Russia helps defuse Kabul

Associated Press

MOSCOW — Russian army engineers have defused nearly 5,000 explosives in the Afghan capital of Kabul and in a key tunnel connection once used by the former Soviet Union to send troops into Afghanistan.

Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu expressed hope Wednesday that the Salang Tunnel, a vital link between northern and southern Afghanistan, could be reopened to cars in February. But he added that its ventilation system and lights still need to be restored in cooperation with French and British agencies.

As Afghanistan begins to recover from more than two decades of hostilities, it needs the tunnel to deliver aid to Kabul and connect the capital with the major northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

The tunnel was blown up in 1997 by Afghan anti-Taliban forces and the mountains can be crossed only on foot or by donkey. The tunnel remains inaccessible to vehicles.

Russian workers have also cleared 600 feet of debris at the southern end of the tunnel, Shoigu said at a news conference.

Russia has set up a field hospital in Kabul, which has provided medical aid to 2,560 patients and ferried more than 5,940 tons of wheat sent by the United Nations’ food agency on trucks via the central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan.

Some 385 tons of food have been delivered directly to Kabul aboard the ministry’s transport planes, Shoigu said.

Russia remains haunted by the defeat of Soviet armed forces in the brutal, 10-year war in Afghanistan that ended in 1989, and officials have stressed that Moscow will not provide military help in postwar Afghanistan. They say that Russian troops will not take part in the peacekeeping force, except to secure aid shipments.

Shoigu said his ministry was working to help start regular deliveries of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan across the so-called Friendship Bridge spanning the Amu Darya River. Uzbekistan closed the bridge in 1997 amid battles between the Taliban and their opponents, and it has been reluctant to reopen it despite the Taliban’s defeat.

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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