Karzai Visits the Great Wall, Sure of Chinese Aid

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, January 24, 2002

Karzai Visits the Great Wall, Sure of Chinese Aid

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Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai said Thursday he was "sure" of further Chinese help to rebuild his shattered country, speaking during a visit to see China's most famous landmark, the Great Wall.

"Well, China has helped us in the past," he said when asked how Beijing could continue to assist.

"I am sure they will help us again."

Beijing has pledged almost US$5 million in assistance to Afghanistan. The countries signed an agreement on aid after Karzai met Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji during the first day of his brief visit Wednesday.

Wrapped against the winter cold in his trademark sheepskin cap and a purple and green robe, Karzai walked briskly along a section of the Great Wall at Badaling, north of Beijing.

He said his four-week-old regime had an extensive list of projects on which to spend the US$4.5 billion of aid pledged at an international donors' conference in Tokyo this week.

"Security, education, health and road building -- a very, very visible activity, road building," he said.

"On top of that should come the revitalisation of the administration, the government to become functional again."

The Afghan minister for reconstruction Amin Farhang, who was accompanying Karzai, promised his country would make proper use of the assistance.

"What is essential is that the international community did its duty, and now it is our turn to do what we have to do to use this money effectively," he said.

He reiterated that the regime would "pay any price" to maintain security in Afghanistan, saying that "you cannot achieve reconstruction without security".

Farhang said he had no new information as to the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden or leader of the ousted Taliban regime Mullah Omar.

"But if they are still in Afghanistan, they will be captured or they will commit suicide," he predicted.

Karzai is due to meet President Jiang Zemin later Thursday at the end of a two-day trip.

He will fly out of Beijing to Tajikistan after the meeting.

On Wednesday the Afghan delegation promised China it would assist with a crackdown on terrorists in Northwestern China, where the two countries share a small, mountainous border.

Karzai pledged his government "would make all-out efforts to cooperate with China and supports the Chinese government's crackdown on the 'East Turkestan' terrorist activities", Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.

Afghanistan would "extend full cooperation" with China on the issue, Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah said.

Source: China Daily

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