| Afghanistan
Wants Russian Military Aid
VOA News 10 Feb 2002 23:57 UTC  
Mr. Fahim is expected to meet with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov Monday to discuss military cooperation. The new Afghan leadership wants help in forming an army able to put down factional violence, like that which allowed the Taleban to take over most of the country in 1996. During his week in Moscow, Mr. Fahim will also meet with exporters of military supplies and officials from Russia's Foreign and Emergency Situations ministries to discuss the war against terrorism and the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. Late last month, interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai won a promise from President Bush of U.S. help in forming an national army and police force. Mr. Karzai also pressed the United Nations Security Council and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to expand the international peacekeeping force now patrolling Kabul so it can be used to keep the peace in other major cities. That effort has, so far, been unsuccessful. Britain currently leads the peacekeeping force in Kabul. Russia has stressed it has no plans to provide troops for the international peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan. An ethnic Tajik, Mr. Fahim became military chief of the Northern Alliance after his close ally, former Northern Alliance military leader Ahmed Shah Massood, was assassinated two days before the September 11th attacks against the United States.
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