Chinese Animals Fly to Kabul Bound for Shabby Zoo

October 2, 2002

October 02, 2002 10:24 AM ET

KABUL (Reuters) - A group of animals donated by China arrived in Afghanistan

on Wednesday en route to the country's shabby and war-battered zoo in the

capital Kabul.

A Turkmen cargo plane chartered by China flew from Beijing carrying two

lions, two bears, two pigs, two deer and a wolf.

" With these animals, we are conveying our best wishes for everlasting peace,

prosperity and wellbeing to Afghanistan, " Sun Yuxi, China's ambassador to

Kabul, told reporters as the animals arrived at the city's airport.

He said Chinese veterinary experts would make trips to Kabul to help local

zoo officials raise the animals that will live in the zoo's dilapidated

cages.

It was the first time in nearly a decade that a foreign country had donated

animals to the zoo, which like much of Afghanistan suffered material damage

and heavy loss of life during 23 years of civil war and occupation.

The zoo's veteran inmates witnessed bitter clashes during the civil conflict

of the early 1990s when the zoo often found itself in the frontline of

fighting between rival factions.

Zoo officials said the two lions would be kept in the cage which once housed

Marjan, a lonely lame and half-blind male lion who died on a cold winter

night earlier this year in a blaze of international publicity.

Marjan, after surviving years of war, was badly hurt in 1995 when a fighter

threw a hand grenade into his cage in revenge for the death of a cousin who

had climbed into the cage to show his bravery only to be killed by Marjan

and his partner.

Marjan's partner died of disease several years later.

The zoo, with no running water or electricity, is in a sorry state, with

just a few birds, several monkeys, a fox and a wolf.

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