CHINA> Focus
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CHINA> Focus
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Clearing the way for peace
By Peng Kuang and Zhang Haizhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-10 10:33 As young men growing up in Afghanistan, A. Moujoude Nahibzadah and Jawad Yakawlangi have already endured years of bloody conflict. Like most, they have witnessed the loss of many friends, colleagues and loved ones.
Yet as members of the Afghan National Army, they will bravely return home tomorrow to rejoin the fight against the Taliban after intense military training in China. They are among 19 second lieutenants who yesterday completed a seven-week course in mine clearing with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province. The PLA University of Science and Technology has run the biennial minesweeper program since 1999 and trained 300 troops from 15 countries, mainly in Africa and Asia.
Afghan army ordnance teams cleared 82,000 anti-personnel mines and 900 anti-vehicle mines in the war-torn Central Asian nation last year, although hundreds of minefields still remain, according to the United States Global Strategic Network. "I've seen 14 comrades killed by the Taliban's remote-operated mines," said Nahibzadah, 21, one of more than 93,000 troops in the Afghan National Army, the country's government-led forces. Soldiers who attend the PLA college course are trained in detecting and dismantling mines, as well as how to deal with unexploded bombs and missiles. "When we are back home, we will teach our fellow soldiers what we have learned here in China," added Yakawlangi, 20. China has been active in the reconstruction of Afghanistan since the United States invaded the country following the 9/11 terror attacks on New York City and the Pentagon in Washington. The China Metallurgical Group Corp and China's top integrated copper producer, Jiangxi Copper Corporation, in July started work in Logar, a province southeast of the country's capital Kabul, to explore and develop the vast Aynak copper mines. The $4 billion investment was the biggest in Afghanistan's history. But as the war gets increasingly complex for the US and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, communities from across the globe have called for more involvement from China. NATO and major politicians in Afghanistan have this year repeatedly urged Beijing to open its 91.5-km border with its Central Asian neighbor to boost logistical options to supply anti-Taliban forces. Meanwhile, Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, has requested China to send troops into the war zone, an appeal firmly rejected by the Foreign Ministry here.
According to the Pentagon, headquarters of the US military, China agreed to work together with US to stabilize the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, analysts say it is unlikely China and the US will secure any meaningful cooperation when it comes to Afghanistan. "I think the only precondition for China-US cooperation on Afghanistan would be for Washington to end the war and pull its troops out," said Li Qinggong, deputy secretary-general of the China Council for National Security Policy Studies. "The conflict is a no-win situation. It is too unique and the country's terrain is too hard to fight a war on." Li said he backed Beijing's policy of non-military support for the Afghan people, such as mine clearance training in Nanjing. US President Barack Obama is still deliberating whether to send the 40,000 extra soldiers requested by General Stanley McChrystal, the US forces commander in Afghanistan. |
