Uzbekistan opens key bridge for aid to Afghanistan


Reuters
December 9

Uzbekistan opened a key border bridge for aid deliveries to Afghanistan on Sunday, making good on a promise President Islam Karimov gave to visiting Secretary of State Colin Powell.

A spokesman for the presidential press service said that the bridge had been opened, allowing the volume of humanitarian aid passing through Uzbekistan into northern Afghanistan to be greatly increased.

Following the launch of the U.S. military campaign against the hard-line Taliban and their ``guest'' Osama bin Laden , international aid organizations had urged the opening of the Friendship Bridge, built in 1982 by the Soviet Union to supply its occupational force in Afghanistan.

But Uzbekistan had expressed concerns over the strength of the bridge, saying it needed checks before it could be used for aid deliveries. The United States sent military engineers recently to examine it.

In November, Uzbekistan allowed humanitarian agencies to begin delivering aid to Afghanistan by barge through its southern Termez river port. But Uzbek authorities were reluctant to throw open the bridge linking the two countries without adequate security guarantees.

Uzbekistan closed the bridge five years ago to stop violence and Islamic fundamentalism spilling over the border after the Taliban swept to power in Afghanistan.

The northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif was one of the first major Taliban strongholds to fall to the opposition Northern Alliance.

The bridge, which spans the Amu Darya river, can be used for both road and rail traffic.