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Afghans Say U.S. to Help Wedding Victims

While Pentagon stays silent on responsibility for the tragedy, U.S. officials promise financial aid to the area

Wednesday, July 10, 2002
By Michael Ware
TIME

Protesters react to Afghan civilian casualties caused by the U.S.
Image Credit: Jewel Samad -- l'Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"We have decided to target some of the reconstruction assistance in that area," says State spokesman Richard Boucher. Afghan officials say villagers in the Deh Rawood district are soon to be the beneficiaries of a number of building and rehabilitation projects.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- TIME
Although the U.S. military remains tight-lipped over any liability for the July 1 incident in which a number of Afghan villagers were killed at a wedding celebration in the remote mountain district of Deh Rawood during an American air attack on suspected Taliban positions nearby, Washington may be letting its money do the talking. "Verbally, at least, the Americans have admitted the attack was a mistake," says Afghan cabinet minister Mohammed Arif Noorzai, the man who headed the joint U.S.-Afghan investigation into the killings. And, he says, in a meeting earlier this week with Afghan officials in Kabul they did much more than that -- they promised cash to allow the victims to be compensated.

Noorzai says when General Dan K. McNeill, the U.S. commander of operations in Afghanistan, and the American ambassador Robert Finn came to President Hamid Karzai's office they brought with them guarantees of massive assistance. "It's not compensation as such," says Karzai's spokesman Fazel Akbar. "It's support of the nation." This support consisted of $2 million dollars in cash to be given to Karzai. "There was the promise of cash aid but still we did not receive it," notes Akbar. The Minister Noorzai told TIME the money is to be distributed by the president "to the families affected by the bombing who have already suffered too much." As many as 48 people were believed killed and around 117 wounded in the incident.
(More: TIME.com News Source)
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