09665

01/25/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-09665

AID FOR AFGHANISTAN

Two decades of war in Afghanistan, including a decade-long Soviet occupation, left that country impoverished and faced with a humanitarian crisis. Severe restrictions by the Taleban, including a ban on women working outside the home, added to the poverty. The restrictions were particularly cruel to widows. Afghanistan is a country where life expectancy is forty-four years and one in four children dies before the age of five.

Afghanistan’s government lacked the capacity to deliver even the most basic health care, education, and other social services. But thanks to the American-led coalition, the repressive Taleban regime has been replaced by a new interim government headed by Hamid Karzai.

Mr. Karzai attended a Tokyo conference of representatives from the United States and other countries called to put together plans to help Afghanistan. The Afghan leader told the gathering, "Help us stand again on our feet to make a country that will pursue its own values and traditions. . .and work against terrorism."

Afghanistan was the number-one recipient of U-S humanitarian assistance even before the terrorist attacks on America on September 11^th. America continues to lead the effort to help that war-torn nation. As U-S Secretary of State Colin Powell told Afghan leader Hamid Karzai, "The American people are with you for the long term."

The U-S has pledged two-hundred ninety-six million dollars this year for Afghan reconstruction -- the first part of a multi-year development plan. Other major contributors include the European Union, which over the next four years intends to give one-billion dollars. Japan has pledged five-hundred million dollars over a two-and-a-half-year period. Germany, Saudi Arabia, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank, among others, will also be contributing. The United Nations estimates that Afghanistan will need fifteen-billion dollars to recover over the next ten years.

As U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan said, "The true test. . .is not how quickly we can pledge our help but whether we will make good on those pledges, whether we provide the aid that is desperately needed right now and whether we stay engaged."