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“There should be Afghanistanisation of the development process”

— PHOTO: AFP

Abdullah Abdullah: “In this region and world-wide, as a large democracy as well as a big economy of the region, we are lucky to have India as a friend.”

The Hindu encountered Abdullah Abdullah, the first post-Taliban Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, near the tomb of Mughal Emperor Babar on the outskirts of Kabul. Now an observer of power politics in Kabul, Dr. Abdullah was a close aide of one of the country’s national heroes, Ahmad Shah Masood, who was killed by Al-Qaeda/Taliban militants posing as TV cameramen in September 2001. Excerpts from an interview:

In that respect our position is very clear. They are Afghan people. At the same time, like us, the view of the Afghan Government is also very clear. If there are to be negotiations it is not with people who continue with violence, continue with terrorist acts, continue to carry out armed activities and continue to oppose our Constitution. By that I mean whoever is willing to talk has to accept this.

Those people have to disassociate from terrorists and disarm. And after that if they want certain guarantees, that is something that can be negotiated. With those continuing with violence there can be no negotiations, there should be no negotiations.

I am not that active these days. I am fully involved with the Ahmad Shah Masood Foundation, a non-profit institution to serve the people of Afghanistan one way or the other. But I am a person who has spent so many years in politics. I am not in the government, nor am I part of the National Front, which is like an opposition to the Government. At the same time, as a political activist, I am concerned about the security situation in Afghanistan as well as some political instability in the country which also has to be addressed. By that I mean all the clashes between Parliament and the executive. All these clashes and tensions are taking place without the people seeing an end to them.

These are not positive signs. The people of Afghanistan want a stable environment, so that they can enjoy the right to live in peace. They deserve better treatment. My call to the leaders would be to provide answers to their own people.

My call to the Government is to end the tension between them and the Taliban. There has to be an end to that. Also the people of Afghanistan were more hopeful five to six years back than today. Let them not lose hope. This [their hope for a better future] is our main asset. The people have the right to reach a situation where they have the right to live and be prosperous.

There is no one answer to that. We should have been in a better situation with respect to self-sufficiency. People of Afghanistan should have taken responsibility gradually. I don’t think we have moved far on that. We still rely solely on international forces in terms of overall security though we have a national army. Still, today if they [ISAF] pull out, then we will be back in the old situation. This shouldn’t have been the case. On the whole there are lessons for the leaders to look back whether there have been right foundations for the future. They have to start afresh so that Afghanistan one day will be self-sufficient in all aspects, including security.

No doubt occasional civilian casualties, which happen due to military operations, create resentment. That is something very serious. For somebody who has been in war for so many years, it is close to impossible to avoid civilian casualties when it comes to fighting. But people should be hundred per cent sure that every measure has been taken to prevent casualties. But if people think that not much care is being taken about their lives, that it is risky and dangerous. That is not acceptable. This is a thing international forces should increasingly take into account.

India has been a great friend of Afghanistan in all aspects of its life and my wish is that this cooperation would continue. India’s role today is more than its traditional role which was expected here two decades ago.

In this region and world-wide as a large democracy as well as a big economy of the region, we are lucky to have India as a friend.

International aid is critical to support the rehabilitation of the Afghan people and revival of the state. While I welcome the increasing support of the international community, at the same time I think the role of the people here should become more and more prominent. To coin a new term, I would say there should be Afghanistanisation of the development process with the support of the international community.

It was established with the aim to maintain his memory and pass it on to the present and future generations of Afghanistan. The type of activities we undertakes are: social welfare, education, health, and agriculture. The aim is to help the people at the grass roots level lead peaceful lives. These are our broad goals. Today we have limited activities because we have just started. We hope after years of hard work by all the people involved, this will spread.

No we have offices in other parts of the country. At this stage we have limited activities — some capacity building, vocational training, cultural — but the scope is much broader.

We are mainly focussing on reorganisation and restructuring of the Afghan society. We are also working out a long term strategy. When this phase is over, we will move over to the next stage of partnering international NGOs.

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“There should be Afghanistanisation of the development process”

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