Questions: Can you tell us about the achievements of the mission to Mazar-e-Sharif?

Ambassador Pleuger: As you know the Security Council has come to Afghanistan to deliver some important messages. One message is to the Afghan people that Afghanistan is high on the agenda of the Security Council and that the international community represented by the Security Council is supporting the peace process and the political process in Afghanistan. The second important message is to the Karzai Government that the Security Council supports the implementation of the Bonn process and that we are looking forward to seeing a discussion of a new Constitution and that we hope that by next year we will see free and fair elections in Afghanistan. The third message is to the local and provincial authorities that they have to participate in this process and have to cooperate with the Central Government in Kabul.

Questions: What is your evaluation of your mission to the north? And can you talk about the expansion of ISAF (the International Security Assistance Force) and the local commanders reaction to your wishes?

Ambassador Pleuger: We had very intense discussions with the Governor, with Generals Dostum and Atta, and with several representatives of civil society and human rights. We received satisfying answers to our requests that the local authorities cooperate with the Government in Kabul and we have stressed that especially Mr. Dostum and Mr. Atta are very influential and powerful leaders in this country whose visions, views and deeds are affecting the fate of Afghanistan as a whole. Therefore we feel it is important that they lend their full support not only to the necessary reforms that the Karzai Government has started but also to the reforms here in the north. In particular we have stressed the necessity of DDR – disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of fighters – in order to achieve what I think is good for Afghanistan: a unified Afghan army and a unified Afghan police force.

Questions: What was the most important achievement of your meeting with Atta and Dostum and what did they pledge to the Security Council?

Ambassador Pleuger: We had a very good discussion with both of them but the question was not to get pledges. Our aim was to deliver a message and that was a message that I mentioned already: that cooperation between the local authorities and the factional leaders here in the north is central for the political process; that factional fighting has to stop because this should be a thing of the past and not of the future; and third, that all the necessary support has to be given to the Central Government, including the necessary financial means so that the Central Government can deliver the services that the Afghan people expect from the Central Government in Kabul.

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