WASHINGTON, Oct 7: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives in Afghanistan this week to show support for the recently held parliamentary elections, which was strongly backed by Washington.
A State Department official told reporters in Washington that her four-day trip (from Oct 10-13) to the Central Asian states aims at advancing bilateral and regional cooperation on security issues.
Election officials and observers claim that they have found significant incidents of fraud in Afghanistan’s national and provincial elections held on Sept 18. Peter Erben, the chief of the United Nations-assisted Joint Election Management Board, said whole districts have come under suspicion for ballot box stuffing and proxy voting.
Besides Afghanistan, Ms Rice will also visit Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
The State Department said that Uzbekistan was not on the list of the countries.
Human rights groups say as many as 1,000 people may have died in Andijan, mostly unarmed civilians fired on by soldiers. The Uzbek government says the death toll is 187.
In July, the Uzbek government issued a highly unusual notice of eviction to the US asking it to abandon the Karshi-Khanabad airbase US troops have been using since shortly after Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks for carrying out operations in neighbouring Afghanistan.
