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| Afghanis are
waiting for donors money to rebuild their war-ravaged country. |
ANKARA,
March 14 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – While Turkish,
British and U.S. officials began talks Thursday on the multinational
security force in Afghanistan, the Afghan Reconstruction Minister
complained angrily that donor countries were too slow in providing
promised aid to his war-ravaged country.
"There
is still very little money. We have huge tasks ahead of us and we
cannot begin due to a lack of funds," Amin Farhang said
Thursday on the Deutschland funk radio station.
He
said Afghan farmers were notably in desperate need of seeds for
Spring planting. However, Farhang praised Germany for its fast
disbursement of financial aid, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
At
a donors conference in Tokyo in January, Germany pledged to provide
80 million euros (70 million dollars) in 2002 and 320 million euros
(280 million dollars) for the period 2002-2005 to help rebuild
Afghanistan, the largest commitment from an EU country.
Donor
countries have pledged a total of 4.5 billion dollars to Afghanistan
over five years, but the money is only trickling in.
Farhang
is one of six ministers accompanying interim Afghan leader Hamid
Karzai on a three-day visit to Germany as a part of a tour to secure
concrete international commitments on financial aid.
UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan said February 2001 he was concerned
over the gap between pledges and disbursement of international aid
to Afghanistan.
In
Ankara, meanwhile, top officials from Turkey, the United Kingdom and
the United States gathered Thursday to discuss a proposal for Turkey
to take over the leadership of the peacekeeping force in
Afghanistan, reported BBC’s online news service.
The
UK currently leads the 4,500-strong International Security
Assistance Force (ISAF) but is keen to hand over command to another
country by the end of April.
Turkey
was initially enthusiastic when it was suggested as a possible
leader, but has since become concerned about the mandate, make-up
and costs of heading the force. "We will see to what extent the
answers to these questions can be found," said Foreign Ministry
spokesman Huseyin Dirioz.
The
meeting of military and diplomatic officials at the Turkish Foreign
Ministry were expected to take place last week, but was postponed
for logistical reasons. The talks are closed to the media, AFP
reported.
The
delegations are led by the U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, James Dobbins;
the British envoy to Afghanistan, David Reddaway, and Ambassador
Aydemir Erman for Turkey, who is the foreign ministry's special
coordinator for Afghanistan.
Turkey,
the only Muslim member of NATO, expressed readiness to assume
command of the ISAF, but has requested financial support and
clarification of the scope and terms of the mission before possibly
taking over from Britain in April.
Ankara
is seeking assurances that NATO members would maintain their
presence in Afghanistan and that Turkey would receive adequate
logistical support in operations.
Turkey
also wants to know whether ISAF's area of responsibility would be
expanded - as requested by Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai - or
it would remain limited to operating in and around the capital
Kabul.
Another
point of concern for Ankara is the financial cost of the operation,
which could pose a difficulty for the country's crisis-hit economy.
