Reuters
November 29
zbekistan signaled on Thursday that the reopening of a bridge crucial for moving large-scale aid into neighboring Afghanistan might not be imminent.
Ending a visit to Washington, top Uzbekistan officials said the bridge, at Termez, needed inspection -- and possibly repairs -- after five years out of service.
Only then, they said, could it take the heavy traffic of aid that international agencies believe war-torn northern Afghanistan needs as winter increasingly grips the region.
The officials said the bridge's capacity to carry heavy loads might also have to be upgraded.
International aid agencies are putting pressure on Uzbekistan for the swift opening of the 0.6-mile (1-km) road and rail bridge, built in 1982 during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
The agencies say that at the moment, river barges can take only small amounts of aid can across the Amu Darya into Afghanistan.
Uzbekistan Deputy Foreign Minister Sadyq Safaev rejected suggestions that failure to make the Friendship Bridge operational was significantly holding up relief supplies.
``The capacity of all the barges is enough to deliver all humanitarian aid which is now deployed in Termez,'' Safaev told a news conference.
DELAYS DENIED
``So far there hasn't been any delay with the supply of humanitarian aid from Uzbekistan to Afghanistan. We think it is one of the most important parts of Uzbekistan's contribution to the entire (anti-)terrorist operation.''
Earlier this week, U.N. relief officials said lawlessness accompanying the war in Afghanistan was delaying relief supplies from directions other than Uzbekistan and up to 7 million people were at risk from hunger.
Safaev said U.S. specialists had been called in to inspect the bridge, which he said was closed five years ago to stop violence spilling into his country when Afghanistan's fundamentalist Taliban took over the nation.
``Now we have invited specialists from the U.S. to help us in inspecting this bridge. Maybe there will need to be repairs to some parts, but whenever the experts tell us that the bridge is ready to carry cargo, it will be open to all aid agencies,'' he said.
Asked if the bridge's opening was imminent, Safaev replied:
``There is imminently going on the process of inspection. Whenever the inspection will confirm that it is ready, it will be opened. I am not in a position to give a specific date.''
FEAR OF SABOTAGE
Uzbekistan's Defense Minister Kadir Gulomov, who was also in the visiting delegation, said there was concern that Taliban forces now on the run might try to sabotage the bridge.
``These are not the best of days for Taliban forces and these terrorist gangs. Therefore, they are all trying to escape. They have organized small groups, and one of our concerns with the bridge is that they can do something in the vicinity of the bridge,'' Gulomov said.
Gulomov said security had been stepped up along Uzbekistan's border with Afghanistan and vowed there would be no escape by Taliban through its frontier.
In a sign of Uzbekistan's importance to the United States in its fight against global terrorism, Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Thursday that Uzbekistan would be one of two former Soviet republics in Central Asia he will visit during a tour to boost support for the U.S.-led war.
The trip begins in Romania on Tuesday.
Asked if he would try to get the Friendship Bridge reopened during his trip, Powell replied, ``We hope the Friendship Bridge will be open before then.''
Powell did not say when he would stop in Uzbekistan.
Some 1,000 American soldiers are at a base at Khanabad in southern Uzbekistan, allowed to use it only for search-and-rescue missions and humanitarian work in Afghanistan.
The Uzbek officials gave no details of their talks in Washington except to say that they and their U.S. counterparts now had a clearer idea of how they could cooperate.