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CNN Sunday Morning

Check is in the Melee

Aired February 17, 2002 - 08:23   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: And turning now to Afghanistan, some more money for reconstruction has come in. The first checks arrive today in Kabul. The talk of rebuilding comes as the government faces remnants of its violent past. CNN's Brian Palmer is in Kabul with the details -- Brian.

BRIAN PALMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Jeanne.

At least for Chairman Karzai, reconstruction, rebuilding of his shattered nation, was on the top of the agenda at his press conference today. He was describing how $1.6 million would be distributed that was given to the interim government by United Arab Emirates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAMID KARZAI, INTERIM AFGHAN GOVERNMENT CHAIRMAN: It was delivered in cash because they knew that it's going to be difficult. So they were very nice in that way. So we immediately had the money and we put it in the banks here. We also set up a bank account in the Emirates for quick transfers of money for the reconstruction of Afghanistan (UNINTELLIGIBLE). We have our (UNINTELLIGIBLE) central bank (ph) in order.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PALMER: Now that's not a tremendous amount of money, but this was -- it's a little bit more than symbolic. This is a very, very poor country. And even $1.6 million will at least go some way to alleviating some of the suffering. He was flanked by ministers from some of the key ministries that will get these moneys: his minister of health; minister of women's affairs; minister of culture and information; and minister of education. Now when we asked the Minister of Women's Affairs, Dr. Sema Samar (ph), how far this money would go and, you know, how significant this amount was, she said, "It's a start." They need more, but it's a start.

Now the issue on the agenda of basically the entire press corps gathered in that room, was the security issue, the law and order issues. Stability of the interim government here in Afghanistan after these three events that have happened in the past couple of days: the killing of the government minister; the soccer violence at the match dedicated to international unity; and also the very recent using of an Afghan family, allegedly by members of the International Security and Assistance Force. Now as far as the developments in the investigation of the murder of the minister of civil aviation, after the press conference we learned from the foreign ministry that two of the men who are suspected of this killing, who fled to Saudi Arabia, have been apprehended by the Saudi government. And the Afghan interim government is negotiating with the Saudis now for the return of these two men -- Jeanne.

MESERVE: Brian, any light shed on the incident involving the British peacekeepers?

PALMER: Not a whole lot more light, Jeanne. We actually spent about an hour in the neighborhood of Kabul where this incident happened. We talked to family members who were describing how the shots were fired, where the shots were fired from. And their assertion is that those shots were fired by members of the International Security Force. But just hours before that, we had an interview with the spokesperson for ISAF (ph). He would not share any details because this matter is under investigation. He would say that British paratroopers did discharge their weapons, but he would not say whether or not those weapons -- bullets from those weapons -- were actually the bullets that struck these people.

So that's the situation as we know it here, Jeanne. We'll give you more details as we learn them -- Jeanne.

MESERVE: I'm sure you will. Brian Palmer, in Kabul, thank you.

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