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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
Afghanistan Reconstruction Event
>> USAID Afghanistan Reconstruction Event Tuesday, January 29, 2002 USAID Headquarters
Ronald Reagan Building
Washington, D.C.[TRANSCRIPT PREPARED FROM A TAPE RECORDING.]
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: Good afternoon. I'm Andrew Natsios, the administrator of USAID.
It gives me great pleasure to welcome the First Lady of the United States, and Chairman Karzai, and his delegation.
Let me introduce them. Foreign Minister Abdullah; the Minister of Education, Dr. Rasul Amin; the Vice Chairman of the Interim Government and Minister of Women's Affairs, Dr. Sima Samar; Economic Adviser, Ashram Ghani [ph], Dr. Ghani; Minister of Reconstruction, Dr. Amir Mohammad Amin Farhang; Minister of Commerce, Seyyed Mustafa Kazemi; Minister of Public Works, Abdul Khaliq Fazal; Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Mir Wais Sadeq; Minister of Information and Culture, Dr. Rahin Makhdoom; Minister of Higher Education, Sharif Faez--absent, okay. [Laughter.] Chief of Protocol, Dr. Abdul Haider [ph].
Mrs. Bush, Chairman Karzai, Ministers, welcome to you all.
We are honored to have several Cabinet members. We have Dr. Paige, the Minister of Education. We have a couple of other Cabinet members who may show up before the end of this.
We also have Senator Chuck Hagel from Nebraska and Congressman Roger Wicker. We also have the President's Special Envoy to Afghanistan, Zal Khalizad, and Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs, Paula Dobriansky. Welcome to you.
In addition, I would like to recognize representatives of the NGOs that are working in Afghanistan. There are a number in the room today. We also have a great many distinguished people here, which is testimony, I think, to the interests of the United States and the American people for what's happening in Afghanistan and helping the Afghan people rebuild their lives and communities after more than two decades of war and civil strife.
I just returned from Kabul, my second trip to Afghan in the last few months. Frankly, the devastation I saw there is as bad as any I have seen in 13 years of humanitarian relief work. I have been to virtually every civil war in the last 13 years. It is not just the cities that have been destroyed. The Shamali Plain, just north of the capital, was once one of the richest agricultural areas in Central Asia, but today it lies in ruins. The once famous pomegranate groves, the almond trees, the orange groves, and the vineyards, the extraordinary vineyards, even the mosques there were burned to the ground by the Taliban several years ago during the second phase of the civil war.
Despite the devastation, there is a sense of hope and freedom in the air that has not been present for many years. Much of that has to do with the removal of Taliban and al Qaeda, but much of it, too, has to do with Chairman Karzai, and the ministers, and the interim government that he now leads.
On Friday, I announced the USAID new mission that is reopening in Kabul. I know that many USAID officers who had served there in Afghanistan, prior to the civil war starting in 1978, remember it well, love Afghanistan and know of the Afghan people, and many are anxious to return. I keep getting the resumes of our staff saying, "I want to go first." If we let them all go, we would have the largest mission in the world in Afghanistan.
[Laughter.]
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: As the President said yesterday at the Rose Garden ceremony with Chairman Karzai, "Two 12 days ago, for the first time since 1979, an American flag was raised over the U.S. Agency for International Development's mission in Kabul. That flag will not be lowered. It will wave long into the future, a symbol of America's enduring commitment to Afghanistan's future."
I might add we seldom open a mission and then close it quickly. We stay in countries we go to for a very long time.
Secretary Powell made the commitment very clear when he announced at last week's conference in Tokyo that the United States would contribute $297 million this fiscal year to the reconstruction of Afghanistan, and I quote, "This is the first contribution to what must be, and will be, a multi-year effort."
USAID's primary focus in the reconstruction effort will be agriculture, health, and education. Our part of the $297 million will be about $167 million for this fiscal year, which ends September 30th.
Today, we are announcing more than $15 million in quick-impact programs that will begin immediately. We understand the importance of addressing Afghanistan's most pressing needs without delay. For that reason, our focus is on education and supporting women, as well as health and agriculture. Our goal is to move quickly on these areas to make a difference in people's lives very soon.
Now it is my great pleasure to introduce the First Lady of the United States.
Before she came to Washington, the First Lady's passion for children and her devotion to education and reading were already well known. We, at USAID, are proud to have incorporated some of her ideas into our Centers for Excellence projects in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Laura Bush is proud to have been the first First Lady to record a presidential radio address in its entirety. She used that occasion to highlight the plight of Afghanistan's women and children.
So, without further ado, let me introduce Laura Bush.
[Applause.]
MRS. BUSH: Thank you very much. Thank you so much.
Thank you, and thanks for your terrific work on behalf of USAID.
Good afternoon. I'm delighted to be here today to highlight our nation's commitment to the people of Afghanistan, especially our support for the education of women and children.
Last November, I joined other Americans in focusing on the brutality against Afghan women by the al Qaeda terrorist network and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Today, we continue to speak out on behalf of women and children, especially girls, who for 7 years were denied their basic human rights of health and education.
Thanks to the efforts of the international community, the days of oppression and terror by the Taliban are becominga memory. However, we must never forget the atrocities that took place at the hands of the Taliban. We will not forget that 70 percent of Afghans are malnourished. We will not forget that one out of every four children dies by the age of five because of lack of health care. We will not forget that women are denied access to medical care, denied the right to work, and denied the right to leave their home alone.
Thanks to the international coalition those days are over. The rights and dignity of women and children are once again a priority for the government of Afghanistan. Humanitarian assistance from the United States and from many other countries has helped avert widespread famine in Afghanistan this winter. But now it's time to look beyond the crisis of today. Now is the time for the world to work with Afghanistan for a better tomorrow.
The man who is courageously leading the Afghan people now is with us today. I am honored to stand with Chairman Karzai, Chairman of the Afghan Interim Authority. He is a man who personifies the hope and optimism of the citizens of Afghanistan. Chairman Karzai, I welcome you, Dr. Sima Samar, Foreign Minister Abdullah, as well as your Minister of Education and your Reconstruction Adviser.
Chairman Karzai's government recognizes that Afghanistan's future belongs to and depends upon its children. A new school term will begin in Afghanistan in March. Many girls will enter the classroom for the first time. Rebuilding the school system must be a priority. Nothing is more important to Afghanistan's future than giving its children the tools and the skills they need to learn and succeed.
The United States remains one of the largest donors of emergency humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people. We pledge $296 million this fiscal year to help Afghanistan with its rebuilding efforts, which includes the rebuilding of its school systems. We are also committed to making sure that the women of Afghanistan, again, have the freedom and the resources to pursue an education and a profession.
I have been fortunate to meet some of Afghanistan's ex patriot women. They are strong, courageous and dedicated to their home country. We look forward to their return home to help rebuild and transform Afghanistan.
Chairman Karzai, the world is celebrating a new chapter in Afghanistan's history. With your leadership and love of country, we are confident that all of the people of Afghanistan--men, women and children--will have a role in this unfolding story.
Thank you all.
[Applause.]
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: Thank you very much, Mrs. Bush.
We recognize that Afghanistan has many immediate needs, but few are as important as rebuilding a school system that allows both boys and girls to learn the skills they need. As you know, until the advent of the Taliban, two-thirds of Afghanistan's teachers were women, and so we are looking forward to helping them update their teaching skills and return to the classroom, where they have been badly missed.
So it gives me particular pleasure to announce now that part of the reconstruction effort that USAID has initiated will include a $6.5-million program to purchase 9.7 million textbooks, along with 4,000 teaching training kits and other supplies and teaching aids. School begins in March, and so we intend to have new textbooks in the children's hands by then. The project will be run by the University of Omaha's excellent Afghan studies program. I am pleased that the dean of that program, Tom Gouttierre, is with us today.
Tom, if you would take a bow.
[Applause.]
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: On the wall over here, there are some examples of the materials we produced several years ago in conjunction with the University of Nebraska, Omaha. These are the types of texts and teaching materials we will supply with the Minister of Education in the new interim government, who has read over and worked on, actually, over a period of years, these textbooks himself. The Minister was aware of this project well before the government changed hands, and so he is an expert in the curriculum, as well as the school system. He and I toured a number of the schools in Kabul when I was there last week.
And now the First Lady will present a children's dictionary to Chairman Karzai as a symbol of our commitment to educating Afghanistan's children.
[Mrs. Bush made the presentation to Chairman Karzai.]
[Applause.]
CHAIRMAN KARZAI: I will keep this for myself.
[Laughter.]
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: Now I am pleased to introduce the Secretary of Education, Dr. Rodney Paige.
{Applause.]
SECRETARY PAIGE: Mrs. Bush, Mr. Chairman, my colleagues and I in the U.S. Department of Education were fortunate, yesterday, to be visited by the Minister of Higher Education and the Minister for Elementary and Secondary Education from Afghanistan.
We had about 60 minutes of discussion, during which the Ministers described to us their plight in Afghanistan. They described the devastation, the broken infrastructure, and the destitute people, but they also described a type of thirst for learning that was unbroken. And we were touched by this discussion, and we have agreed to join the other members of our colleagues here in the United States government and do what we can to assist in their education, especially education of women.
We decided that we would begin this effort by assembling a team that will visit Afghanistan and have some discussions there and put together a work plan dictating how we will proceed after that. I am pleased to join that, and we look forward to this very important work.
Thank you.
[Applause.]
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
And now the distinguished Senator from Nebraska, Chuck Hagel, will say a few words, given that the institution that's running this is from his state.
[Applause.]
SENATOR HAGEL: Senator Natsios, thank you, and to First Lady Bush, thank you. You have become, in a very short amount of time, an important symbol in our country and the world not just for education, but for standards and values. So to have you here means something, and we are grateful.
One of the last opportunities I had to meet with Chairman Karzai and his distinguished cabinet was at 1 o'clock in the morning in a very cold tent--about zero--in a little place called Bagram, Afghanistan. Now, for a Nebraska boy that wasn't all that bad, after all, it is January.
[Laughter.]
SENATOR HAGEL: But I can assure you, Mr. Chairman, it is more pleasant today, and not only with the surroundings and the company, but what we have to recognize and celebrate today is rather significant to USAID and to the President's Cabinet members here and all of you who have worked so hard to team with our friends from Afghanistan to help rebuild an infrastructure, not rebuild a value system or a system of standards, but help rebuild the infrastructure. You know who you are, and you know what you believe. We are a country who are privileged to assist where we can.
I think it is only appropriate to recognize those who have come before in Stage One of our efforts and our allies' efforts in working with the good people of Afghanistan. The Marines and Special Forces, our Armed Forces, our State Department, they were there at the front end. Because of them and because of your courage and leadership, we now have an opportunity to build something very special for your country and for that part of the world, a regional responsibility.
Of course, as a mere mortal United States Senator from Nebraska, I am most proud of Tom Gouttierre and the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and one of Tom's colleagues, who I helped recruit for that program, Ambassador Peter Thompson, who many of you know and many of you worked with when he was our last envoy in Afghanistan.
So congratulations to all of you. We will continue to help. The best thing I can say, as a United States Senator, I will try and stay out of your way.
[Laughter.]
SENATOR HAGEL: Thank you very much.
[Applause.]
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: And now I'd like to introduce my good friend, Paula Dobriansky, the Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs, who will make a few remarks.
Paula?
UNDER SECRETARY DOBRIANSKY: Mrs. Bush, Chairman Karzai, Ministers, and our distinguished guests, it is truly a privilege to be here for this important occasion. This event signifies not only U.S. support for the people of Afghanistan, but also both countries' unwavering commitment to Afghan women.
Long denied basic education, health care, and opportunities to provide for their families, the resilient women of Afghanistan are once again regaining control over their lives and over their futures. We stand resolute in our support for Afghan women. We stand resolute in our support for the Afghan people.
In my meetings with Afghan Ministers today, it was clear we will work together to advance women's participation in the reconstruction process. To that end, I am pleased to announce that we have agreed to establish a U.S.-Afghanistan Women's Council. This public-private partnership will link our Afghan colleagues with American partners in academia, the private sector, the media, health services, and other key sectors. This will mobilize private resources and foster an exchange of information, as well as experiences, to support the reconstruction of Afghanistan, as well as ensure follow-up on projects, and it will support the pivotal role that women will play in rebuilding Afghanistan.
We are heartened to see girls returning to schools, mothers providing for their children and women returning to the workplace. Our efforts here are a part of the restoration of the rights of Afghan women. We look forward to working together for these very important goals.
Thank you.
[Applause.]
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: Thank you, Paula.
We have all heard the alarming statistics of both the health problems that Afghanistan faces. Unless we help the Afghans rebuild their health care system, many will lack the strength and vitality to do the work the country needs for reconstruction.
In keeping with our goal and the goal of the interim government to design programs that have an immediate impact on people's well-being, the President has authorized us to make a $600,000 grant to UNICEF to work with the Ministry of Health and the interim government to vaccinate 2.26 million Afghan children against measles. For Americans who don't understand this, when a child is malnourished and they have measles, there's a 50-percent chance they will die. Measles is the most horrendous problem we have in epidemic form during food shortages and during civil wars. So there is a serious threat to the children's health in Afghanistan.
Another $150,000 will go to rebuild an early warning system for polio, which will reach some 2.4 million children under the age of five, and there will be another series of announcements on health care as the grants are finished.
To talk about these grants, it's my honor to introduce Secretary of Health and Human Services, Governor Tommy Thompson.
[Applause.]
SECRETARY THOMPSON: Thank you so very much, Mr. Chairman, members of the delegation and First Lady. It's a pleasure to be with you and all of the individuals. It is an honor for me to join you all here tonight.
The Deputy Prime Minister, Dr. Samar, was with me yesterday when I held a reception for her in the Department of Health and Human Services. She spoke so eloquently about the needs of her country and about the needs of women and children, especially health care needs. It was my honor to be able to host her, and it was also my honor to host three of the Ministers there and to suggest that the Department of Health and Human Services, along with USAID, would be able to develop a wonderful program on health care and be able to send some doctors, as well as nurses, from the Department, as well as from the Washington, D.C., area. Individuals who were there at the Department indicated they would like to go back to their home country and spend time ministering to the needs of their particular people.
We discussed the conditions facing women in Afghanistan. The American people recoiled at the treatment of women under the Taliban regime, the denial of medical care, the simple lack of human dignity. All of you are working to change conditions for the better for all of the people of Afghanistan. And the President of the United States and the First Lady have done so much to foster that spirit of cooperation and dedication to the people of Afghanistan. Our Department of Health and Human Services is dedicated to do all that we possibly can to serve the needs of the people of Afghanistan.
With the full support and the great leadership of President Bush, we are going to make certain that the Department of Health and Human Services is a partner in your efforts. I have directed my staff to develop a proposal that draws from the many strengths of the Department of HHS, in order to assist the new Afghan government and its coals of improving the health and the well-being of its citizens. In coming months, we hope to present to the Afghan government our comprehensive proposal.
Chairman Karzai and members of the delegation, your presence here represents an historic occasion and a moment of great hope for the future of your country. I am honored to join you, and I look forward to many years of cooperation with the leaders of your nation. And with the help of you, and with the help of your delegation, and with the great people of the United States and the administration, we will do everything to improve the quality of care for your people.
[Applause.]
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
And now to talk about the Afghan War Victims Fund, for which we are transferring a million dollars, I would like to introduce Senator Patrick Leahy, who is the creator of the War Victims Fund.
Senator Leahy?
[Applause.]
SENATOR LEAHY: Thank you very much. First Lady Laura Bush, thank you for your words. They were inspiring, and I thank you for your presence here.
Chairman Karzai, thank you for your presence here. Like all of us, I've watched your statements during these past few weeks and have been encouraged by them, and I hope you have been encouraged by the support of the President and the bipartisan support of the Congress you've received.
We know that the War Victims Fund can help. It has helped land mine victims and their families rebuild their lives, whether in Mozambique or Cambodia. We also know that in Afghanistan there are more land mines and more unexploded ordnance than in any other country in the world, and no matter how much effortwe make to clean that up, there will be victims of it.
The War Victims fund will be helpful there, but as Lloyd Feinberg has pointed out to me and others, a lot of people don't know that there are thousands, probably tens of thousands, of Afghans who have been disabled from polio, and the War Victims Fund can help them.
My wife and I visited parts of the place where the War Victims Fund is used. She is a nurse, and she has seen the ravages of polio, something that your children, my children, none of us in here, our children, have to face, but they are faced in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
So I hope to be able, Chairman Karzai, to visit your country and see the use of the War Victims Fund. It's needed. It's needed, and we will help.
Thank you.[Applause.]
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: Thank you, Senator Leahy.
One of Afghanistan's most pressing needs and important initiatives is to get its agriculture sector back and running. We've had extensive discussions with Chairman Karzai and his Economic Adviser when I was there last week, and we all agreed that unless the economy gets moving, everything else will fail, since agriculture is the central part of the Afghanistan economy. Eighty percent of the people in Afghanistan live in rural areas. Two-thirds of the Afghan people are farmers or herders, and so it is very important that this sector of the
economy be revived as soon as possible.At the time of the Soviet invasions in 1979, Afghanistan was food self-sufficient. In fact, it was an exporter of some of the best walnuts, and almonds, and pistachios, some of which I enjoyed in Kabul when I was there. I was eating Afghan apples, and I thought they had been imported from California. They were imported from the countryside. Their fruit trees, and fruit crops, and I might also add their raisins are among the finest in South Asia or Central Asia. To begin to revive that sector can make a huge difference in exports and in the economy.
Some of the irrigation systems that USAID helped the Afghan government build back in the 1960s and in the early '70s are badly damaged, and some parts, which still function, are used to irrigate poppy fields. This must stop. Livestock herds are severely depleted from the three years of drought. Fifty percent of the animal herds in many parts of the country have died because of the lack of water or forage. Most of the seeds needed for the spring planting have been consumed. Roads have been badly damaged, and the countryside is full of mine fields, as Senator Leahy just mentioned.
Sorting out all of this will take time, but for now we want to announce an immediate $7-million grant available for quick-impact reconstruction projects at the village level that will benefit agriculture, help rebuild the irrigation systems and help the central government and the interim government develop strong ties to the provinces and to local communities.
I am pleased now to introduce our Secretary of Labor, Elaine Chao.
[Applause.]
SECRETARY CHAO: I'm also pleased to be here with my colleagues in the Cabinet. It's actually a very diverse Cabinet. You should see the rest of them.
[Laughter.]
SECRETARY CHAO: I also want to thank the distinguished members of Congress, many of whom I've known for quite a while, and of course Paula Dobriansky, from the State Department, who has done such a wonderful job. Chairman Karzai, of course, to you and your ministers in the Afghan interim government, our hopes and our dreams are with you, and we are here to pledge United States' support and assistance to help the people of Afghanistan rebuild their country.
I really do want to applaud Chairman Karzai for the high priority that he's placed on women's rights in the rebuilding of his country--your country.
The Department of Labor and the U.S. government is involved with retraining, and training and helping to provide employment opportunities for dislocated and those who are unemployed. That is why I am so pleased to announce today that the Labor Department will initiate a $1.5-million technical assistance project to help reintegrate Afghan women back into the workforce.
We will also do the same with a $1.5-million project for ex-combatants who are primarily young men who now roam the country with no work and little but time on their hands. It is critical to begin the process of identifying a place for these young men in the workplace and helping them to make that transition.
The $3 million that our department pledges here today is a down payment on Afghan people's future, on, indeed, your country's future. It is a concrete demonstration of our belief that the opportunity to work, particularly for Afghan women, is fundamental to rebuilding your country. Economic opportunity is as much a part of the foundation of a free and prosperous society as any infrastructure built of brick and mortar.
I look forward to working with you, Chairman Karzai, as all of the people on the stage do, and, in particular, the President's great team.
Thank you very much.
[Applause.]
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: Thank you very much, Secretary Chao.
It is my pleasure, also, to introduce to all of you a delegation that just returned from Afghanistan, and three Congressman who are here today. My very good friend, Frank Wolf, Congressman Wolf, from Virginia; Congressman Jack Kingston; and, as I introduced earlier, Congressman Roger Wicker.
Let me now introduce the President's Special Envoy to Afghanistan, a man who probably has done more than any other in this country to keep the ties between his native country and his adopted country open and functioning, and that is Zalmay Khalizad.
Zal will introduce Chairman Karzai.
[Applause.]
MR. KHALIZAD: Mrs. Bush, Chairman Karzai. I have the pleasant task of introducing Chairman I have known the Chairman for a long time, for more than
20 years. He is the representative of a group of new leaders in Afghanistan who have been shaped by the two wars of liberation that Afghanistan has experienced in the past 20 years--the war against the Soviet occupation and the war against terror and extremism in Afghanistan.Chairman Karzai has paid a personal price that very few people know, besides the destruction that we all have witnessed in Afghanistan. His father, who was a great Afghan patriot, was assassinated by terrorists.
He is dedicated because of the experiences that he has had in Afghanistan, like so many other leaders, Foreign Minister Abdullah and others, to a new regime for Afghanistan, a regime which is based on determining things for their country not by gun, but by relying on the will of the Afghan people. In his new vision and his new effort, the United States, as the President has said and the First Lady has said, we are with you, Chairman Karzai.
Chairman Karzai has some personal attributes that some of you may not know about. In 20 years, there are things you learn.
[Laughter.]
MR. KHALIZAD: First, you love to walk. I think somebody said he loves to walk more than Mahatma Gandhi did.
[Laughter.]
MR. KHALIZAD: In his new job, he does not have the opportunity to walk a great deal.
Too, he also loves music and music of all kinds, and of course he's become a fashion model -- [Laughter.]
[Applause.]
MR. KHALIZAD: I have imitated him, and I've got a chapan, a coat, like that. I will wear it to the White House maybe.
[Laughter.]
MR. KHALIZAD: Chairman Karzai, it is my honor to introduce you to this audience and those who are watching.
Thank you.
[Applause.]
CHAIRMAN KARZAI: Well, on the fashion thing, our Women's Affairs Minister doesn't agree with me.
[Laughter.]
CHAIRMAN KARZAI: She keeps asking me to remove my chapan, and it looks like I am winning, at least one area where we have a winning situation against the Women's Affairs Minister.
[Laughter.]
CHAIRMAN KARZAI: She won some money from the Congress today, by the way, over there with the Congress.
It is such a happy occasion for us Afghans to be here in the presence of the First Lady of the United States and to know that she takes care to look after us and to know that she is concerned with our education, the life of a woman, the work of a woman, and health and all of that. So we thank you very much for taking the time to come here. It is very nice of you, great of you.
I am also very grateful for all of the members of the U.S. government, the honorable Secretaries, the honorable Senators and Congressmen, some of whom we met in Kabul, some in cold tents, but not Afghan tents. Let me tell you the truth.
That was an American tent, though in Kabul.
[Laughter.]
CHAIRMAN KARZAI: We in Afghanistan really have priorities in all walks of life. I mean, if you prepare a list, you will run into everything, everything that you can imagine, everything that you can come across in your daily life at home, outside, the office, everywhere. But there are really three areas that are outlined here, and I am glad the AID has been so kind to mention the three key areas of help for Afghanistan -- education, health, and agriculture and job creation.
It is all the three combined that will make Afghanistan, once again, a fully living nation, a thriving nation. It is in these three areas that we really need tremendous help. If you visit Afghanistan, you will find out that one building in a village that has been destroyed with intention is school building. I don't know why. If you visit anyplace in Afghanistan, homes may be standing or may be destroyed, and maybe they are shelled, maybe they are bombed, but the schools are dynamited to just fall flat.
Health, the same way. Agriculture, seriously damaged, seriously destroyed. A country that was self-sufficient, a country that produced some of the best fruits in that part of the world, maybe some of the fruits were the best in the world, like our pomegranates and grapes, that produced a lot of wheat, and potatoes and other items of daily need suddenly became the most needy in that part of the world of all of these things. Rather than being known for good pomegranates or raisins, now people know us for narcotics. We will change that.
[Applause.]
CHAIRMAN KARZAI: --one that produces the best grapes, beat the Italians.
[Laughter.]
CHAIRMAN KARZAI: --though they are my friends.
[Laughter.]
CHAIRMAN KARZAI: We also had probably some of the best educated people in that part of the world. The people that we trained, the University of Kabul and other institutions, we did not know, but when I went to India to study, I really found out that there were certain areas in which the Afghan students were doing very well, and when I came to Europe and America, I found that we had some very good people. Over 200,000 finest Afghan experts had to leave their homes, migrate to Europe and America when the Soviets came, and they are still here.
In Health Services, I saw yesterday a lady surgeon in the function that we had at the Ritz Carlton. Somebody introduced her to me as the finest surgeon in Boston, and I was proud. She was trained in Kabul, by the way. This means we have the capability to go and have all of that again, in education, in health, in agriculture.
The help that you are offering now, people of the United States, through AID, is very valuable. Yes, we will have all of those things back, but we cannot have them without this help. So it makes it vital for us, and thank you very much.
I assure you that with the kind of sustained help that you have offered, that you have promised, you will have an Afghanistan that will be a partner, that will be a friend, but that will not be a burden like it is now. It will stand on its own feet and shall extend a good, firm, helping hand. It does not forget. The nature of Afghans is that it is does not forget help. It will remember that. You helped us against terrorism, you helped in liberating ourselves against terrorism. They were there. They had occupied our country, and we thank you for that too.
The statement that I should make first of all, I say it last of all because it's the most significant, and I want to have the best of my heart come out on that, is the sharing of pain and suffering that the American people went through on 11th of September last year by Afghans, I think the Afghans are the best people on earth to feel that pain and to share it with you because we went exactly through the same suffering.
Our families, our mothers, our sisters and brothers, they know what it is to be struck, to be hurt or killed by a terrorist, and that is why, and I will repeat that story again, I will keep repeating it, whatever time it takes, whatever number of repetitions that it may take, the Afghan people were so whole-heartedly happy when America's help came, when your troops came, when your Special Forces came to remove terrorism from there.
I told, last night, the story of a man called Azizara [ph] in Ritz Carlton. Ambassador Halazal [ph] was there.
I will say it again now. A man called Azizara lost his grand-children, so many of them. The whole family was wounded, but some were killed in an American bombing that was trying to hit Taliban positions. The Taliban ran away into somebody's home, and then the bombers chased them there, and in the incident that followed, some members of the family got killed. They were his family.
We were sitting over dinner one day. The American Special Forces came. Twelve of them wanted to see me, and I called them into the room we were having dinner in, and when they came in and sat, this man, Azizara, said, "Aren't they American soldiers, American people?"
I said, "Yes, they're American people," and I got worried that he might react to them because it was that bombing that killed his children.
And he said, "Tell them that I lost so many of my grandchildren and some are still in the hospital, but I am happy you are here in this campaign against terrorism because I want to be free again. I want this nation to be free again. If I lose more of my family, I won't mind. Keep doing your work."
[Applause.]
CHAIRMAN KARZAI: That's the kind of partnership there is, and we will see to it that it produces better, that it is fruitful for all of us, that it eventually frees the world from the scourge of terrorism completely. On our part, we will fight it like hell. We will continue to hunt them. We will continue to go after them. We will continue to look for them, and we will find them. And when we find them, you will see that we will try them or, if you want them, we'll give them to you.
[Laughter.]
CHAIRMAN KARZAI: Better to be with you.
I can only thank you and thank you very much. It's been nice of you. Thank you.
[Applause.].
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Let me just tell you that I've been in 75 developing countries over the last 13 years, and the countries that make it and the countries that don't make it, the countries that have success in making progress and those that do not, are distinguished by one characteristic, and that is national leadership. We can provide assistance, but unless there is an able cabinet, unless there is able national leadership, no foreign assistance works. That is my own experience.
I have to tell you that the conversations I have had over the last couple of months, but particularly last week when I was in Kabul, showed me that you have assembled a team of very skilled professional people of very high integrity who are dedicated to the country, to the reconstruction of Afghanistan and to a new world for the country, and that means the first and most important characteristic is already present.
It is our job now to help you. President Bush has made clear, and Secretary Powell, that we will be dedicated in AID and the other offices of the federal government to assisting you in being successful in that great and important undertaking.
Now I would like to thank everybody for coming today, and I would also ask those in the audience and the press to remain seated until the First Lady has an opportunity to exit.
Thank you all very much for coming.
[Applause.].
[End of Proceedings.]
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Last Updated on: January 02, 2009 |
