And now the Middle East Institute’s president, the Honorable Edward S. Walker, Jr., former Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, will introduce our closing speaker, His Excellency Said Tayeb Jawad of Afghanistan.

Ambassador Edward S. Walker, Jr.:

It's been a fascinating conference. I'm just delighted that you all were able to come and spend this time on a subject that sometimes doesn't get as much coverage as it ought to.

His Excellency Jawad was appointed as Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States by President Hamid Karzai. He presented his credentials on December 4, 2003. He's a policymaker and diplomat, experienced in managing reform in post-conflict environments.

In March 2002, Ambassador Jawad returned from exile in the United States to Afghanistan to assist in the rebuilding of his country, where he served as the president's press secretary and chief of staff, as well as the director of the Office of International Relations at the presidential palace. He's been working with President Karzai in formulating strategies, implementing policies, building national institutions and prioritizing reforms in Afghanistan, including reform of the Ministry of Defense, rebuilding of the Afghan National Army, and drafting of foreign investment laws and Afghanistan's new constitution.

Ambassador Jawad has been widely published and broadcast. A native of Kandahar and educated in the Afghan French Lycee Istiglal in Kabul, he holds a degree in law from Kabul University School of Law and Political Science. Shortly after the Soviet invasion he went into exile, first in Germany, where he studied law at Westfälische Wilhelm Universität in Muenster, and later to the United States, where he received his MBA from Golden Gate University and practiced law. He is fluent in English, German, French, Farsi and Pashtun, and I think he's going to speak in English.

Closing Remarks

His Excellency Said Tayeb Jawad

Ambassasdor of Afghanistan

Thank you very much for the kind remarks. Ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to thank the Middle East Institute and the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies for organizing this conference.

I would like to begin with a story.

Two years ago, along a dusty road in Kunduz, Afghanistan, a young man caught the attention of President Karzai by throwing a bouquet of flowers at his car. When the president glanced at him, he pointed to the pitted road at his feet and said, "Fix the road!" That symbolizes, then and now, the chief desire of our nation, is to fix itself after twenty years of war and destruction. Afghans' major success in nation-building, in progress in the war against terrorism, by improvement in their everyday life and security.

At the donors conference in Berlin, we presented a detailed report on how to secure Afghanistan's future through international partnership and the security that Afghanistan's stability and prosperity brings to the world. Years of invasion, war and misery have made us tough bedrock people. We are known for our ability to fight and pray. Now, with the partnership of the international community, we are improving our skills and determination for reconciliation, reconstruction, in building a civil society in Afghanistan.

Historically, Afghanistan has been at the crossroads of Asia and served as a bridge between civilizations in the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, China and Europe. Today, my country is passing through another crossroad of history: one path rises to prosperity and democracy, bridging civilizations; and the other path descends into human rights violations, extremism, corruption, narcotics and factional fighting. We have with certainty chosen the right path, the path of prosperity and democracy, and done so with a spirit of national pride, as shown in our constitution that's the most progressive charter in the region, and our preparation for the upcoming national democratic elections in September 2004.

In partnership with the United States and led by the vision of President Karzai, our people are experiencing new freedoms and unprecedented opportunities. Afghan women are returning to school and the workplace. They are participating in the political process and we are experiencing success in education, health care and development of the market economy. Major cities flourish with business and reconstruction. The Afghan private sector has now access to the newly establishing international banking services. The Kabul-Kandahar highway has been reconstructed. Families are being reunited, as close to 3 million refugees have returned to their homes and villages. We have adopted new laws on investment banking, political parties, civic organizations, and freedom of expression. Consequently, 14 independent and privately owned radio and TV stations are operating in different parts of the country, including stations run by women, for women, in provinces such as Kunduz and Kandahar. Moreover, there are more than 270 newspapers and periodicals published and women are acquiring a strong voice in the media. About 5.6 million children have returned to school.

Our goals are very modest and realistic. We plan to double our gross domestic product per capita to just $500 in the next seven years. This is an investment the international community can afford to make and cannot afford to bypass. These investments will not only further stabilize Afghanistan and the region but also over the long haul lessen the defense and security expenditure of our global partners.

It costs more than $13 billion a year to maintain the anti-terror coalition and International Security Assistance Forces in my country. With a portion of this sum invested in rebuilding Afghanistan's national institutions, we will be able to take full responsibility for many services now provided by our international partners.

The fight against terrorism is not just military. It is economic. Investing in Afghanistan's future is good economics. Return on limited international investment in Afghanistan has been tremendously good, as evidenced by an economic growth rate of 30 percent last year and continued at 20 percent this year, according to the World Bank. Afghanistan is emerging as a model. Our success will affect the aspiration of people in other arenas of the global war against terrorism and tyranny.

To continue this progress and ensure a sustainable economic recovery, we need an average growth rate of 9 percent annually over the next seven years. This can only be sustained, however, with sizable investment by the international community.

Slow action could be more costly for all of us.

Consider our common fight against illegal narcotics. The cost of fighting this deadly trade that destroys lives all over the globe and feeds terrorism and warlord-ism in Afghanistan has increased significantly.

While there has been significant progress in rebuilding state institutions and stimulating economic growth in Kabul and other major cities, lack of human capital and resources continue to undermine my government's ability to deliver services to remote areas. This has deprived some segments of our people from the peace dividend.

After an agonizingly slow start, the process of demobilization, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) is gaining momentum. DDR must be implemented. We will not be able to build a civil society and establish rule of law in Afghanistan as long as guns rule.

Please allow me to also finish by telling you another story.

Last September, a girls school in Logar, a province south of Kabul, was set on fire by terrorists. The Moghul Khil school, consisting of two large tents, was set ablaze at midnight. The next day, every little girl, every student, showed up at the school. They sat next to the ashes of their burnt school, under the blazing sun, and insisted on continuing with their lessons. This is the spirit of the Afghan people. Afghans are determined to rebuild their country.

Our people value the close cooperation and cherish the enduring partnership forged between our nations. We are very grateful for the pledges made in Berlin. It shows the confidence of the international community to our vision and plans. We know that the hearts of the international community are open to Afghans. We appreciate when their checkbooks open too. After Berlin, it's time to frontload investments in building national institutions, to answer the plea of that young Afghan along the road for improving his life and security.

Thank you.

[applause]

Before taking questions, I would like to discuss three issues that were discussed during the panels.

PRTs. There are obviously some concerns about our take if the PRTs can be [inaudible]. PRTs are very effective. Why? Because the concept [inaudible]. Afghans welcomed the international community when they arrived in Afghanistan, and there are tremendous amounts of support for the international community in Afghanistan. Why is that so? Because the national interest of Afghanistan coincides with international global security concerns. This is a very good combination.

The concept of security for an Afghan is when he's not under attack by terrorists, when he is not under attack by a warlord in the region. It's important to keep the concept of security the same for an ordinary Afghan and our partners who are fighting the war against terrorism. If an ordinary Afghan living in a valley thinks that the war against terrorism means some soldier fighting some Arab elements on the mountaintop, he loses interest in that fight. We cannot afford that. We have to keep him engaged in order to win this war. That's why when he sees in his village that that soldier that is fighting terrorists on the mountaintop is also building a school or digging a well, then he understands that there's a connection with his life, there's a connection with his security. That's why PRTs are effective in Afghanistan. I know that the NGOs generally have a concern about that, and there's no competition between them. They provide a secure environment for the NGOs to operate.

As far as the role of the expats, the expats are playing a significant role in rebuilding Afghanistan, no doubt. Recently, about a month ago, Hyatt Hotel invested $30 million in Kabul. The investment is by an Afghan from New York. Like him, there's many other Afghan expats returning to Afghanistan and investing. A significant number of the ministries were run effectively or managed by Afghan expats – the Ministry of Finance, the Governor of the Central Bank; the Minister of Interior, Mr. Jalali, is doing an excellent job, and many others who have returned. Again, most of the expats who have returned or the experts who have returned from outside are people who do not belong to any factions, like myself, like many others. That's why they are more effective, because they do not belong and do not get involved in factional competition in Afghanistan.

Mr. Ahmed raised the question of Pakistan's need to have strategic depth in Afghanistan, and a "great game." We think it's a different day in the region. It's not a day of games. It's a day of cooperation. There's no zero-sum game in the region. We will all be doomed, or we will all make it through that. There's no way to use extremism as a selective tool of policy against someone and then hoping that it's not going to bother somebody else here. There's no way.

A strong democratic Afghanistan will be and is a good ally of Pakistan. If having strategic depth means having a weaker Afghanistan, that's something that's not going to happen, because as I mentioned, the people of Afghanistan are determined to build their country, to live in peace in their country and also in the region. We see the future of Afghanistan in the region in cooperation, in investment. Last year we conducted about $1 billion in trade with Pakistan. It could be even higher than that, because there's so many similarities. There's so many opportunities for Pakistan to go through Afghanistan to Central Asia and others.

So we do see the future of the region and the future of Afghanistan in having the best relations with Pakistan. We cannot afford to have anything but the most friendly relations with Pakistan. But trying to have a strategic depth by having a weak Afghanistan, it's not going to be beneficial to anyone. This has been tried and failed.

I'd be more than happy to take questions.

Question & Answer:

Question:

Regarding the prospects of elections, voter registration has not progressed rapidly. Should elections be held in September anyway? If so, why? If not, what risks would be incurred?

H.E. Said Tayeb Jawad:

Very good question. The elections have two aspects. One is the logistics, to enable every Afghan who is eligible to vote to be able to vote. That may be feasible, may be possible. Particularly for the presidential election that's easy, because it's one man, one vote. But as far as the parliamentary election, it's much more complicated, much more involved.

We would like to ask the international community, particularly the UN, to try its best to meet the deadline of September. We really don't want to delay the election. It's been tried in Afghanistan and it does have costly consequences for the leadership of Afghanistan. But at the same time, while we are insisting on holding the elections in September, we don't want to actually do anything that will bring the legitimacy of the process under question, because a spoiler, people who will not be able to mobilize a lot of votes, they will try to undermine this process by saying, "Well, so-and-so, this and that village was left out purposely," or something like that. So they will be able to undermine the process by bringing the whole registration process under question.

We would like to have a system that's complete and a system that maintains its integrity. Our objective is to try our best for September.

Question:

Has there been a resurgence of the Taliban and what do you think? What role is Pakistan playing [inaudible] hunting Al-Qaeda is quite good but as far as the Taliban, remnants of the Taliban find refuge and support in certain areas of Pakistan [inaudible].

H.E. Said Tayeb Jawad:

The Taliban as a terrorist organization are defeated. They are on the run. The fact that my colleague here showed in his statistics of eleven aid workers being killed shows that they are on the run. They are going after soft targets. Even if they are attacking Afghan military installations, it's usually a very isolated post. There's been very limited military actions against the Coalition forces or Afghan military installations. They go after soft targets, a road builder, a person who is helping with some agricultural project, things like that. Overall, they are defeated.

Most of the terrorist attacks in Afghanistan are, unfortunately, of a cross-border nature. We see a greater degree of cooperation by Pakistan. We appreciate this very much. The last operation in Waziristan was an example of the cooperation of Pakistan.

Pakistan is playing a positive role but there's much more that could be done between us, between Pakistan and the United States. That's why we've established a tripartite mechanism to consult and find a common solution against this menace, that not only actually is a danger to Afghanistan but also in the long run for Pakistan and global security.

Question:

Recently many articles [inaudible] talking about President Karzai talking or trying to negotiate with so-called moderate Taliban and also [inaudible]. They also say that if [inaudible] was given a position in the government, [inaudible], what is really scary is this scenario. If this happens, what will happen to the rest of the warlords or so-called governors? They would want to be part of the government. So it's a very dangerous attempt. I heard that the U.S. also is negotiating with the moderate Taliban and Hekmatyar. So is this true?

H.E. Said Tayeb Jawad:

The leadership of the Taliban are criminals. They are terrorists. So is Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. He is responsible for many killings in Afghanistan, for destroying the city in Kabul. So there is no doubt over that.

But at the same time, many people, low-ranking officials, soldiers, others who worked as part of the Taliban administrations were deprived of their legal and constitutional rights because at some point they worked for the Taliban. The objective of President Karzai in talking with some – not talking actually, allowing the Taliban to return to their villages, to return to their normal lives, is to deprive the terrorists of recruiting ground, because we want to give these Afghans a chance to – it's a new day in Afghanistan, a day of reconstruction, reconciliation, peace. So if they are coming back and just living in their village or doing whatever they were doing before that, they're more than welcome, because we do want to deny a recruiting ground to the terrorists. We want them to come back to their country.

The leadership of the Taliban, people who have committed crimes, they are criminals, they are terrorists. They are wanted by us. They are wanted by the international community. Same thing – a number of the people belonging to Hezb-e-Islami, Hekmatyar, realize that the day of killing, terrorizing, is over. They're not going to have any future if they continue doing so. So they approach the government. They come to Kabul, President Karzai met with them. We are trying to build on the reconciliatory approach that we have, to bring in everybody as much as possible. But there has been no negotiation. If they come and they want to participate in rebuilding Afghanistan and helping Afghanistan become a civil society, they're more than welcome.

Question:

[inaudible] Osama bin Laden [inaudible] somewhere in Afghanistan. [inaudible] as far as somewhere in Afghanistan, how can you think of success or what [inaudible] success in Afghanistan? Can you, [inaudible], give us an understanding of the [inaudible] Afghanistan and why not? They are not [inaudible].

H.E. Said Tayeb Jawad:

We are not sure where Osama bin Laden is. It's not sure if the tribes are actually harboring him. Looking at the past, looking at where most of the important Al-Qaeda operatives were arrested, we're looking into Quetta and Karachi, some major city. So chances are he is not necessarily in a tribal area. Again, it's much easier to – if someone is running from the law, sometimes I make this example, it's much easier to hide in New York City than in a farm in Idaho. So chances are that he is not in the isolated areas of the tribal belt.

The infrastructure that enabled him to come up with a big terrorist organization has been destroyed to a large degree. I'm sure that it's not going to take a very long time for the international community and for the Coalition forces to find him and to arrest him. The war against narcotics, terrorism, it's a much more complicated matter. It will be a matter of days or months until he is arrested.

Question:

Is there a high-level public information, education, promoting democracy and rule of law?

H.E. Said Tayeb Jawad:

Yes. Fortunately, the desire to leave war and violence behind and start a new country and a new life is very strong in Afghanistan. I participated in the two loya jirgas that happened in Kabul and it's amazing to see how, for instance, how determined the Afghan women are and how actively they participated in the political process.

The constitution that we have adopted provides that 25 percent of the seats of the lower house be allocated to women. The Afghan women did this. The initial draft was 12 percent. But when they got together in the Loya Jirga, they pushed it and they were successful. So the demand in the grassroots is strong for the traditional institutions to be reestablished and for democracy to come back.

The international community—the NGOs—are playing a significant and positive role in this aspect. As I mentioned, we have 14 radio stations. Basically they are free to say what they want. Some of them have specific targeted audiences, such as women. 270 periodicals are published.

But the tradition of building democracy is something that takes time. That's why when we rush into the election, sometimes you have to have a second thought, because to create the tradition of democracy, like building an army, it's not something that you can do by decree or that you can import. This is something that takes time.

But the movements at the grassroots level are very strong, and particularly women and the young generation. Young Afghans who are returning from Pakistan and Iran, the new Afghans who were educated in these countries, are playing a significant role in running the media, in building NGOs and other institutions, civic organizations.

Ambassador Edward S. Walker, Jr.:

Excellency, I want to thank you very much for your contribution.

H.E. Said Tayeb Jawad:

Thank you very much.

Thanks

David Chambers

Our conclusion would have to be a series of thanks before we leave today.

First and foremost, AIAS and MEI thank today's speakers and moderators for taking the time and trouble to come here and share with us their thoughts and concerns. We're grateful for your experience, dedication and passion, which many times today waxed in eloquence.

We also would like to thank you, our audience, for your insightful questions which, to my mind, are as important to a good conference as speakers and moderators.

We're grateful to our host, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, particularly Dan Conway, for providing today's facilities. We also thank members of the press, particularly Bill Heffling and today's C-SPAN crew, and Bryan Lamb for creating and maintaining C-SPAN for a quarter of a century.

At the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies, the Middle East Institute thanks Dr. John Richards and Katie Joyce, Special Assistant to the Vice Provost for International Affairs at Duke University.

Among MEI staff, I thank colleagues in Communications and Administration, and especially Ethan Arnheim and my own Programs Department.

Last because most important, I want to thank Dr. John Calabrese, Book Editor for the Middle East Journal. Whatever we achieved here today was largely to his credit.

This conference will continue at the Middle East Institute in June and this fall, so stay tuned. Online, you can find out at programs.mideasti.org.

This conference is now adjourned. Thank you.

Afghanistan: Promise and Fulfillment