DATE=04/20/2002

TYPE=EDITORIAL

NUMBER=0-09834

TITLE=EDITORIAL: FORMER AFGHAN KING RETURNS

INTERNET=Yes

CONTENT=THIS EDITORIAL IS BEING RELEASED FOR USE BY ALL SERVICES.

Anncr: Next, an editorial reflecting the views of the United States Government:

Voice: The nations of the U.S.-led coalition did not go to Afghanistan as conquerors. They went as liberators to eliminate the oppressive Taleban regime and root out the al-Qaida terrorists who sought to impose their own extreme version of Islam on Afghanistan.

The Taleban and al-Qaida took Afghanistan hostage and tried to tear apart the country's social fabric. They destroyed schools, hospitals, and universities throughout Afghanistan.

Today, the U.S.-led coalition is helping Afghans to rebuild. The infrastructure -- including schools, hospitals, and roads -- is being rebuilt. An interim administration, headed by Hamid Karzai, was chosen in December to direct Afghanistan's affairs for six months. The Loya Jirga, Afghanistan's grand council, will meet in June to name a new government.

On hand to convene the national assembly of tribal elders and other prominent Afghan officials will be Mohammad Zahir Shah, Afghanistan's former king. On April 17th, he returned to Afghanistan after twenty-nine years of exile in Italy. While there are no plans to restore the monarchy, the eighty-seven-year-old former king said he wants to spend his last years serving the Afghan people. "I will carry out any role or mission the people of Afghanistan wish to bestow on me," said Zahir Shah.

Abdullah Abdullah, the Afghan interim administration's foreign minister, said that the former king's return "is a sign of normalcy. It is also important in the sense of national unity, which is much needed nowadays in Afghanistan, perhaps more than any other time."

The U.S. is committed to cooperating with the interim government and the Loya Jirga so that the people of Afghanistan can soon form a permanent broad-based government. As U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Robert P. Finn put it, "There's a spirit of hope everywhere in the country.... People are beginning to paint their houses, to repair their stores, so there's a real optimistic spirit."

Anncr: That was an editorial reflecting the views of the United States Government. If you have a comment, please write to Editorials, V-O-A, Washington, D-C, 20237, U-S-A. You may also comment at www-dot-ibb-dot-gov-slash-editorials, or fax us at (202) 619-1043.