2006年VOA标准英语-Pakistan Announces Plans to Fence and Mine Bord

By Benjamin Sand
Islamabad
26 December 2006

A Pakistani soldier keeps position inside a bunker as he monitors Pakistan-Afghanistan border at Kundi Gar post (16 Dec 2006 photo)

Pakistan has announced plans to fence and mine sections of its frontier with Afghanistan to help prevent cross-border raids by pro-Taleban militants².  The controversial proposal follows repeated criticism from both U.S. and Afghan officials who have accused Pakistan of failing to secure the lawless border area.  VOA's Benjamin Sand has more from Islamabad.

The border has been at the center of a growing dispute between the two south Asian neighbors.

Afghanistan insists pro-Taleban militants have established a series of bases inside Pakistan and are staging deadly cross border raids.

Islamabad says it has already doing everything it can to help improve regional security including deploying³ some 80,000 soldiers to patrol the ill-defined border area.

Tuesday, Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan told reporters the government is now planning to mine and fence select areas along the border.

"In keeping with our policy to prevent any militant¹ activity from Pakistan inside Afghanistan, the Pakistan army has been tasked to work out modalities for selectively fencing and mining the Pakistan-Afghanistan border," Riaz says.

No details were provided on where the fence would be erected⁴ or how much of the nearly 2,500 kilometer long border would be effected.

Afghanistan has rejected similar plans in the past and quickly distanced itself from the latest proposal as soon as it was announced on Tuesday.

Thousands of tribal⁵ Pashtun families live on either side of the border and Afghan officials say fencing the area off would unfairly divide the tight knit and fiercely independent communities.

Khan dismissed those concerns saying Pakistan reserves the right to act unilaterally to secure the border and control its own territory.

"We do not need any agreement from any country for that matter, to fence or do whatever measures we may need to take on our side of the border," Riaz says.

He also urged the international community to help Islamabad repatriate⁶ more than two million Afghan refugees still living in camps inside Pakistan.

Khan said this would also help address concerns that the refugee population is harboring pro-Taleban militants destabilizing both countries.

1 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

2 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

3 deploying   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的现在分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Provides support for developing and deploying distributed, component-based applications. 为开发和部署基于组件的分布式应用程序提供支持。
• Advertisement, publishing, repair, and install-on-demand are all available when deploying your application. 在部署应用程序时提供公布、发布、修复和即需即装功能。

4 ERECTED   

adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立

参考例句：

• A monument to him was erected in St Paul's Cathedral. 在圣保罗大教堂为他修了一座纪念碑。
• A monument was erected to the memory of that great scientist. 树立了一块纪念碑纪念那位伟大的科学家。

5 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

6 repatriate   

v.遣返；返回；n.被遣返回国者

参考例句：

• The government safely repatriates victims.政府安全遣返了受害者。
• In this part,you need to formulate in detail repatriate the plan.在这一部分，你需要制定详细的归国计划。