Posted on 12/08/2003 7:36:41 PM PST by Kay Soze
Arab and Muslim nations have given the least assistance to Afghanistan among international donors, Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani said on Monday, while expressing hope they would "rise to the challenge."
"I hope that our Arab brothers will help us substantially. We have not seen any major contribution from our Arab brothers," Ghani told a press conference at which European Commission representative Karl Harbo signed over a new 79.5-million-euro (100-million-dollar) aid package.
"I think it deserves emphasis that the least amount of assistance is coming from Muslim countries to this country which has been at the forefront of freeing the world from the evils of communism and then terrorism and I hope that Muslim solidarity will come," Ghani said.
"I'm delighted that the European Union is providing sustained, consistent support as is the rest of the world and I hope very much that the Muslim world would rise to the challenge to help us in this regard," he said.
Ghani has repeatedly said Afghanistan needs 30 billion dollars in aid and investment over the next five years to avoid turning into a "narco-mafia state." He said the United States, European Union, Japan and Canada were the country's main donors.
Harbo said the European Union would pay out around 200 million euros this calendar year and had so far given 350 million euros since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001.
European parliament elections next year should not affect continuing aid to Afghanistan, said the head of the European Commission's Kabul office.
"I'm very confident there will be another five-year pledge to Afghanistan when the new financial perspective has been completed," he said.
The new EC aid mainly covers reconstruction of the road from Kabul to the Pakistan border at Torkham, public sector reform, rural development and help for returned refugees.
Ghani said the first disbursements of money to villages under Kabul's National Solidarity Programme would start this week. Under the programme, villages are given money to fund their own reconstruction and poverty eradication projects.
"Our hope is that in three years we will be able to cover every single village of the country," he said.
Kabul was also working on programmes to renovate irrigation networks with World Bank help and hopes to soon pave up to 1,000 kilometres of secondary roads "that would allow us to reach some of the poorest areas of the country and some also where security has not been what we would like it to be," Ghani said.
Other agriculture and health programmes were aimed at helping the most vulnerable sectors of the population.
"So I hope that as funding now is going to flow into programmes that have been well conceived, we'll be able to see the impact on the ground," he said.
After 23 years of war Afghanistan is facing major challenges in rebuilding national infrastructure and institutions, particularly in the face of attacks by an apparent resurgence of Taliban in the south and east.
They do however share with their arab brothers to tear down Israel and blow up day care centers across the globe.
Is it any wonder...?
Perhaps you mean in terms of building hostpitals (which was an institution developed by Christians in the middle ages)? In that way, no Muslims are not charitable. But if you wanted to build a school to teach kids to kill Jews, then you would be flooded with Islamic donations.
Oh, brother.
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