WASHINGTON: US President George Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai signed a “strategic partnership” on Monday enabling long term American involvement in Afghanistan’s security as well as reconstruction.
Among the key points of the agreement was allowing US military forces operating in Afghanistan to have continued access to the key Bagram Air Base as well as other military facilities as “may be mutually determined”.
American access to these facilities was necessary for US forces to “help organise, train, equip, and sustain Afghan security forces” according to the joint declaration of the “US-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership”.
“It’s a partnership we have been working on for quite a while,” Bush told reporters with Karzai by his side after their meeting at the White House. “It’s a partnership that establishes regular high level exchanges of mutual interest,” Bush said.
Earlier, Karzai complained about US treatment of Afghan detainees and Bush said Afghanistan poppy cultivation for heroin has to stop.
Karzai told Bush of his concern about a US Army report on alleged abuse of Afghan detainees. The report, details of which were published last week by The New York Times, described abuses of prisoners at the hands of US troops, including two deaths.
Also, in the wake of a reported State Department complaint that Karzai was not doing enough to eradicate the Afghan poppy crop used to make heroin, Bush said, “There is too much poppy cultivation in Afghanistan and I made it very clear that we have got to work together to eradicate the poppy crop.” agencies
Pakistan countrywide anti-U.S. demonstrations expected on Friday.
Pakistanis demand US apology
Wednesday 25 May 2005, 21:38 Makka Time, 18:38 GMT
Protesters say US troops should be brought to justice
Around 5000 people have rallied in Pakistan against alleged desecration of the Quran by US military interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, torching an effigy of US President George Bush.
Witnesses said the protesters also chanted anti-US slogans as they left the headquarters of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's largest religious party, and marched about one kilometre to hold a demonstration at the tomb of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.
The rally on Wednesday was organised by Pakistan's powerful religious alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), which called it a prelude to countrywide demonstrations expected on Friday.
"These demonstrations will not stop unless the US apologises and punishes the American soldiers responsible for the desecration of the holy Quran," MMA vice-president Ghafoor Ahmed told the participants of the rally.
The demonstration follows mass protests around the world after a 2 May report in Newsweek magazine that US investigators had found that interrogators at Guantanamo threw a Quran in a toilet to humiliate Muslim inmates.
Fifteen people died in Afghanistan as violence erupted there.
The magazine last week retracted the story after its source developed doubts, and the Pentagon has said its own investigation has found no evidence to support the allegation that Qurans were defiled at the prison.
Still, Pakistan has said it will raise the issue with visiting US Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca, who started a three-day visit of Pakistan on Wednesday.
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