RIYADH, 19 June 2003 — The European Union has asked Saudi Arabia and 27 other countries to give more funds for ongoing reconstruction efforts in the war-torn Afghanistan.
EU Commissioner Chris Patten, in a letter sent to Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, has praised the efforts of Saudi Arabia while renewing his call for more donations for rebuilding the war-ravaged country.
Saudi Arabia has already pledged $220 million in aid to Afghanistan following a donors’ conference it co-chaired in Tokyo last year. Riyadh is also a partner with Washington and Tokyo to build a $180 million road network there. But Kabul, according to an estimate, needs some $15 billion for the reconstruction of the war-ravaged areas. Out of this, about $5 billion will be required in the next two to three years.
On the other hand, Saudi Arabia has also been a key player in Afghanistan’s 23 years of war, first backing Islamic fighters battling Soviet occupation forces in the 1980s and then supporting the Taleban from 1996. But the Saudi government froze diplomatic ties with the Taleban in 1998 to protest at the presence of Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan and severed relations completely two weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks on the US.
An AFP report said Patten praised the efforts of donors including the Kingdom who had met in Tokyo in January 2002 in his letters to the foreign ministers of the donor countries. “To date, the response of the international community to Afghanistan has been impressive and the Tokyo commitments have been honored fully,” Patten said in his letter.
Describing Afghanistan as being at a “critical juncture,” Patten urged the governments to consider whether they are able to allocate more resources.
Nearly half of the population of Afghanistan representing some 12 million people are still suffering because of the lack of basic amenities. A substantial section of Afghan population will need food aid to survive and to make it through the coming summer. More than one million are still at serious risk of disease and starvation. Afghanistan currently ranks last among all nations in terms of the calories consumed per person and first in terms of the number of women who die during childbirth.
A total of $4.5 billion worth of pledges offered at an Afghan reconstruction summit in Tokyo in January 2002 fell far short of Kabul’s needs. Afghanistan will need up to $20 billion to successfully combat the threats of terrorism still present since a US-led coalition ousted the Taleban regime in 2001.
