WORLD> Asia-Pacific
|
WORLD> Asia-Pacific
|
|
First lady in Afghanistan to highlight progress
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-06-08 16:50 BAMIYAN, Afghanistan -- First lady Laura Bush ventured outside of Kabul on Sunday to an area that symbolizes both the destruction of war and Afghanistan's attempt at rebirth.
Mrs. Bush jet landed in the Afghan capital and she immediately boarded a helicopter for a 50-minute flight to Bamiyan Province, the farthest she has traveled from Kabul. Her chopper touched down in a dusty field at a provincial reconstruction team compound operated by New Zealand. From the compound 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. Destruction of the historical and cultural treasures prompted an outcry from the international community. Mrs. Bush next met with female trainees at Afghanistan's National Police Bamiyan Regional Training Center. The first lady's visit is to highlight signs of rebirth in Afghanistan 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. This is Mrs. Bush's third trip to Afghanistan, where the repressive Taliban ruled until US forces invaded following the Sept. 11, 2001, 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 spiraling heroin trade. Last year, more than 8,000 people were killed in insurgency-related attacks, the most since the 2001 invasion, and violence has claimed more than 1,500 lives this year. |
