Bent under the weight of backpacks, M-16s, and rocket launchers, US Marines on Saturday took flights out of Afghanistan, after handing over to the Army the military base they set up in the Taliban heartland.
The Marines looked forward to TV, soft beds, and meals ``that didn't come out of a bag,'' said Cpl. Marcus Rounsaville, 22, of Jackson, Miss. He spent a month in the bunkers guarding the base at Kandahar airport in southern Afghanistan, the largest concentration of American troops in the country.
The Army's 101st Airborne Division takes control of the base as the focus of international operations shifts from routing the ousted ruling Taliban militia and the al-Qaida terror network to rebuilding this country shattered after nearly 23 years of war. In a sign of the change, Afghan and Russian officials Saturday formally reopened the Salang Tunnel, a key route between Kabul and the north through forbidding mountain terrain.
Repair workers removed tons of concrete rubble and other debris from the tunnel, the entrance to which anti-Taliban fighters sealed in 1997 to defend their strongholds in the north. Russian experts also cleared the tunnel of more than 6,700 tons of mines and explosives.
Twenty-six Russian trucks carrying 100 tons of flour Saturday became the first convoy through the two-mile tunnel, which will ease aid deliveries from countries to the north.
Meanwhile, Afghan Prime Minister Hamid Karzai, on his first trip abroad since taking office, met with Saudi Arabia's rulers, King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah, in Riyadh. The Saudi leaders promised ``in principle to contribute to the reconstruction of Afghanistan,'' an Afghan diplomat said on condition of anonymity. The amount was not immediately known.
Saudi Arabia, which was once a supporter of the ousted Taliban regime, will be a major participant at a two-day donors' conference for Afghanistan that opens in Tokyo on Monday. The gathering, which Karzai will attend, is expected to raise $3 billion for the next 21/2 years of rebuilding, Japanese press reports said Saturday.
In an interview published Saturday, Karzai said Western countries must deliver on promises of financial aid or Afghanistan will again become a ``sanctuary for terrorists.''
``I can only hope that the Western world doesn't turn away from Afghanistan again,'' Karzai told the German magazine Der Spiegel.
Afghans say the decision by the United States and its allies to ignore Afghanistan after the Soviets left in 1989 led to civil conflict which paved the way for the Taliban to take power in 1996.
Representatives of the United States and more than 50 countries and international organizations are participating in the Tokyo conference. Japan reportedly will promise a US$500 million donation; the United States US$400 million; and the 15 nations of the European Union some US$350 million.
(China Daily January 20, 2002)
