HEADQUARTERS PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRESIDENT OF AFGHANISTAN

Press Briefing

HEADQUARTERS PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRESIDENT OF AFGHANISTAN

The people of Afghanistan were suffering from "an imposed war" and an invading force backed by Pakistan and a coalition of terrorists and fanatics, that country’s President, Burhanuddin Rabbani, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this morning.

The United Nations should bring pressure on Pakistan, he said. The Security Council should consider imposing sanctions against those who were sponsoring terrorism in Afghanistan. Without sanctions, interference would continue and so would the problem. The Afghan Government supported a political solution to the problem, but the Taliban favoured a military solution. The Government was therefore forced to defend its land.

The Taliban was at the very epicentre of the region’s instability, he said. Until serious attention was paid to the problem of terrorist-producing training camps, it would be very hard to remove them. Osama Bin Laden was talked about in the media, but there were many other camps training terrorists to threaten the region and the world. The threat was grave, and the international community must join hands to remove the camps, whether they were financed by Bin Laden or by other groups.

When a correspondent asked about the exploitation of Islam and of violence as a means to achieving power, the President said he condemned all groups, wherever they might operate, that used Islam as a pretext for terrorism, human rights violations and other acts which were in fact far removed from the tenets Islam.

The groups now fighting in Afghanistan against the Government were using Islam as a cover, he continued. They were defaming Islam and following their own political agenda. Any terrorist act, wherever it occurred, was condemnable from the standpoint of Islam.

What were the possibilities of a democratic government? a correspondent asked. President Rabbani said that efforts to bring about democratic and broad- based government in Afghanistan were impeded by the imposed war. As soon as that imposed war was removed, he added, the first step would be to take the Afghan people towards democracy.

A correspondent asked the President to compare his views on women and girls with those of the Taliban. Mr. Rabbani said that his Government’s policy had been clear from the beginning: in Government-controlled areas, women were attending school and working in offices.

He said he was appealing to the United Nations to help protect women’s rights. Protecting human rights was an essential part of the United Nations Charter, and the Organization and the international community should pay closer attention to the plight of women suffering under the Taliban.

A correspondent asked the President to evaluate two proposed peace initiatives: the “six-plus-two” initiative [composed of neighbouring States, plus

Afghanistan Press Conference - 2 - 7 September 2000

the United States and Russian Federation] and the "Shanghai Five" initiative [Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan].

Mr. Rabbani said that the former had not yet yielded practical results. Regarding the Shanghai Five, he said they had the right and duty to stand against the threat emanating from the Taliban. China could use its close relationship with Pakistan to advise it to cease its interference in Afghanistan. If that was done, the threats emanating from the Taliban would to a large extent be stopped.

The world had forgotten Afghanistan, its political situation and its humanitarian catastrophe, he said. For two decades, the people of Afghanistan had suffered from the imposed war and related humanitarian disaster. He hoped the world’s conscience would be awakened, because if the problem in Afghanistan were approached with the same seriousness that had been evinced in dealing with East Timor and Kosovo, it could be resolved.

* *** *