Karzai avoids saying US is winning war

Πηγή: The Nation
Dec 19 2011

NEW YORK - Afghan President Hamid Karzai Sunday deflected a question whether the US-led coalition was winning the war in Afghanistan, saying while the country had become stable over the past 10 years, the people do not have personal security.

“That is yet to come,” the Afghan leader said in the course of an interview with CNN’s GPS new programme. Karzai made that statement when specifically asked whether he agreed with US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta that the international coalition is winning the war in Afghanistan. “Well, the international coalition and the Afghan government have been able to provide, in the past 10 years, political stability to Afghanistan, the overall stability of Afghanistan and the presence of Afghanistan as a state, as a nation state in the international community,” he said. “But we - the United States, NATO and Afghanistan government together - have not been able to provide the Afghan people with their individual personal security.” About night raids conducted by US and NATO forces, he emphatically said no foreign forces should enter Afghan homes. “This has been one of the issues between us for a long time, something that we have raised an objection to for almost eight years now. We want Afghanistan’s homes, Afghan-istan’s villages to be protected, to be safe from such attacks.”

The programme anchor, Fareed Zakaria, an American journalist of Indian origin, asked him about the recent attack on Shias in Kabul by a Pakistani militant group, the Afghan leader said his government was not blaming Pakistan as an investigation was going on. However, if Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was involved, as claimed by the group, it was the responsibility of Pakistani government to take action against it.

Replying to a question, Karzai said he would not run for president in 2014 when his term expires because of the constitutional provision. He said he would live in Afghanistan as a private citizen.

Karzai hoped that his efforts to negotiate peace with the Taliban would ultimately succeed and that peace and security would return to Afghanistan.