Franks Thanks Uzbekistan for Anti-Terror Efforts, Saving 'Many Lives'
(August 23: Gen. Tommy Franks press conference in Tashkent) (3065) Although "very positive" about the progress made in the counter-terrorist operations in Afghanistan, the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Central Command and Operation Enduring Freedom believes that "there is much remaining to be done." The coalition involved in Operation Enduring Freedom "will continue to work on the terrorism problem and continue to work in assisting the reconstruction in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future," General Tommy R. Franks told journalists in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, August 23. Franks said that the purpose of his "routine visit" to the region was "to talk about the great support that our coalition has received to do our work in Afghanistan, and to discuss military-to-military relationships between our own military and the militaries of the various countries here in Central Asia." "The support by Uzbekistan has, in fact, saved a great many lives and has also opened a corridor into Afghanistan so that the Afghan people can receive humanitarian assistance from a great many nations in the world. All of this is a tribute to Uzbekistan," Franks said. Asked about speculation that U.S. troops have been involved in incidents of torture in Afghanistan, Franks replied that he has "no reason to believe right now that any of that speculation is built upon a foundation of truth." "What we always do when we see or hear of speculations like that is we'll review the facts and talk to the people and make a determination of whether there's any basis in fact that we can identify. We'll certainly do that in this case as well." Franks also rejected rumors that the United States and Uzbekistan have signed a secret document for a long-term U.S. military presence, saying, "I'm not aware of any sort of document that talks in terms of the time frame that you mentioned." Military arrangements in the region "have to do with the duration of our coalition operations inside Afghanistan," he emphasized. He did say, however, that "right now we don't know how long those operations are going to proceed." Franks added that there has been "a maturing of the military-to-military relationships" between the United States and countries in Central Asia over the last three or four years. "I would expect in the future, basing and so forth completely notwithstanding, that we will see a continuing growth in the military-to-military relationships between our own forces and forces here in Central Asia." Following is a transcript of the press briefing: (begin transcript) Intercontinental Hotel Tashkent, Uzbekistan August 23, 2002 General Tommy R. Franks, Commander-in-Chief United States Central Command PRESS CONFERENCE General Franks: Thanks a lot for coming this afternoon. It's great to be back in Tashkent. We left our headquarters in Tampa, Florida, about four days ago and paid a visit to Kazakhstan and then to Kyrgyzstan, and we arrived here in Tashkent this morning and have had great meetings all along the way. It's great to see so many friends here today. I look out and see some people that I recognize going back two or three years, so thanks for coming. This has been a routine visit for us. The purpose of the visit has been to talk about the great support that our coalition has received to do our work in Afghanistan, and to discuss military-to-military relationships between our own military and the militaries of the various countries here in Central Asia. In the past several days I've had many meetings. I gave updates to President Karimov this morning, to President Nazarbaev a couple days ago, and to President Akayev yesterday. I thanked them for the support that these nations in the region have given us in Operation Enduring Freedom. That operation continues to go well, but we still have a lot of work to do in Afghanistan. With that I'll pause, and I'd be glad to take your questions. Question from Le Soir, Belgium: Does your visit to Central Asia also include thoughts or plans for striking against Iraq? General Franks: My visit to the region has to do with our operations in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. Thank you. Question from BBC: In your meetings with Russian representatives you assured them that in time you would leave Central Asia. Can you identify the date when the United States forces will leave Central Asia? General Franks: Actually, the heads of state of the countries of Central Asia as well as our own head of state will make that determination. My comment was that our purpose for having basing, staging and overflight in the region is Operation Enduring Freedom. You've asked a good question, but I don't think we know how long we'll be operating in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, so for all of us that remains an open question. Question from Turkiston Press: I have two questions. First, please could you comment on your meeting with President Karimov? The second question is could you please also comment on how successful the anti-terrorist operation is in Afghanistan? General Franks: I had a wonderful meeting with President Karimov whom I've known for a long time. I've had discussions with the President since long before we actually started Operation Enduring Freedom. The purpose of my discussion today was essentially to answer your second question and that was to talk to President Karimov about where we stand in Afghanistan today- where we see the security situation-and what we think the road ahead might be. I find him to be a very engaging and a very thoughtful man, so it was a very fruitful discussion. I enjoyed it very much and I appreciated his wisdom and that's probably the best answer I can give you to your first question. On your second question with respect to counter-terrorist operations in Afghanistan- I'm very positive. As I look back over the last ten months it's pretty easy for me to see the gains up to this point. Of course the Taliban is no longer in control of Afghanistan. Civilian citizens are no longer being executed in the sports stadiums in that country. Al-Qaeda and the IMU -- Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan -- are no longer free to do their will inside Afghanistan. The people of Afghanistan have spoken and have elected by way of Loya Jurga Chairman Karzai, now President Karzai, to be the president of the country. Women and children are now receiving health care in Afghanistan where that has not been possible for a good number of years in the past. A great many schools have now been opened and when one visits Afghanistan the children can bee seen playing in the school yards and studying in the school rooms. Thirty-seven nations are engaged, either directly in Afghanistan or in the surrounding states such as Uzbekistan, as part of a coalition that in fact has done a great job up to this point in that country. But, you know the history of Afghanistan is a history of strife and a history of difficulty over several decades, so there is much remaining to be done in Afghanistan. Our coalition, the Enduring Freedom Coalition, will continue to work on the terrorism problem and continue to work in assisting the reconstruction in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future. A lot of work remains to be done. Question from ITAR-TASS: Mr. General, I know that tomorrow you are planning to visit Kabul and stay there for about one day. Could you please comment on your schedule? Who are you going to meet in Afghanistan and what are the subjects of discussion? This is question number one. Question two regards Iraq. We know that the operation against Iraq has been postponed. Is this related to the completion of the anti-terrorist operation in Afghanistan? General Franks: With respect to your first question, I will indeed, over the next few days, visit Afghanistan, and I have two purposes in going there. The first purpose is to visit our coalition troops in Afghanistan and so I'll do that. My second purpose in going is to visit with our embassy, the American Embassy, as well as with the transitional government, President Karzai, the Minister of Defense and a number of other officials of the Afghan government while I'm in Kabul. What I hope to do is get a sense from the people, both Afghan and the coalition members who are on the ground, of what the current security situation is in the country and where the needs may be so that we can move forward in that country. On your second question about Iraq, unfortunately, I really can't give you an answer. I think that in every case it would be heads of state-it would be my president- who would make such a decision. I don't think such a decision has been made up to this point, so I can't relate any sort of potential future operation to what we see going on right now in Afghanistan. Question from UPI: There was information that Juma Namangani, the military leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, is alive. What is your information about him? Is he alive or not? General Franks: That's a very interesting question about Namangani. The information that I think we've had for some time indicates that he probably is not still alive. On the other hand, I remember a great many reports that indicate that Bin Laden is either alive or Bin Laden is dead in a variety of snippets and reports like that. I'll tell you what we try to focus on. We try to not focus specifically on the personalities but rather focus on the operational capability of the terrorist networks, whether it's the IMU or whether it's Al-Qaeda or a number of others. Our purpose is to destroy these networks so that what we saw last September in the United States cannot happen either again in the United States or somewhere else in the world. I really can't add anything to the speculation on any of the personalities. Question from Russian Newspaper Noviy Den': The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan is now merging into the Islamic Movement of Turkiston. What is the attitude of the U.S. government and the U.S. Command to this process? General Franks: I think what we'll see around the world, not just related to the IMU or specifically related to Al-Qaeda- I think since the support complex, since the harbor in Afghanistan is no longer available to terrorist organizations- I think what we'll see in the future will be a changing of some of the people who have been associated with terrorist work in the past. I think the names will change. I think many of the personalities will remain the same, and so I have no comment to make about the specific naming. I think that it serves all of us well to remember that terrorism is a thing that threatens the way of life of all the people on this planet. So what we'll all continue to do under Operation Enduring Freedom, which is a global operation, is we'll continue to work to hunt down the terrorists that would seek to change all of our ways of life. Question from Agence France Presse: What can you say about the activities of the Khanabad airbase? What is happening down there? The second question is, there are rumors among the local population that the United States is planning to buy the Khanabad settlement, and people feel concerned about it. General Franks: Let me take the second question first. I can tell you for a fact that there are no plans that I'm aware of to buy anything in the Khanabad area. Let me talk just a minute about the support by President Karimov and the support by the Uzbek people of our military operations. In fact, very early in this operation, President Karimov and the people of Uzbekistan agreed to be part of the coalition that stands in the face of terrorism. Uzbekistan has granted our coalition, the Operation Enduring Freedom Coalition, both overflight and basing privileges in this country. The support by Uzbekistan has, in fact, saved a great many lives and has also opened a corridor into Afghanistan so that the Afghan people can receive humanitarian assistance from a great many nations in the world. All of this is a tribute to Uzbekistan. Coalition forces in this country, I would say is on the order of magnitude somewhere between one thousand and two thousand people, and all of us have found the Uzbeks to be very welcoming hosts. Question from Denmark Radio: Just very briefly on that last point, Mr. General. I know you always say that your presence in Uzbekistan is temporary. Nevertheless, rumors remain in Tashkent that there is an agreement between the U.S. government and the Uzbek government about a long-term-we're talking about a twenty-five to sixty year presence here. Can you categorically deny that such an agreement exists? The second question is, Newsweek this week ran quite a frightening piece about what went on after Kunduz and there were some accusations, terrible accusations, against the Northern Alliance. But there was also some speculation and some eyewitnesses talking about how American troops had been deeply, deeply involved in torture, getting rid of dead bodies and maybe even killing people. Can you tell me about your investigation? What is your viewpoint on that one? Thank you. General Franks: Let me take the second question first, about Kunduz. I have not read the article that you mentioned. I think that there have been a great many speculations at a great many points having to do with that area. I have also seen speculations coming out of the western part of Afghanistan and I'll simply say that I have no reason to believe right now that any of that speculation is built upon a foundation of truth. I try to stay away from speculations for reasons that I know you understand as well as any. What we always do when we see or hear of speculations like that is we'll review the facts and talk to the people and make a determination of whether there's any basis in fact that we can identify. We'll certainly do that in this case as well. With regard to your first question having to do with, I guess I'd say coalition or a U.S. force presence in Central Asia. No, I'm not aware of any sort of document that talks in terms of the time frame that you mentioned. I think what all of us realize is that we have seen a qualitatively different relationship between my own country and the nations in this region since September of last year. What we see in each one of the states in region is that the arrangements, actually most of which I made, have to do with the duration of Operation Enduring Freedom. They have to do with the duration of our coalition operations inside Afghanistan. I think right now we don't know how long those operations are going to proceed. I will say that I believe the relationships that exist between other coalition nations as well as my own and states here in Central Asia make us welcome for the duration of our on-going operation. I think at the same time I would point out that, to my direct knowledge, over the last three or four years, we have watched a maturing of the military-to-military relationships between the United States and countries in this region. I would expect in the future, basing and so forth completely notwithstanding, that we will see a continuing growth in the military-to-military relationships between our own forces and forces here in Central Asia. Thanks to all of you. You're great. (end transcript) (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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