A rchive Date
[ 21-02-2005 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Afghanistan ]
|
[http://canoe.ca/CNEWSAttack0204/18_king-ap.html
Afghan king returns
By TODD PITMAN - The Associated Press
Thursday, April 18, 2002
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghan troops stand guard beside high-powered spotlights on the rooftop. The villa walls are topped with coils of barbed wire. Heavy, six-wheeled armored troop carriers are parked outside. It looks like a prison. But it's the new home of Afghanistan's long-exiled king.
Fears of a possible assassination attempt postponed Mohammad Zaher Shah's return last month. Now that he's back - he arrived Thursday for the first time since a coup 29 years ago - authorities are taking no chances.
"Sure, there are some people who want to do bad things to the king," said Sher Agha, the commander of dozens of troops guarding a single traffic circle on the route of the former king's motorcade. "But we have security four blocks deep. It's enough."
Zaher Shah arrived in Kabul aboard an Italian army C-130 cargo plane, one of three in an aerial convoy.
Besides dozens of officials, tribal representatives and journalists, scores of tanks and jeeps mounted with machine guns were waiting on the runway.
Two dozen international peacekeeping troops stationed in the control tower surveyed the tarmac with binoculars. Down below, peacekeepers patrolled with dogs.
The former monarch's first steps were on a red carpet. He was soon whisked away to his residence in a long motorcade.
Along the road, thousands of cheering Afghans waited with 2,000 armed Afghan police, who whipped people with branches to keep them off the street.
Kabul was filled with security checkpoints. Some roads were blocked off altogether, save for specially authorized vehicles.
Outside the former king's residence, Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police were positioned in green jeeps. The Italians were sent to escort the former monarch home, protect his house and work with his bodyguards.
Green and white Interior Ministry trucks near the residence disgorged dozens of security forces wearing riot helmets and carrying Kalashnikovs. As ministers emerged from Zaher Shah's home, 150 police stood outside, along with a unit of German peacekeepers.
The former king was supposed to have returned last month, but President Bush called Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to warn that the Afghan security forces were not ready, according to a senior U.S. official in Washington. Berlusconi agreed and delayed the trip, the official said.
Afghanistan's interim foreign minister, Abdullah, acknowledged there had been several incidents in recent weeks that raised questions about security in Afghanistan, including an attempt to kill the defense minister and the arrest of dozens of people accused of plotting to undermine the government.
"But overall, the security situation has improved since the establishment of the interim authority. I'm quite confident. I am quite relaxed," he said. "Our people have dealt with major problems in the past. We should be able to deal with minor problems which are left."
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
|