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Australian Foreign Minister says Afghan aid will encourage returning r

Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, says a package of 17 million dollars of extra Australian aid for Afghanistan will help encourage Afghans who have fled their country to return.

The new package takes Australia's total funding for reconstructing Afghanistan to more than 40 million dollars.

Mr Downer says it includes money for infrastructure and food aid and 14 million to help the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees resettle displaced Afghans.

He says the reconstruction aid should help Afghans, including those in Australia make the decision to go back.

Most of these people have claimed that they fled the Taliban, and obviously the Taliban is no longer a threat to them because the Taliban isn't in power any more in Afghanistan. Many for example have said they didn't want to be conscripted into the Taliban army, well there's no danger of being conscripted into the Taliban army anymore, so circumstances are obviously changing and I hope that our aid package and that of the international community will make a return to Afghanistan even more attractive and inviting.

21/01/2002 8:11:22 PM | ABC Radio Australia News

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