October 10, 2001	Wednesday	Rajab 22, 1422

LONDON, Oct 9: British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Tuesday that the West had made a mistake in “walking away” from Afghanistan after the Russians left over a decade ago and vowed that the error would not be repeated.

But Blair ruled out imposing a regime on the country if the Taliban government collapsed after military action by the US-led coalition.

He said: “What we may be able to do is facilitate the expression of the will of the people of Afghanistan about their own future.”

The prime minister said in an ionterview with the BBC World Service that the West had neglected the country after the departure of Russian forces.

Blair said: “We are not going to walk away again. We made that mistake in the past.”

He added: “At the end of the 80s and early 90s we, in a sense, walked away from the people of Afghanistan after the Russians had left.

“We really should, at that point in time, have put together a proper rescue plan for the people of Afghanistan — but we didn’t.”

He added: “We are now making this commitment to them that this conflict will not be the end. We will do everything we can during the conflict to minimise the suffering of people.

“But once the conflict is over, we have then got to sit down with the people in Afghanistan and try and work out a stable and coherent plan for the future.” A BBC spokeswoman said the premier’s interview was broadcast on Tuesday afternoon in Pushto to Afghanistan and central Asia, and was also going out in Persian.—AFP