Author: Nilofar Suhrawardy, Special
to Arab News
Publication: Arab News
Date: November 22, 2001
URL: http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=10714
New Delhi, 22 November - India staged
a comeback in Afghanistan yesterday by sending its first diplomatic mission
there since the closure of its embassy in Kabul in 1996.
"I am happy to inform ...that a
diplomatic mission to Afghanistan landed at Bagram airfield, near Kabul,
at 0955 hours this morning," External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh told
the upper house of parliament.
The mission comprises the Indian
Special Envoy for Afghanistan, Satinder Lambah, senior diplomats, interpreters
and "other essential staff," he said.
"It also has a medical and nursing
component which will stay on in Kabul along with the liaison officer of
the Ministry of External Affairs of India," Jaswant added. An Indian Army
spokesperson said the doctors and nurses were from the Army Medical Corps.
and the Military Nursing Service respectively. He did not specify the number
of medical staff sent to Afghanistan.
Besides reopening the embassy in
Kabul, diplomats yesterday spoke of the possibility of a resumption of
civilian flights between Delhi and Kabul in the coming weeks. If resumed,
the flights would be operated by Indian Airlines.
However, an Indian Airlines source
said "there is no way" flights can resume "until a government is established
in Afghanistan which is officially recognized by the Indian government."
The Indian Embassy in Kabul was closed on Sept. 26, 1996, after the Taleban
seized the Afghan capital.
India, like Russia and Iran, supported
the Northern Alliance in its fight against the Taleban.
In recent days India had indicated
that it was considering "various options" vis-a-vis Afghanistan, including
the reopening of its embassy in Kabul.
External Affairs Ministry spokeswoman
Nirupama Rao said the objective of the mission was "to express solidarity
with the Afghan people" and re-establish historic ties by ascertaining
what needs to be done there.
She said the mission's medical personnel
will seek to revive the Indira Gandhi Hospital in Afghanistan, which was
set up by India but has been closed since the Taleban came to power.
Special envoy Lambah was expected
to return to India late yesterday after meeting representatives of the
Northern Alliance as well as other Afghan leaders who were trying to restore
peace and normalcy in Afghanistan, Rao added.
An Indian official said there had
always been strong links between India and Afghanistan, and that New Delhi
was hoping to reopen its embassy there as soon as conditions on the ground
would allow.
India has pledged more than $100
million for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. While Northern Alliance
forces were battling the Taleban, Delhi had established a "goodwill" field
hospital on the Tajik-Afghan border.
Since the fall of Kabul on Nov.
13, India has intensified efforts to play a significant role in post-Taleban
Afghanistan. Last week, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said the installation
of a UN-supervised government in Kabul was the most concrete solution in
Afghanistan.
India is the third country after
Russia and Iran to send diplomats to Kabul. The United Nations is organizing
an inter-Afghan conference next week in Germany with the objective of convening
a Loya Jirga (Grand Assembly) to establish an interim government in Kabul.
