Brussels, 11/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - In an address to the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee, the Afghan minister for foreign affairs acknowledged on Tuesday 11 July, that security had deteriorated and that his government and the international community had under-estimated Taliban capability. Rangin Dafar Spanta, speaking in German, presented himself as a democrat, respectful of human rights and made a lengthy appeal for getting women involved at all levels.
Critical of the government to which he belongs, the Afghan minister also recognised the need to fight corruption and speed up the economic and social development of the country, as well as reinforce Afghan security forces, without which it would be impossible to efficiently fight terrorism and drugs, two inter-connected problems. Afghanistan needs intensive aid and “massive NATO support with a robust mandate”. With international aid the Afghan government has succeeded in building up a military force of around 63,000 soldiers and a police force of around 25,000-26,000 men. These forces, however, only have old weapons and a few old jeeps, whereas the terrorists have modern weapons and “Japanese jeeps with air-conditioning”. The minister asked how a country with 25 million inhabitants could be made secure when their forces were so few and so badly equipped. Highlighting the need to get Afghans more involved in the fight against terrorism, the minister explained that despite the appetite of neighbouring countries in helping support terrorism, because they still imagine that they can establish a kind of protectorate over all or some of Afghanistan, “we want to defend our sovereignty and our territorial integrity”. Rangin Dafar Spanta exclaimed, “Believe you me, most Afghans are very happy with the presence of international troops. But we have a small minority, a very well organised minority supported from abroad”, which supports terrorism. He affirmed that there were still terrorists in Afghanistan from North Africa, Chechnya, Uzbekistan and neighbouring countries. He also called for international action to close down the “terrorist factories” outside Afghanistan, which were responsible for peddling “an ideology of hatred”. In reply to a question from German Green Angelika Beer, he explained that “the Germans are in the safest sector in Afghanistan”, whereas the Uruzgan province where the Dutch troops are based is “the most dangerous region”.
While highlighting the importance of young women's access to education, the Afghan minister appealed for greater involvement of women and pointed out that there were now women accounted for 28% of the total in parliament (he also said that during the investiture of the government, a conservative member of parliament had asked him to explain his “feminism” and that he had also won the support of 60 of the 80 seats occupied by women). Mr Spanta, however, recognised that education was still a problem in the south where schools had been burned down.
“I've been asked what I think about the Iranian nuclear affair and I answered that I was a member of the Greens”, explained the minister, adding that he wanted a peaceful solution to the problem. He underlined that Iran did not provide support to terrorists in Afghanistan and affirmed that “we want a region free of nuclear weapons, in central Asia and in the Middle East”.
Asked by British Conservative, Nirj Deva about the possibility of transforming opium production into pharmaceutical products, the Afghan minister said that they should first of all establish control throughout the territory (and, during the same time, fight production and illegal trafficking) before planning on such a formula with international aid. He considered that alternative production existed, such as saffron and fruit.