23 August 2002
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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