Afghan Gardeners and Driver Await Return of Chinese Ambassador

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, December 17, 2001

Afghan Gardeners and Driver Await Return of Chinese Ambassador

Aziz Ullah has been waiting eight years for Chinese officials to return to their bombed-out embassy complex in Kabul. The delegation from Beijing he expected at the weekend failed to turn up but Aziz Ullah is not worrying yet.

Gardeners' Long-time Waiting

"I don't mind waiting, I've been doing it for so long, but I'll be very happy when they do arrive," the 65-year-old gardner said. "Then I may get paid every month instead of every six months."

White-haired, white-bearded, gap-toothed Aziz Ullah and his fellow gardener no longer have a garden to tend. The embassy driver no longer has a car to drive. They have spent long years since China shut the embassy in 1993 simply waiting.

"We tried to keep the garden going but the rockets destroyed our greenhouse," he said, referring to battles between rival mujahedin warlords who bombed and rocketed Kabul in the early 1990s during a civil war that left much of the city in ruins.

Embassy Garden Still Beautiful

"Then we began growing flowers -- Chinese ones, Afghan ones and Iranian ones -- from seeds, but we ran out of these. After that another rocket damaged our hosepipe. So we just stopped trying," he said.

After some thought he pointed proudly to a row of pines and added: "But we did manage to keep these trees alive."

1992-1996 Fighting Destroyed the Chinese Embassy

He estimates that 500 rockets "and one bomb" landed on the Chinese embassy complex during the 1992-1996 fighting.

The complex backs on to the presidential palace, which was the main target of the rocket attacks, but, according to the gardener, "the mujahedin couldn't aim very well."

In anticipation of the arrival of the Chinese team, led by Zhang Min, China's former charge d'affaires in Kabul, Aziz Ullah and his colleagues tried to spruce up the guest house, the least damaged of the three buildings making up the embassy.

"We washed the carpet, but we decided just to leave the rubble," he said.

They also replaced the two "Chinese dogs" that used to grace the premises before they were shot -- one by the mujahedin the other by the Taliban + with "two German dogs."

The three employees, who are sent pay checks from Beijing twice a year, sleep in the guardhouse, each going home one night in three.

"But we are not guards, there is nothing to guard," Ullah, who has worked at the embassy for 15 years, said firmly. His main task now is to head off reporters.

"No one comes in here, not even Chinese journalists," he said in front of two huge red iron gates that shield the complex from the street.

Above the gates, fluttering on the roof of the guesthouse, the red Chinese national flag can be seen.

"The flag has been there ever since the officials left, but it faded and a few years back an official arrived with a new one. Now it is red again."

Gardeners Protect China's Red Flag

Aziz Ullah said the ousted Taliban regime, which took advantage of the chaos created by the rival warlords to seize Kabul in 1996, had ordered him to take down the flag and replace it with their white one.

"Each time I told them I would but I never did. They used to get very angry with me. But the red flag stayed there."

The gardener believes the mission, which officials in Beijing said on Friday would inspect the embassy and decide what has to be done to prepare it for reopening, "will get a shock" when they see the state of the complex.

"There is no water, there is no electricity, apart from in our little hut, and everything is destroyed by the rockets. No ambassador can live there."

When the delegation does finally arrive, however, his first request will be for some flower seeds and a new hose pipe. "I'd like to do some gardening again," Aziz Ullah said. "It's what I have been waiting for."

China to Resume Embassy Work in Afghanistan

According to Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue, China will send diplomats to Afghanistan this week to inspect the Chinese embassy in Afghanistan and contact relevant parties.

The Foreign Ministry will resume the work of the embassy in Afghanistan at an appropriate time. Peace-keeping in Afghanistan actions should be authorized by UN General Assembly with the consent of the Afghanistan people.

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