Military

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QUESTION: Do you have anything to say about the Human Rights Watch report on the status of women in Afghanistan?

MR. BOUCHER: The report, I think, focuses on issues of abuse of women in Herat. And I think we would note that the human rights situation throughout Afghanistan, including in Herat, remains a serious challenge.

We appreciate the work of human rights organizations, Afghan and foreign, who are contributing much to the discussion of this problem and working to improve human rights conditions for all Afghans, particularly women and girls. We'll look carefully at the latest Human Rights Watch report on abuse of women in Herat. Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky will be in Afghanistan January 8th and 9th to co-chair a meeting of the US-Afghan Women's Council. Women's rights and human rights more broadly will be a central theme of her meetings.

US officials will continue to raise human rights with Governor Ishmael Kahn and other local officials. We'll be releasing our own comprehensive report on human rights in Afghanistan early next year. We'll also continue to work with the Afghan Government to take effective action to end human rights abuses throughout the country. The Human Rights Commission created under the Bonn accord is an important vehicle for this purpose and we, as well as other donors are working with the Commission to provide it with tools to carry out its mandate.

We expect all Afghan authorities, including regional leaders, to abide fully by the Bonn accord, which calls for freedom of the press, establishment of human rights, judicial, civil servant and constitutional commissions, and the disarmament-demobilization-reintegration of regional militias.

The United States remains committed to the reconstruction of Afghanistan and to the establishment of a secure environment to which refugees and internally displaced persons can return and where all Afghans can live and work freely without fear of harassment or intimidation.

I would just note that in our considerable aid budget and assistance for Afghanistan, the status of women and girls has been particularly important to us. Opening schools, getting them back into school, providing protection, providing empowerment and making them part of Afghan's future has been a very important element in our effort.

QUESTION: Can I just follow up on that, sir?

MR. BOUCHER: Yes.

QUESTION: What's the kind of state of relations between the United States and Ishmael Kahn? Is there any US support that goes directly to Ishmael Kahn?

MR. BOUCHER: I don't know. I would have to check. Our assistance is generally funneled through the central government.

QUESTION: There's an Afghan donors conference today. Is the US giving anything more?

MR. BOUCHER: I will have to check and see if this is a pledging conference or not. The Tokyo Conference was about a year ago, in January, and I think, if I remember correctly, at that time we pledged something like $300 million, and this year we've already delivered almost twice that much -- somewhere in the $500 to $600 million range. So the United States has consistently been a very strong donor for Afghanistan.

We've provided assistance to refugees, to returnees, food assistance. We already have food stockpiled for the winter in parts of the country that are getting closed off by the snows, but we've also been a very important donor in terms of building schools, rehabilitating irrigation systems and putting down the elements of a longer term future for Afghanistan.

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