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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Karzai on prisoner treatment, US/ NATO support, UBL & poppies |
| 2004-06-15 |
| excerpted from Rumsfeld and Afghanistan President Karzai Press Availability Q President Karzai, I have a question for you. Bob Burns from Associated Press. PRESIDENT KARZAI: Please. Q The U.S. military announced today in Afghanistan that it’s implementing some changes in the way it handles prisoners, detainees in Afghanistan under U.S. control. Have you been briefed on those changes, and do they go far enough, in your view? PRESIDENT KARZAI: Well, I haven’t heard that yet. We discussed various other issues today at our meeting -- the training of the Afghan army and all that. And the question of treatment of the prisoners, whatever changes they are making to make life easier and better for them, is something that we will appreciate and welcome. SEC. RUMSFELD: If people have questions, why don’t they come over to the mike? Q Mr. President, I’m Tom Squitieri with USA Today. One of the issues that people who support the progress in Afghanistan complain about is that the problems and challenges and progress in Afghanistan is being obscured or forgotten on Capitol Hill and among others in Washington. Do you concur with that? And if so, how do you make sure that the ongoing needs of your country are heard and dealt with? Thank you. PRESIDENT KARZAI: People in Afghanistan know very well that the United States government stayed with us. There was a fear just before the operations began in Iraq that Afghanistan might be forgotten. But fortunately for us in Afghanistan, that did not happen. The attention of the United States remained on Afghanistan, and we saw that there was an increased attention to Afghanistan last year and this year. We have increased budget allocations for Afghanistan, we have had increased reconstruction assistance for Afghanistan. We have had more training and more help to the Afghan police and the national army of Afghanistan. So as a matter of fact, Afghanistan has remained stronger, higher on the agenda of the U.S. government and also the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. Q Mr. President, Brian Harper with ABC News. How can you achieve your goal to eradicate the poppy crop without alienating some of the warlords and other provincial leaders and farmers that you need to support your government? PRESIDENT KARZAI: Well, the fight against poppies is the fight for Afghanistan. And no matter who or how, we will not allow this to continue. Poppies criminalize the Afghan economy; poppies prevent the institution-building in Afghanistan; poppies go hand in hand with terrorism, it feeds them; and it also helps regional or private militias in Afghanistan. There is no way that we can allow poppies to stay on. We have to destroy. And we need strong consistent international support for that. Q Mr. President, Jeannie Ohm with NBC News. Will you be making a specific request during your visit to Washington for more U.S. troops or more international troops, especially as you approach those September elections? PRESIDENT KARZAI: We will not be having a specific request for more U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The United States is already busy in Afghanistan helping us in reconstruction and helping us fight terrorism and helping us secure our borders. But we are expecting, ma’am, the deployment of NATO to occur in Afghanistan and to fulfill the promise that we have been made. We are hoping that NATO will come to Afghanistan, especially before the elections of September. Q If I could ask both of you, particularly standing in this place today, what are your personal feelings, your gut feelings, both of you? Will you ever get Osama bin Laden? PRESIDENT KARZAI: You first. SEC. RUMSFELD: I’ll go first. Yes, we will. PRESIDENT KARZAI: All nations, yours and ours, have had fugitives in our histories, and has a fugitive run forever? No, at least not in my country. So he’s a fugitive right now. He’s hiding somewhere and he’s on the run, and we are after him. We’ll catch him one day, sooner or later. -snip- |
| Posted by:Super Hose |