Anti-terrorism battle must focus on sanctuaries -Afghan President
AFGHANISTAN: Afghan President Hamid Karzai Tuesday in a meeting with
the United Nations Security Council ( UNSC) delegation emphasised the
battle against militants and terrorist activities must be conducted in
their sanctuaries rather than villages where innocent Afghan civilians
live.
From 2004, Afghanistan began to see increased terrorist activities
for clear reasons, the international community and the main partners in
the war on terror neglected the sanctuaries in the region, for the
terrorists and the Taliban for a long time, Karzai said.
“All our allies neglected the question of sanctuaries. We allowed
them to train, equip, motivate and to fund and send them to Afghanistan
to kill Afghans and kill the international community, to attack
reconstruction,” he said. “So, I hope now that the international
community pays more attention to the question of sanctuaries.”
Meanwhile, the Afghan leader noted that peaking of civilian
casualties by air raids of international troops has undermined the
confidence of Afghans and fruits of reconstruction.
“Civilian casualties is an extremely serious matter, forceful entry
into the house of afghan people by the coalition forces is an extremely
serious important matter for us,” Karzai said.
“Therefore, there has to be change. Change means: enable the Afghan
People to run their own affairs. In security, give them a better army,
give them resources to have a better army, enable them to have a bigger
police force and a better police force, stop aerial bombardment of our
villages,” he added.
Moreover, Karzai asked the international community to set a timeline
for clearing terrorism and ending the war in the post Taliblan country
and “Afghanistan will do everything it can to provide the opportunity
for peace.”
Spiraling conflicts and Taliban-linked insurgency have claimed over
5,000 people with some 2,000 civilians so far this year despite around
70,000 international troops deployed in the war- torn country.
UNSC fact finding delegation was headed by Ambassador Giulio Terzi of
Italy and attended by UN ambassadors and representatives from 14 other
countries.
KABUL, Wednesday, Xinhua |
