02 May 2000
Transcript: Inderfurth Voice of America Interview on Afghanistan
(Says U.S. is doing a great deal to assist the Afghan people) (3030)
Karl Inderfurth, Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs,
discussed U.S. relations with Afghanistan in an interview with the
Voice of America April 18.
Following is the transcript of the interview:
(begin transcript)
VOICE OF AMERICA INTERVIEW OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY INDERFURTH
SPEAKERS: KARL "RICK" INDERFURTH
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR SOUTH ASIAN AFFAIRS
U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
VOA: Mr. Inderfurth, the Afghans are under the impression that the
U.S., which provided all kinds of aid to the people of Afghanistan
during the years of Jihad, for which they are extremely grateful, does
not care about Afghanistan or its people anymore.
They also say that currently the U.S., instead of extending a helping
hand and giving them much needed economic aid, imposes sanctions on
them. What would you say to that? Does the U.S. provide any
humanitarian aid, direct or indirect to Afghanistan? And if it does,
how much and in what fields? You know, we need specifics on that.
INDERFURTH: Well, I'm delighted to have this opportunity to set that
record straight, because first and most importantly the United States
retains very strong ties of friendship for the Afghan people and has
the greatest respect for Afghanistan, indeed for Islam. This is
something that is fundamentally important to the United States.
Secondly, the United States wishes to see the tragic civil war and
fighting that has taken place there for over two decades come to an
end. It has taken so many lives and set back the country's development
so profoundly that we want very much to see this come to an end.
Thirdly, the United States is doing a great deal to help the Afghan
people. We have not walked away from Afghanistan. We have not turned
our back on the Afghan people. We are the world's largest single
provider of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.
In 1999, we donated $70 million in humanitarian assistance to the
Afghan people. Much of the food aid that goes to Afghanistan, for
example, is wheat from the U.S., distributed through the UN's World
Food Programme.
And at present, we expect our level of humanitarian aid in the year
2000 to be around the same levels as it was for 1999. And we are
closely monitoring the humanitarian situation, including the drought
situation. And we're prepared to make adjustments in our assistance,
if necessary.
So I trust that this summary, if you will, of U.S. assistance is ample
evidence that we are doing a great deal to assist the Afghan people.
VOA: Other than the food assistance, is there any other specific
assistance the U.S. provides in the health or education fields?
INDERFURTH: Well, let me give you a little bit more detail there,
because over half of the $70 million in humanitarian aid went for
direct food assistance to people inside Afghanistan, including a large
amount distributed through the World Food Program, as I said. This aid
is directed and benefits the most vulnerable population in
Afghanistan, namely women and children and people left homeless by the
continuing conflict.
At the same time, we gave $7 million in emergency assistance to
non-governmental organizations inside Afghanistan, to help the victims
of the military offensives. We provided an additional $9 million to
the International Committee of the Red Cross, again for victims of
conflict, mainly in Afghanistan. Almost $16 million of that $70
million was donated to refugees in Pakistan and Iran, as well as to
Afghan refugees returning to Afghanistan. This aid was distributed to
various UN programs to help feed and provide health care and educate
the refugees.
Now, our assistance has also -- we've also had programs to provide for
clean water, shelters, sanitary facilities. There have been special
nutritional programs, including health care, medicine, schooling.
We have also done a great deal on a subject that I am very familiar
with, and that is the removal of land mines, through the various
programs underway in Afghanistan. And this is something that continues
to be an international concern and a concern of the United States, to
get rid of land mines that threaten the innocent civilian populations.
So we are looking beyond food aid to a whole variety of different ways
of providing assistance.
VOA: Mr. Inderfurth, will this aid continue in the future, next year,
for example?
INDERFURTH: Absolutely. As I said, we are looking at a continuation at
about the same levels of our assistance next year, but again because
of the drought situation, which I understand is Afghanistan's worst
since 1971, we will certainly look at that situation and adjust our
assistance levels as appropriate.
VOA: I spoke with the UN official the other day, and she said the UN
might in a week or two call for emergency international aid. Would the
U.S. provide any emergency aid to fight the drought situation in
Afghanistan?
INDERFURTH: Well, we are closely monitoring the drought situation. And
if more help is needed, we will provide it. Just recently, this whole
question of drought and food security in Afghanistan was the main
issue of concern at a meeting in Islamabad -- this was last week -- of
donors and UN agencies and non-governmental organizations involved in
Afghan relief.
The three UN-affiliated programs, the World Food Programme, the Food
and Agricultural organization -- FAO -- and the World Health
Organization, all made presentations on their activities there to
monitor and respond to the drought.
And as I understand it, the severe consequences of the drought became
apparent about six weeks ago, so the international community is
mobilizing to deal with this.
I think donors can expect, as you said, to see a UN appeal in the near
future, perhaps as early as the end of this month, focusing on
activities in the livestock sector, which are key to Afghanistan's
long-term food security. The World Food Programme's emergency feeding
programs we're told are well-funded, so that is a relief, in part
because of the sizable U.S. contribution of wheat.
And both the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization
are monitoring for malnutrition and possible drought-related
outbreaks.
So as I understand it, the UN staff are expected to return to Kandahar
in the coming days. But, quite frankly, renewed fighting between the
factions could complicate these relief efforts.
And I must say that there's also a concern about Taliban activities
threatening these aid programs. We watched with concern the situation
that arose at the end of March when Taliban soldiers entered UN
offices in Kandahar, which endangered UN personnel and indeed put at
risk the continued delivery of humanitarian aid.
We hope that this will not happen again. This aid is just too
important for the people of Afghanistan.
VOA: And one short follow-up: Will the aid be again through UN
programs or will it be directly, in case the U.S. decides to provide
emergency aid to fight the drought?
INDERFURTH: Well, again, we are working through the United Nations on
this. U.S. emergency aid is already reaching Afghanistan. Our disaster
assistance office is currently providing more than $3 million for
programs from health to water purification and agriculture. This is
all an the emergency aid category. But we will do this through the UN.
VOA: Mr. Secretary...
INDERFURTH: Yes.
VOA: ... coming to the political field, and also to set the record
straight, as you mentioned, you accompanied President Clinton on his
trip to the Central Asian region and...
VOA: South Asia.
VOA: South Asia, I'm sorry, the South Asia region.
INDERFURTH: Yes.
VOA: And you had discussions with the Pakistani authorities. Was the
question of Afghanistan discussed as well?
INDERFURTH: Well, it certainly was discussed. As I have mentioned
already, the U.S. has great concern for the plight of the Afghan
people. What we want to see is the -- is a return of a stable, secure,
prosperous Afghanistan, and a broad-based representative government
that respects the human rights of its people. I mean, all of this was
discussed during the president's visit.
We also expressed our concern when we were in Pakistan that the
Taliban continued to insist on pursuing a military solution. And we
think that there can be no military solution to this conflict, that
that will only bring more suffering to the Afghan people. And indeed,
as long as a military solution is pursued, peace and the
reconstruction of Afghanistan we believe will be impossible.
So that, combined with other concerns that we expressed during the
trip about the alarming rise in narcotics production and trafficking
-- now, we have seen recently the overseeing by the Taliban of the
destruction, eradication, of certain poppy fields, and we want to make
certain that people understand that any step in this direction is a
positive step, and we certainly recognize that. But this is such an
alarming rise in narcotics production and trafficking that it
threatens the well-being of Afghans and, indeed, to people around the
world.
This is not just an Afghan problem or a regional problem, it's an
international problem, and that's one reason the so-called 6-Plus-2
Group in New York, the six neighbors of Afghanistan plus the U.S. and
Russia, are organizing a narcotics -- a counternarcotics initiative to
address this.
But all of these things, as I said, were addressed during the
president's trip.
VOA: Yes. Some of our audience that we talk to, they talk about the
U.S. concern of Afghanistan basically being centered on terrorism such
as -- terrorists such as bin Laden, narcotics and the rise of
fundamentalism. But the basic problem is these are the results, not
the cause. The basic problem is the settlement of the Afghan question.
If that is settled and a representative government, broad-based
government, as you mentioned, would come to Afghanistan, these things
would eventually be solved by themselves, so to speak.
Is it not really necessary for the power such as the U.S. to put more
emphasis on the solution of the Afghan problem and these are the
results, they would come later, wouldn't it?
INDERFURTH: Well, I basically agree with that analysis. I mean, it is
the continuing conflict and the instability in Afghanistan which gives
rise to the possibility of increased drug trafficking, of terrorists
establishing bases there, of the continuing suffering of the Afghan
people, the enormous humanitarian dimension to this.
So I basically agree with that. And it's for that reason that the
United States has been supporting basically all initiatives aimed at
promotion of a negotiated resolution of the conflict and indeed the
establishment of the broad-based government that would represent all
Afghans, not just those that are represented by the Taliban.
We have worked very hard in the 6-Plus-2 context. We support the
efforts of the UN envoy, Mr. Vendrell. We've welcomed other
initiatives, trying to find a peaceful solution, including those being
undertaken by the OIC, by Iran, with Pakistan's involvement, which is
absolutely critical to seeing this conflict resolved. Japan has
recently undertaken certain initiatives. There is the so-called Cyprus
initiative. And there is the initiative of the former king of
Afghanistan, Zahir Shah, to convene a loya jirga to bring all the
parties together.
So the United States is very much in support of any efforts to bring
about a resolution of this, to bring the warring parties together, and
to do this at the table, not on the battlefield.
VOA: I don't know, I'm sure you have -- it has been brought to your
attention. Recently a colleague of yours, a former ambassador to
Mujahedeen, Mr. Thompson, he wrote an article in which he mentioned
that the U.S. has given the green light again to Pakistan to arrange
for some kind of peace process in that country, which he thinks is
doomed to failure. Is it true that the U.S. again looks at Afghanistan
through Pakistan's eyes?
INDERFURTH: No, I don't think that that is a accurate statement or,
indeed, a reflection of our position. And moreover, we're not a
traffic light ourselves. We don't give green lights, we don't give
yellow lights, we don't give red lights.
What we have done is to send a consistent message that we want to see
this conflict resolved. We do believe that Pakistan has a very,
important role to play in that regard because it has as much influence
as any country on the Taliban. We do not believe that Pakistan
controls the Taliban. We believe that the Taliban are fiercely
independent, as all Afghans are.
But we do believe that Pakistan has influence with the Taliban. It has
supported and assisted the Taliban over the years. We would hope that
Pakistan would use that influence in a positive way to persuade the
Taliban to seek a peaceful not a military solution, to sit down with
all Afghans -- Uzbeks, Tajiks, Azeri, Pashtuns, those inside
Afghanistan, those outside Afghanistan -- bring this war to an end,
bring the fighting to an end, bring the suffering to an end.
And if anything, the drought that we are now seeing in Afghanistan
should underscore the importance of putting fighting behind and
addressing the needs of the Afghan people. And I think that if that's
not done, those responsible for a continuation of this war will at
some point be held accountable by the people of Afghanistan themselves
saying: You contributed to our suffering.
VOA: Mr. Inderfurth, press reports lately has been saying that the
U.S. and Russia have joined hands in fighting terrorism in the region.
Is that true?
INDERFURTH: The United States and Russia share a concern about
terrorism in the region. There is no question about that. And indeed,
the UN resolution, Resolution 1267, that was passed now several weeks
ago, was supported by both the United States and Russia. And it calls
on the Taliban to expel bin Laden to a country where he can be brought
to justice. It also calls for Afghanistan to address the broader issue
of terrorism.
Unfortunately, the Taliban has not complied with this resolution. And
therefore it is indeed possible that further measures, as the Security
Council has stated, will be considered -- further, additional
sanctions.
We will do everything possible to see that these measures do not
affect the Afghan people. The resolution that was passed is not aimed
at the Afghan people, nor does it prohibit in any way humanitarian aid
to the Afghan people.
But we very much want to see terrorism in all its forms and
manifestations -- and this goes beyond 0sama bin Laden. He is
certainly a person that the international community believes should be
brought to justice, but he is not the only concern in this regard. And
we are therefore working with Russia and other countries to address
this.
VOA: Are other countries Iran and India? Because the recent media also
mentions those two countries, and some skeptics even say that this is
a united international front against the Taliban or even -- or even
Islam. Does this have anything to do with that?
INDERFURTH: Oh, no, that -- I mean, this would be -- the notion that
this would be a united front against Islam would be an affront to the
international community. The fact is that the two countries you
mentioned, Iran and India, both share grave concerns about what is
taking place inside Afghanistan.
And I will remind you that Iran is a Muslim country. And I'll remind
you that India has a very large Muslim population. This is not against
Islam, this is against a particular situation in a country that has
long been admired, where terrorism and terrorist training and those
activities are taking place.
And the international community, whether it be the United States,
whether it Russia, whether it be Iran, whether it be India, whether it
be all the members of the Security Council, whether it be the Central
Asian countries of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, all these countries are
concerned about what's happening. So we appeal to the Taliban and
those with influence on the Taliban to turn policies in a more
positive direction, one that will address all these many concerns that
we've been talking about, and beginning with the concern about the
continued suffering and very tragic circumstances of the Afghan
people.
QUESTIONER: Earlier you mentioned the increase of sanctions, is there
any way that there will be no need for sanctions, even the current
ones would be lifted? And under what circumstances would that be
possible?
INDERFURTH: We would like to see the sanctions that have been imposed
on the Taliban removed and they have the power to see those removed by
allowing the situation of Osama bin Laden to be resolved so that he
could be brought to justice.
QUESTIONER: Mr. Inderfurth, you've followed the issue in Afghanistan
for such a long time, how optimistic are you for a peaceful solution?
And under what circumstances can peace come to an...
INDERFURTH: Well, I'm optimistic that at some point Afghan's --
Afghanistan's misery will come to an end. It has certainly lasted far
longer than anyone would have imagined.
My own experiences of traveling to Afghanistan have been few, but each
time that I have traveled there, the destruction of the country is
worse at each point. I would certainly hope that some of these
initiatives that are now under way, both inside and outside
Afghanistan, that hopefully some of these will show some positive
results as soon as possible, and the United States will support that
and will actively be assisting the Afghan people with humanitarian
assistance in the meantime.
QUESTIONER: Mr. Inderfurth, I had one more question, but I think I
will let you go.
INDERFURTH: Well, I've enjoyed this very much.
QUESTIONER: And so did we and thank you very much. I hope that we may
have the pleasure to talk to you again whenever you visit the region.
INDERFURTH: Absolutely.
QUESTIONER: In the near future.
INDERFURTH: Good.
(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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