Karzai appeals for global support

PARIS—Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who is on a visit to France, issued an appeal to the international community not to abandon his country which had “a long way to go” before its stability was assured.
“For many years ahead of us the international community will need to be with us, helping us,” Karzai said in a speech on Tuesday at the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI). “Afghanistan has a long way to go,” he said. “But the road so far has been marked by success ... So help those who have proven that they can help themselves.” Karzai arrived on Sunday on his first official visit to France. He leaves on Wednesday.
On Monday he met President Jacques Chirac who gave him assurances about France’s continuing military and civil effort to rebuild the country after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. He also met Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie.
Later Tuesday he was to see Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, and visit the national parliament and Paris city hall. On Wednesday he speaks before the general assembly of the UN cultural organisation UNESCO. Karzai said that things had improved markedly in Afghanistan, “but I must caution you that all is not rosy. We have a long way to go. We have taken baby steps.”
He pointed in particular at problems of corruption in the civil service, an undeveloped judiciary and the continuation of poppy cultivation — which he believed would only be eradicated after five to 10 years. The president, who is also to see French business leaders, said there were widespread opportunities for foreign investment, especially in the cement and energy industries.
Agencies add: A bomb exploded at a key border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing at least six Afghans, including a woman and two boys, and wounding 16 other people, officials said. The victims were civilians trying to enter Pakistan or return to Afghanistan through the Spin Boldak border crossing in southern Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, Spin Boldak police chief Abdul Wasay told reporters. Victims were treated in hospital in Spin Boldak and at Chaman on the Pakistani side of the border. Staff said there were three dead at each hospital — three men, a woman and two boys. The commander of Afghan border forces in the area, Abdul Raziq Khan, said the bomb had been hidden in a water pot near a transport office.
Kandahar Governor Assadullah Khalid called it “an act of sabotage by the enemies of Afghanistan,” a term officials commonly use to refer to Taliban guerrillas and their militant Islamist allies.—Agencies