Afghanistan Opens a Rebuilt Road to Unite North and South
nytimes.com
DURANI, Afghanistan, Dec. 16 — The presidential special envoy and American ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, did not begin his remarks here today with the words "We did it," but he might as well have.
Two days after American officials celebrated their triumphant capture of Saddam Hussein in Iraq with the phrase "We got him," the Bush administration met a key goal in in its parallel effort to secure and rebuild Afghanistan.
The once-torturous but now silkily reconstructed road between Kabul and the southern city of Kandahar was formally completed today, just as President Bush had promised President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan more than a year ago that it would be.
"We are standing — literally — on the road to Afghanistan's future," Mr. Khalilzad said, speaking to a group of dignitaries gathered for an inauguration ceremony at kilometer 43 of the seductively smooth strip of gray. "It is a future of national unity. It is a future of prosperity. It is a future of peace."
The resurfacing of the road, which has reduced the travel time on its 300-mile distance from as much as 30 hours to 6 hours or less, has become the most visible sign of Afghanistan's postwar reconstruction, which many Afghans say has otherwise been frustratingly slow. It has given the Afghans who live nearby easier access to health care and markets and linked the Pashtun-dominated south with the north.
It is also the most visible evidence of the United States' commitment to that reconstruction, with America providing $190 million to complete the highway, the first phase of an effort to rebuild the ring road that circumnavigates Afghanistan. The highway had originally been built with United States government financing in the 1960's. The reconstruction began in January of this year.
"President Bush personally committed himself to the success of this project and he is a man who keeps his promises," Mr. Khalilzad said, referring to Mr. Bush's determination that the highway be finished before the end of the year.
In truth, the road, whose reconstruction was overseen by the Louis Berger Group, is not totally done: it has only a single layer of asphalt, with additional layers to be laid next spring, when shoulders will be built and signs placed.
But even as is, the road will allow for easy travel in winter, and it allowed two presidents to fulfill their pledges.
For Mr. Karzai, who has been defending the achievements of his presidency this week at an assembly to ratify a new Afghan constitution, today's inauguration was a way to show that his government can deliver development and security.
"This is bringing back to us the life that we all desired," Mr. Karzai said. He noted that the reconstruction of Afghanistan's shattered roads and highways "was something asked of me every day, every hour, by the people of Afghanistan."
The pressure to complete the road quickly had not just come from Mr. Bush, Mr. Karzai made clear, apologizing to his minister of public works, "Every day, without asking after your health, I asked: how is your road?"
The road's rapid reconstruction, and the urge to finish it before year-end, was part of a new drive to "accelerate success" in Afghanistan, ahead of elections scheduled for both Afghanistan and the United States next year.
The United States has budgeted $2 billion for fiscal year 2004 in Afghanistan. Part of the money will go to further road-building, including the road from Kandahar to Herat, and more than 1,000 kilometers of small feeder roads.
The road's potential to transform Afghan lives is already clear. A mechanic, Hamayoun, at a nearby bazaar said the road had made it easier to get help for sick people — and reaffirmed his faith in his government. "Now we realize our government will go forward for reconstruction," he said.
But the road's inauguration was marred by the fact that not everyone feels secure enough to use the road. As construction on the road proceeded, so did attacks by a resurgent Taliban, who killed four Afghans securing the road and seriously wounded 15 people. Eventually almost 1,000 guards had to be deployed to protect construction work.
Mr. Karzai prayed at a plaque to memorialize the dead, calling them "the martyrs of the reconstruction of Afghanistan." He and others spoke of a Turkish engineer who was kidnapped and then released by the Taliban, and of two Indian engineers who are still being held.
"They will fail in their attempts to stop Afghanistan's progress," Mr. Khalilzad said of those launching the attacks.
But some southern delegates for the constitutional assembly who attended today's road opening said they had been to flown to Kabul for the assembly, or avoided the road, out of concern for their safety.
The continuing threats were underscored by the huge security presence on the stretch, lined with snow-dusted hills and barren poplars, between Kabul and the dedication site. Mr. Karzai's American-guarded convoy drove down a road cleared of traffic, lined with armored personnel carriers and troops, and watched over by Apache helicopters.
Mr. Karzai did not drive back to Kabul, instead flying back in a Chinook helicopter. After his departure, the road opened again, with packed taxis and overloaded trucks speeding along its smoothness. |
