pnum=0
