Statement by Ambassador Shamshad Ahmad, the Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations on Afghanistan20 December  2001  

Mr. President,

Once again, we are deliberating on an issue which has been a challenge for the international community for decades. It also represents one of those cases in contemporary history where a poor and dispossessed nation which had sacrificed so much for the cause of the free world was treated, in turn, by the international community, with callous indifference and punity. One does not have to dilate upon history. But history would have been different if Afghanistan, at the end of the Cold War, had not been left in chaos and conflict to be exploited by the evil forces of violence and hatred.

For years, Afghanistan has been the subject of debates and resolutions at the UN, aggravating, not alleviating, the suffering of the people of this war-ravaged country. Their isolation and ostracism drove them to despair and disillusionment and into the hands of Al-Qaeda – a group of non-Afghan run-away dissidents from their own countries who could not find a better hiding place than the shadows of Afghanistan’s wilderness and rugged mountains. If the world had remained engaged with the people of Afghanistan and had not turned its back on them, the situation today might have been totally different. Osama Bin Laden and his associates perhaps would not have exploited Afghanistan, nor taken advantage of the Afghan traditions of hospitality and friendship, abusing their trust to spread terror across the globe.

For 22 long years, the people of Afghanistan have suffered – and suffered terribly – at the hands of both man and nature. They have been victims of the brutal foreign occupation, self-serving exploitation by the free world, a fratricidal civil war, ruthlessness of power-hungry and blood-sucking warlords and excesses of oppressive and obscurantist regimes. The UN also allowed itself to be used as a tool to punish the Afghans for the sins they never committed. The devastating drought, which has afflicted them over the past several years, has only aggravated their already severe plight. Countless Afghans have lost their lives through these difficult years. Today, over six million Afghans are sheltered as refugees in neighbouring countries and millions more are either internally displaced or face tremendous hardship in their own localities. Rather than receiving the help it deserved as being the last great battlefield of the Cold War, Afghanistan was totally isolated, reduced to a wasteland which attracted fugitives and criminals from all over the world.

But today it is not time for remorse or rhetoric, nor for remaining frozen in the past. These are unusual times demanding fresh approach and new thinking in our response to one of the gravest challenges to humanity. As we review the situation in Afghanistan, we must be guided by the need to rectify the mistakes of the past. Nothing is more important in the context of today’s agenda item than the urgency of durable peace and stability in Afghanistan and its relevance to the peace and stability to the world at large. We must also take cognizance of the seriousness of the humanitarian situation in that country which warrants a corresponding global response through rehabilitation and reconstruction.

Now that the international community is fighting terrorism in Afghanistan, we hope it will not walk away from it once the immediate objectives of the military campaign are achieved. It must remain engaged with Afghanistan and the region. A country ravaged by war has to be rebuilt. A society torn by conflict has to be healed. All this requires commitment and perseverance. The long-term solution of the problem of terrorism in Afghanistan lies in the restoration of peace and stability and a reconstruction of that country. An Afghanistan, at peace with itself and at peace with its neighbours is the sure safeguard, in the future, against any terrorist activity emanating from within its borders.

Indeed, the Afghans are not the only victims of the Afghan tragedy. Pakistan has suffered also. For almost two and a half decades, we have been providing shelter to over three million Afghans, through our own meager resources and without any appreciable assistance from the outside world. Our economy has been suffering and continues to suffer because of the situation in Afghanistan. Rampant terrorism as well as the culture of drugs and guns – that we call the “Kalashnikov Culture” – tearing apart our social and political fabric – was also a direct legacy of the protracted conflict in Afghanistan. Given this bleak scenario, no country in the world has suffered more from the conflict in Afghanistan than Pakistan and no country could have a greater stake in the return of peace and stability to Afghanistan than Pakistan.  

Mr. President,

Pakistan fully supports the UN efforts to bring peace to Afghanistan. We, therefore, appreciate the efforts of the Secretary-General and those of his Special Representative, Ambassador Lakhdar Brahimi. We fully support Ambassador Brahimi’s mandate to facilitate the restoration of peace and stability in Afghanistan as well as assisting the rehabilitation and reconstruction of that war-ravaged country. We hope the UN will continue to play its role as a facilitator in helping the Afghans find “homegrown” solutions to their problems and bringing their country back in the comity of nations as a responsible and law abiding state.

Pakistan welcomes the swearing-in of Mr. Hamid Karzai, in two-days time in Kabul as the head of the Interim Administration. We shall extend our full support and cooperation not only to the Interim Administration, but also to the subsequent governments of Afghanistan, transitional or otherwise, in their efforts to restore peace and stability to Afghanistan. Pakistan remains fully committed to maintaining fraternal ties with Afghanistan and would be ready to assist in its rehabilitation and reconstruction. To this end the President of Pakistan has proposed the establishment of an “Afghan Trust Fund” under UN auspices to assist in humanitarian relief as well as national reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts in Afghanistan.  

Mr. President,

Pakistan considers the Bonn Agreement as an important positive development in that it seeks to bring about a fundamental change in Afghanistan through peaceful means. This Agreement, in spite of its shortcomings, is, however a first step towards evolving a genuinely homegrown, broad-based and multi-ethnic political dispensation in Afghanistan, through the convening, in due course, of a Loya Jirga. We hope that this process will lead to the establishment of a genuinely representative government in Afghanistan which is acceptable to all Afghans, which promotes unity and stability and which respects its international obligations, including those to its neighbours. Any attempt motivated by intrinsic animosities from inside or sponsored by vested interests from outside to pitch this landlocked country against any of its neighbours will only prolong the misery and deprivation of its people, delaying its socio-economic and political recovery and keep the region mired in instability.

The international community, on its part, has to ensure its full support to the United Nations as it oversees the implementation of the Bonn Agreement. This includes ensuring the early deployment, as stipulated in the Agreement, of a “United Nations mandated force” for the maintenance of security for Kabul as well as other areas of the country. Efforts are needed to accelerate the deployment of this force and secure the demilitarization of Kabul and other major urban centers where it is expected to take up positions.  The international community must also ensure that the warlordism, which once wreaked havoc across Afghanistan, is not given a chance to obstruct the establishment of a stable political dispensation in Afghanistan.

We hope all Afghan factions and groups will avail themselves of this unique opportunity to extricate their country from the abyss in which it has remained for the last two decades. The success of the Bonn Agreement will depend on how the Afghan leaders acquit themselves in rebuilding their country through a mutual spirit of accommodation. The tribal and ethnic structures will remain of special relevance in any future set up. In the larger measure, it is only upto the Afghans themselves to make or mar the future of their country.  

Mr. President,

The two-decade long conflict in Afghanistan has taken the country back to the eighteenth century, if not beyond. The country lacks the basic infrastructure as its people remain deprived of their basic necessities. Once peace returns to Afghanistan, humanitarian relief has to be sustained. No peace process can work without commensurate support to rebuild and rehabilitate this war-ravaged nation. The need to concurrently evolve a comprehensive post-conflict reconstruction and rehabilitation plan is, therefore, equally important which will be put in place as soon as peace returns to Afghanistan. It is imperative for the international community to immediately begin work on this plan and arrange the necessary finances to support and sustain it. Any reconstruction effort in Afghanistan must, at the minimum, entail the restoration of water management system, reviving of agriculture, reconstruction of the infrastructure and transit routes, rebuilding of institution as well as the continued humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people.

Needless to emphasize that this time, the international community must not walk away from Afghanistan, as it did in the past. It must demonstrate the political will and the determination to engage and help the Afghan people in rebuilding peace and the economy of their country. The Afghans have been disillusioned by the treatment they have earlier received from the world community.  The negative consequences of that neglect are clear for everyone to see. This mistake must not be repeated.  

Mr. President,

We are turning a new leaf in Afghanistan. Let this augur well for its people and for the world community. Pakistan, like the rest of the international community, hopes that this new era will bring positive changes in Afghanistan. It is with this hope that we are co-sponsoring the present draft resolution before this assembly. We fully subscribe to its intent to restore peace and normalcy in Afghanistan as well as for the promotion of relief and reconstruction work in Afghanistan. We hope that this resolution will strengthen the United Nations’ efforts in Afghanistan and truly contribute to achievement of peace, security and development in that country which needs it so badly.

As we open a new chapter in the Afghan saga, the bitter and unpleasant chapters of the past must be closed. We must look forward, not backward. The UN sanctions imposed under Security Council resolutions 1267 and 1333 represent a painful legacy for the Afghan people. Now that the Taliban have been eliminated, the sanctions regime which hurt only the people of Afghanistan must also come to an end.  There is now Security Council resolution 1373 with wider scope and reach which has made the Taliban-specific resolutions 1267 and 1333 redundant. Once the current military campaign in Afghanistan is successfully over, all the resources that were mobilized for intrusive and punitive mechanisms under these resolutions should be placed at the disposal of Ambassador Brahimi so that he could use them, if he so requires, appropriately and constructively to rebuild Afghanistan. Tomorrow’s Afghanistan will need the UN not as a policeman hunting for criminals – but as a healer and builder, promoting reconciliation and reconstruction of this war-torn nation.

I thank you. Mr. President.n

Reference:  http://www.forisb.org