WELLINGTON: The death of a New Zealand soldier in Afghanistan does not change Wellington's commitment to rebuilding the war torn country, Prime Minister John Key said Wednesday.Private Kirifi Mila, 27, was killed on Tuesday when his vehicle rolled over a cliff while on patrol in Bamiyan province, where a New Zealand reconstruction team in based, a military spokesman said.
Another soldier received serious head injuries in the accident and a third suffered minor injuries, the military said.Key described the death as a tragedy but said it was not a reason to pull troops out of Afghanistan.
"As tragic as it deeply is that we've lost this young man, I don't think that we should change course as a result of his death," he told reporters."In fact, I think we honour his death by ensuring we do everything we can. to make sure we can hand over that province to Afghan control in a way where all of the good works that we've done in the last decade can bear fruit.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, in New Zealand on an official visit, echoed Key's sentiment on the need to stay the course in Afghanistan."We went to Afghanistan to seek to deny terrorists. the opportunity to use Afghanistan as a training base," she said.
"In order to do that, we need to complete the mission and enable the Afghan people the ability to provide their own security."
New Zealand has at least 140 personnel carrying out reconstruction work in Bamiyan, while a separate task force of 70 members of New Zealand's elite special forces operate in Kabul.Mila's death was the second fatality among New Zealand's national forces serving in Afghanistan, although four New Zealanders have died there serving with foreign forces, two with the Australian military, one with the United States and the one with Britain.
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