In the only interview to anews channel on his visit to India for the SAARC Summit, Afghanistan PresidentHamid Karzai met with TIMES NOW's Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami for thisvery candid one onone.
Arnab: Mr Karzai, thankyou very much for joining us on Frankly Speaking. You have been very frank inthe last few days wherever you have spoken in interviews. You have been morecandid than before. Many people have seen that there has been a little bit ofimpatience coming up. At the SAARC Summit to start with, you made a categoricalstatement that if the SAARC summit has to be truly successful, then politicalsponsorship of terror must stop. What did you mean by that?
Karzai: By that I meant that allof the countries in SAARC, in this region, must recognise that progress, abetter future and leaving this region for the next generation as a peacefulprosperous, stable region would be impossible unless we look deeper amongstourselves to find out the causes, the reasons for insecurity, for instability inthis region. Afghanistan's experience shows that if we stop, or if we do notengage, in other words, in promoting extremism as instruments of policy. In thecase of Afghanistan, extremism did not draw in Afghanistan, it came to us fromoutside - beginning with the Soviet invasion. From one direction, theSoviets wanted to impose communism on us and then when we began to fight them asthe Afghan resistance, or as a national resistance movement against the soviets,we became refugees outside. Those who helped us from the western countries, fromthe neighbourhood, radicalism was one of the instruments for fighting the Soviet-- that was wrong because the war was already a national war against soviets.And the consequences of that are still there. Some of them did useradicalism...I hope they have stopped now, as extremism as an instrument ofpolicy -- that has to stop for us to live peacefully.
Arnab: I began by sayingthat you must be frank today. That was as broad a hint towards Pakistan wasn'tit? I mean it was. You have been rather impatient towards Pakistan forsponsoring Taliban, for sponsoring terrorism in your country. Why didn'tyou name Pak in the SAARC Summit?
Karzai: There are 2 thingshere. One is that when you want to have something achieved, you want to makeprogress, you want to make friendship. That is not always achieved when you arepointing fingers. But at the same time, you want to tell the truth, you want toremind -- please my brother, my friend, let's not do that for the sake ofall of us, for the sake of Afghanistan, for the sake of India, for the sake ofPakistan, Sri Lanka... all these regions that we should not use extremism aspolicy -- in short, state sponsoredterrorism.
Arnab: That's very subtle of you, but in your interview to the New York Times,this is a fact about Pakistan's sponsorship and ‘I cannot remain silentabout it any longer'... where is that tiredness, that edginess, theimpatience coming from, MrKarzai?
Karzai: The Afghanpeople are extremely tired of all that brutality. The Afghan people areextremely angry. In parts of the country close to the borders of Pakistan, thereare schools being burnt out, children denied education, our people killedmurdered, even elderly women are killed. Who are these? Who are these killers?Where do they comefrom?
Karzai: Let me put itin a different perspective. If these are our people, if they are people ofAfghanistan, then we don't have any right to ask for help from the westerncommunity. There must be something wrong in our country! But if the Afghanpeople want schools, if they want education, a better economy, health careservices, a peaceful life...
Arnab: You went on record bysaying that the minute a new school, a new building, new development workhappens, there is a bomb planted next to it.
Karzai: Exactly...thensomeone else is doing it...and in relation to Pakistan, the question by New YorkTimes was very direct...Where is Mullah Omar? I know it for a fact, I know fromthe people who have met with him that he is around Quetta.
Karzai: Very, verygood Afghan sources, Taliban sources, people who have met with him, people whoknow him, know he is in Quetta, in Pakistan...I have told it to the Americans, Ihave told Pakistan, to myfriends!
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