BAMIYAN, Afghanistan—U.S. First Lady Laura Bush, on an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Sunday, appealed to the international community not to abandon the country in the face of resurgent Taliban violence.
She arrived under tight security for an 8-1/2-hour visit to a country that her husband, President George W. Bush, has declared a main front in the battle against Islamist militants.
Mrs. Bush, on her third trip to the country, said it was a chance to highlight signs of reconstruction and improved women's rights since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001.
Another important element of her mission was to try to shore up international commitment to the country as Afghan, U.S. and NATO forces struggle to contain a Taliban guerrilla war.
"We don't need to be intimidated by them," Mrs. Bush told reporters on her plane heading for the Afghan capital, Kabul. "The international community can't drop Afghanistan now at this very crucial time."
It was important that Afghans understood "the rest of the world is with you and that we're not going to leave you right now when the Taliban and al Qaeda is trying to intimidate you", she said.
She said she hoped her visit would help her make the case at an Afghan donors conference in Paris next week that the international community should maintain support for Afghanistan.
The Taliban and their al Qaeda allies have vowed to step up suicide bombings in an effort to wear down Western public support for keeping international forces in Afghanistan.
Asked whether she was concerned that the international community would abandon Afghanistan, Mrs. Bush said: "I don't think they will. I just don't want them to be discouraged."
After a brief stop in Kabul, Mrs. Bush flew by helicopter to the central town of Bamiyan, where in 2001 the Taliban blew up two ancient giant statues of Buddha carved into a mountainside.
In the shadow of the empty caves where the Buddhas once stood, Mrs. Bush was met by New Zealand troops who performed a traditional Maori haka dance.
The New Zealand troops in Bamiyan form one of 26 Provincial Reconstruction Teams across the country, aimed at bringing aid and development meant to undercut the insurgency.
Mrs. Bush visited a police academy in Bamiyan, the only one of 34 Afghan provinces to have a female governor, and spoke to about a dozen female police recruits.
She later inaugurated a U.S.-funded road building project in the town and was serenaded by schoolgirls from under-privileged backgrounds such as those orphaned by war.
While the Taliban banned girls from school, the United Nations says there are now more girls in education than there were boys being taught under the ousted Islamist government.
"Of course we want more (girls) in school and I think this is the key to success in Afghanistan," said Mrs. Bush, a former teacher. Despite progress, still only 35 percent of those in education were girls. "We want that to be 50-50," she said.
Feeds