Afghans see mixed results post-Taliban
By DANIEL COONEY
Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- International donors have funneled billions of dollars of aid into Afghanistan in the four years since the ouster of the Taliban.
But as donors prepare to meet in London next week to discuss the country's needs for the next five years, most Afghans remain mired in poverty and many are increasingly frustrated about the aid effort, amid complaints that money has been wasted.
Even though hundreds of hospitals and medical clinics have been built or refurbished, Afghanistan still has some of the highest mortality rates in the world for women and children - a woman dies in childbirth every 30 minutes and nearly a quarter of all children perish before age 5, according to the United Nations.
"Thousands of women are still dying unnecessarily," said Azziz Khaza, an anesthesiologist, as she watched a baby delivered by caesarian section at Rabia Balkhi Hospital, which the U.S. spent $1.8 million refurbishing. "We need many more hospitals like this."
Signs of poverty are everywhere. On the streets of Kabul, crippled men compete with ragged children begging for change. Slums have sprung up as millions of people flock to the capital in search of work.
President Hamid Karzai told reporters last week, as his government and international donors drafted a blueprint for future development to be signed at the London conference, that his country will "need years of help before it can stand on its own legs."
Foreign aid has "brought tremendous improvements to the lives of the Afghan people," he said. But some of it has been misspent on high salaries for foreign consultants and other unnecessary costs, he said.
The president said future aid should be channeled through his government's coffers so it can be better managed - a request that has raised fears that much of it may disappear because of alleged widespread corruption.
Despite ongoing problems, the last four years have seen successes.
School enrollment has soared from 900,000 to 5 million. Many of those students are girls attending classes for the first time in nearly a decade after being banned from studying by the hard-line Islamic Taliban.
Roads have been rebuilt, including one linking the cities of Mazar-e-Sharif in the north to Kabul in the center, Kandahar in the south and Herat in the west.
Two national elections were held, one that saw Karzai elected as president and a second for a new parliament. A new currency has been introduced, and the economy is growing.
Some 4.4 million refugees have returned home. Thousands of militiamen who fought against the Taliban or Soviet troops in the 1980s have been demobilized, while 33,000 soldiers have been recruited and trained for a new army.
"What has happened here in the last few years is a major success story, but we are not under any illusion that it's ... in the bag," said Richard Norland, deputy chief of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. "There are still major problems to be resolved and it could slide backward."
One of the biggest problems is a lack of security.
Last year was the deadliest since 2001, with some 1,600 people killed in militant violence, including 91 U.S. troops. The past four months have seen an unprecedented spate of 20 suicide bombings, raising fears of Iraq-style bloodshed.
The fighting has left parts of southern and eastern regions off-limits to aid workers, while a series of attacks on schools - three were burned down Friday and a principal was beheaded this month - has forced many to close.
Another major challenge is a booming trade in opium and heroin, which has sparked warnings that the country is fast becoming a "narco-state" and stoked fears of drug-related violence.
The development plan to be signed next week, called the "Afghanistan Compact," lists a series of targets to be achieved by 2011, according to a draft provided to The Associated Press.
Many are vague, such as one that stipulates foreign forces will "ensure increased security and stability in all regions" but gives no indication of how to reach such a goal.
Others are specific, like tripling the size of the army to nearly 70,000, and reducing the number of people living on less than $1 a day by 3 percent a year.
Such targets, though, mean little to many here.
"We need jobs now," said Mohammed Anwar, a 40-year-old father of eight, as he trudged through Kabul's mud-clogged streets in search of snow-shoveling work that might earn him a couple of dollars a day.
"People may say things are getting better, but my family never eats meat, and we live in one room," he said. "We need more help."
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