Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-11-14-Speech-3-188"
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"en.20011114.8.3-188"2
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"Madam President, last April, when we received Commander Ahmad Shah Massoud in this Chamber, he told us that the fall of the Taliban regime was inevitable given that the Pakistani government would find itself unable to provide it with any political and, in particular, military aid. All that Massoud asked of the international community and the European Union was to exercise effective diplomatic pressure on Pakistan to stop it from interfering in any way in the domestic affairs of Afghanistan. He was counting on his awareness of the Afghan people's exasperation with the Taliban when he predicted that it would rebel, including in the largely Pashtun southern territories. He assured us that he had set up an Alliance network throughout the country that would guarantee the establishment of a broad-based government of national unity. The speed of events over the past 48 hours has surprised only those of our learned experts who, without ever having been on the ground, professed that the anti-Taliban Alliance was made up only of a bunch of warlords who were just as barbaric as the Taliban themselves, and even more dangerous because inspired only by a hunger for power that would inevitably trigger new quarrels among themselves.
Echoing the anxiety shown in Islamabad, these same experts, totally certain they are right, are still spreading the word via the media that the Northern Alliance represents only a very small percentage of the opinion of the Afghan people, who are supposedly still attached to the peace that only the Taliban have managed to bring them. The jubilant popular demonstrations in Kabul, the rebellion now underway in Kandahar itself, the signs of the return of thousands of refugees suffice to show that these prophets of doom were misled. The Members of this Chamber who had the intelligence to listen to Massoud will certainly rejoice.
Yes, the situation remains politically fragile. It is up to the international community, and within it the European Union, to help establish this united government, which the former king, Zahir Shah, is willing to support.
Yes, we must also give the Afghan people all the material aid it needs to recover from a disastrous humanitarian situation, in which, as Mr Wurtz said, we fear for the survival of 1.5 million Afghans who are at risk of famine and for the health of more than 6 million who are now at risk of serious malnutrition. We hoped that the Council and the Commission would be prepared to give undertakings along these lines without delay. I thank the President-in-Office of the Council and the Commissioner for confirming this."@en1
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