Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-11-14-Speech-3-186"
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"en.20011114.8.3-186"2
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"Mrs Durant, Commissioner Busquin, let us not disguise our pleasure at once again hearing the sound of music on the streets of the Afghan capital and a woman's voice broadcasting on Radio Kabul. It does us all good to read the sense of liberation on the faces of the Afghans and the rout of some of the most obscurantist and cruel oppressors the world has seen.
Let us however, without further ado, take a good look at all the aspects of the situation today, to make sure that our hopes are not soon overshadowed by a new nightmare.
Firstly, the fighting is, alas, not yet at an end. The Taliban have regrouped in southern Afghanistan and near the border with Pakistan, where they will go to any lengths to try to save, at whatever price, the remnants of their power and capacity to inflict harm. It would be a disaster if they managed to gain support for their deadly cause from Pashtun groupings, who might feel rejected by the new leaders of Afghanistan.
As for the various rival factions that make up the Northern Alliance, we must beware of idealising them. The way women are treated in some of the provinces under its control gives real cause for concern. Furthermore, its past conduct, only five years ago, and the disturbing information we have received from Mazar-i-Sharif unfortunately suggest that there is a risk that sooner or later they will embark on a bloody settling of scores in the reconquered territories.
Experience shows that what were once effective aids to military action can turn into serious obstacles to a political solution. From the outset, the political issue has been the determining factor.
Secondly, we must look at the distress of the Afghan people, exhausted by five years of terror, months of drought and misery, followed by five weeks of intensive bombing. The UN estimates that seven and a half million people are at risk of famine in this devastated country. In fact, Mr Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN Special Representative, has repeatedly called for a rapid end to the war for this very reason.
What the country does need, however, is emergency aid and development aid on a large scale. For let us not forget that international opinion was mobilised specifically in order to neutralise the terrorist networks, to cut off the sources, mainly financial, that feed them and also to destroy the social and political breeding ground on which they thrive. To date, we have certainly not achieved this just and ambitious aim and any failure to find a political solution to the Afghan problem would only take us further from attaining it.
This explains the role that an international player such as the European Union, and particularly the UN, must fulfil through its Member States, as well as within the framework of our relations with the American leaders and with the countries of the region. This will enable a political solution to be found that comes from all sectors of Afghan society and from Afghanis who, until now have been the chief victims of the Taliban, must now be among the agents of change. It is high time this martyred population was offered stability, dignity and peace."@en1
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