Afghanistan    

Two years ago, after the bombs rained down over cities all over Afghanistan following the tragic events of 9/11, the world headed for the Tokyo Conference on Aid to Afghanistan – a conference which made an undertaking to plough $5 billion dollars into the reconstruction of the country, with the European Union pledging a total of €1 billion over five years.

For the first time in living memory, the European Union has not only delivered the badly-needed aid money on time, but it has also exceeded my expectations, by giving 137% of the total it pledged over the last year.

Given the huge amount of money my committee had pledged to Afghanistan, it was with much trepidation and hope that I headed to the shattered province to see what has been done with our money.

Inside the European Parliament, I currently serve as Chairman of the Afghan Circle which co-ordinated the giving of 900 million Euros to the nation last year.

As I travelled along the dusty roads between the major urban centres of Kabul and Kandahar, I was struck by the fact that, yes, we have built health clinics, schools and brought about a macabre form of peace in some areas of the country, yet our efforts have been just a drop in the ocean in a country that has been violated by twenty five years of conflict, leaving virtually no buildings standing.

What I found most worrying about my visit was, despite the fact the delegation of which I was part was guarded closely as we passed through ‘bandit country’, the security situation was in serious danger of spiraling out of control.

President Karzai, a decent and strong man who has forged new alliances across the country is surrounded by bodyguards – many of them American and British – and the War Lords are in control of Mazar-Al-Sharif, Kandahar and Herat eagerly looking forward to a bumber crop of poppies from which tonnes of heroin will be produced to blight the lives of our young people here in England.

The Taliban who, for so long inflicted gross human rights abuses upon people of Afghanistan are far from being vanquished and instead exist everywhere, in the hearts and minds of many ordinary Afghans.

The American armed forces, for all the good they have done in the conflict, are concentrated at military bases, such as the Bagram Air Base, where their main strategic concern is to destroy the profoundly evil Al Quaeda network and take their brave fight against terrorism across the Pakistan border.

The Americans are not, as far as ‘nation building’ is concerned, a force, leaving this crucial role to British Government.

So what was all this about, Mr Blair? This is surely not about "liberating the peopel of Afghanistan, nor "about weapons of mass destruction "

Unless action is taken immediately to extend the remit and capacity of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from policing not only the urban centre of Kabul to policing the entire country and the major cities the Taliban calling itself something else will once again rise and Afghanistan will once-again fall into the cycle of conflict. 5400 soliders, as part of a combined European Union force cannot conceivably policy a nation of twenty million people, making the involvement of NATO troops vital.

The ordinary Afghan does not ask for much. They do not ask for the world but they do ask that we provide them with security, peace and the tools that are needed to rebuild their country”.

So, Mr Blair, turn your attention from “dodgy dossiers” and wake up before it is too late to the crisis that is emerging in Afghanistan. I believe we owe it to Hamid Karzai and his people, to build a nation based on security, justice and stability. Otherwise the sacrifices of our Armed Forces would have been in vain, terrorism would take root agian and we would have further proof that contrary what people are expected to believe our Prime Minister does not walk on water.

A view of Kabul - smashed to bits

With His Majesty King of Afghanistan - now "Father of the Nation"

The Museum of Kabul

With General Dostum who fought the Soviet Invasion and has influence in Mazar-e-Sharif

With General Atta, another Warlord by a picture of Massoud Shah, assassinated by Bin Laden in September 2002

Political and Humanitarian Situation in Afghanistan
2nd October 2003

Deva (PPE-DE). – Madam President, we are facing a war against terrorism that all freedom-loving people must embrace. As you know, I was born in a country that understands terrorism, with 65 000 dead – please remember that the LTT suicide bombers in Sri Lanka are not Muslims – but the world has so far turned a blind eye on twenty-three years of terrorism.

The tragedy of 11 September has finally focused the attention of those that love democracy and freedom on the cancer that hides within. The cancer of terrorism. A cancer that is fed, not by religion, but by greed, hate, envy and ignorance.

In Afghanistan, the 1963 Constitution as promulgated by King Zahir Shah is an exemplary document. I salute my colleague, Edward McMillan-Scott, for taking the initiative to lead a delegation to Rome to initiate a coalition between the King and the Northern Alliance, which I am happy to say has now been signed, as General Morillon has just mentioned. I want to congratulate General Morillon on inviting Shah Masood here, so that in April we had a chance to meet him.

The 1963 Constitution states that liberty is a natural right of each human being – this right has no limitations except the liberty of others, but freedom of thought and expression is invaluable – that every Afghan has a right to print and publish ideas, that education is a right of every Afghan and shall be provided, free of charge, by the State, and that work is a right of every Afghan who has the capability to do it.

What a far cry this is from the tragedy existing in Afghanistan today, where women are beaten, denied education, kept at home as slaves and with one in eight dying in childbirth. It is a State run by ignorance using the stick of religion, of which they know little, to cower and terrorise their own people. The war against terrorism is a war to free the people of Afghanistan from the twenty-eight years of slavery.

I salute President Bush and the British Prime Minister for their determination – shoulder-to-shoulder with a Democratic Party and Ian Duncan Smith, the leader of the Conservative Party who was here in Parliament today – to defeat and eradicate international terrorism. But this must not be a purely Anglo-Saxon affair. If the EU and this House are to be anything at all, they must have an involvement in ensuring this most basic of human activities; the right to live without being terrorised, the freedom to live without the daily sudden threat of death. We should not think that we in Europe are not targets. We already know of plans to attack Genoa, Paris and elsewhere. When will we learn that is our war too?