Military

DATE=08/16/2002

TYPE=ON THE LINE

NUMBER=1-01173 SHORT #1

TITLE=THE STATE OF AFGHANISTAN

EDITOR=OFFICE OF POLICY -- 619-0037

CONTENT= INSERTS ARE IN AUDIO SERVICES & DALET

THEME: UP, HOLD UNDER AND FADE

Host: This is On the Line, and I'm -------.

Afghan tribal leaders met in June to form a transitional government in Afghanistan. At this loya jirga, Hamid Karzai was elected president. His government has made tremendous progress, but still faces daunting challenges.

Marin Strmecki is director of programs at the Smith Richardson Foundation. He says dangerous ethnic tensions threaten the Karzai government.

Strmecki: The loya jirga produced an imbalanced government. The Northern alliance faction, led by [Defense] Minister [Mohammad] Fahim, continues to be dominant, and he himself is quite aggressively pushing to try and monopolize power in the government, using his control of instruments of force in the government.

Host: David Isby is the author of a book on Afghanistan. He warns against exaggerating the threat of ethnic tensions.

Isby: It indeed says a lot that the Afghans all still want to live in Afghanistan, not as in the former Yugoslavia. They wished to be split apart. Yes, you have got to become more inclusive. There are a lot of problems. But I certainly don't see Fahim [and] Karzai as being a crisis that's going to blow up Afghanistan.

Host: Haron Amin is the deputy chief of mission at the Afghan Embassy in Washington. He says Afghanistan has made a lot of progress in a short time.

Amin: It has only been more than a month that President Karzai has outlined a major framework of what Afghanistan aims to achieve over the next seventeen months or so. So far, so good. The fact of the matter is that in Afghanistan, you've got twenty-three years of war. We are going towards a stable government. Democracy, as you know, is a process. It's not a finite institution.

Host: Haron Amin, Marin Strmecki and David Isby agree that an inclusive government that provides a voice for all its people, is the best way to insure peace and stability in Afghanistan. For On the Line, I'm -------.