[Translated from the original Dari]

In the name of Almighty God, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful

With your permission, honored Special Representative of the Secretary-General Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi, High Commissioner for Human Rights Mrs. Mary Robinson, Minister of Women’s Affairs Dr. Sema Samar, Minister of Justice Mr. Abdurrahim Karimi, Chairman of the Special Independent Commission for the Convening of the Loya Jirga Mr. Ismael Qasimyar, Excellencies, Ambassadors and Representatives of the Diplomatic Community.

We gather today to discuss the human rights of the Afghan people, and to consider the way forward in advancing these rights.

We take particular pleasure in noting that our brothers and sisters have joined us today from provinces across Afghanistan. I had thought that only our colleagues from the Ministries in Kabul and the United Nations would be able to attend today, but instead, today, we have the pleasure to be joined by our people from the various provinces of the country.

Since assuming the responsibilities entrusted to me in Interim Administration, I have had the occasion to hear from hundreds of people from places throughout Afghanistan. Without exception, they have sought the same thing: security and respect for their human rights. Not one Afghan has come in the first instance to ask for food, or for any other material thing. The first request is always for security. Certainly, they seek not to be harmed physically, not to be punished, or beaten, or thrown in jail. But they also seek security more broadly—general security, political security, security in their rights, security for their life, social security, security in all parts of the country.

The people of Afghanistan have suffered so many violations of their human rights in these past two decades. We hear that no family was safe. Neither professors, nor doctors, nor women, nor children were secure. They were safe from no violation of their rights—not even that right which is endowed by God to all: the right to life, a right violated by whoever owned a pistol, and even by those in power who governed our lives, our deaths, or education, and all else.

When I traveled to Herat, thousands poured onto the streets, especially the young, shouting for liberty. When I opened the window of my vehicle, I heard the cries of liberty. Again in Jalalabad, I heard the cries of liberty. Even in Samangan, where I went to survey the damage of the disastrous earthquake that brought mountains down on houses, no one asked me for help in recovering the bodies o the victims, or in bringing to the zone. Instead, they spoke of their need for security, peace, and a better future.

Think of it. A region devastated by an earthquake so serious, that an area of some four to five kilometers was completely covered by a white dust, as if blanketed in snow, or freshly painted. Gardens, lawns, trees, everything covered by the white dust of the earthquake. And yet, the people would speak only of peace. Like Afghans everywhere, abroad in America, in Europe, in Iran, or here in Yakawlang, in Paktai, in Taloqan as elsewhere, they dream only of peace and security.

During my trip to Iran, some girls and boys from the refugee camps asked to see me and I invited them to my residence. That day, I was detained in a cultural meeting hosted by the Iranian Foreign Ministry until 11:30 at night. When I expressed my regrets to the boys and girls for being so late, they replied “don’t worry, we have waited much longer for a dignified Afghanistan, and the day when we Afghans can live in security on our streets, and in our homes. We have waited much longer for the day when no one can come to our house with guns, rape the young girls, and steal the family’s money.”

Like them, we believe that Afghans have a right to dignity.

We believe they have the right to education.

At the very least, we believe that they must have the right to complain about violations, and to have someone to hear that complaint.

We seek a nation in which our right to express our political beliefs is protected by law, and in which the laws are in accordance with Islam.

Our view of government is not one in which a good president means all is well, or in which the contrary means all is bad. Rather, we seek an Afghanistan governed by the rule of law, in which the same law applies to all, whether worker, or businessman, or manager.

We can achieve this vision if the people grasp their right to make the government of their choosing, to seek their own destiny, and to discard the power of the gun and the rule of the warlord.

Thus, the convening of the Emergency Loya Jirga represents the first institutional step toward empowering the people to build their own government, in a process unaffected by privilege or undue influence from the Interim Administration. This is the reasoning behind the independent Loya Jirga Commission, headed by Chairman Qasimyar, and established in accordance with the Bonn Agreement.

Yet another important matter to consider is the question of the violations of the past. I cannot say whether the current Interim Administration has full authority to address this. But it is my hope that the Loya Jirga government will have the authority to establish a truth commission and ensure that the people will have justice. The people of Afghanistan must know that there will be a body to hear their complaints.

Indeed, we must hear what the people have to say. Mass graves have been found in which hundreds were buried, houses and shops burnt, so many cruel acts, and about which nothing had been heard or known before. So many of our people have been murdered, mothers killed as they embraced their children, people burnt, so much oppression, so many abuses. This is why a truth commission is needed here: to protect our human rights, and to heal the wounds of our people.

My hope for this conference is that you will be successful, and that you will find the way to enable the people of Afghanistan to finally live out their lives free from fear and torture, and under the rule of law.

I thank you

Kabul, 22 March 2002













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