Interview
Mulla Muttawakil,
Afghan Foreign Minister

From the BOARD of EDITORIAL ADVISORS, Ms NASIM ZEHRA registers a first, a candid and forthcoming one-to-one conversation with the AFGHAN Foreign Minister.

In the days ahead the Taliban’s military and political strength will be tested in a way it has not been tested before. Combined with the UN sanctions is the major military and political offensive that the Americans, Russians, Iranians and to some extent the Indians have launched against them. As this military-political offensive gets underway February onwards it could threaten even the unravelling of the Taliban Ñ even if through merely disruptive tactics. As difficult times loom large for the Afghan government it is difficult to not appreciate the extremely difficult task Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Mulla Muttawakil has on his hands. He is tasked with projecting his government’s case to the international community. His is a hard sell. His country is being actively penalized by major global players  for not falling in line with their wisdom of what is best for this war-torn country. Equally they are adamant that from issues ranging from the composition of the Afghan government to the handling of the Osama Bin Laden case, the Afghan government should succumb to the so-called "international community’s judgement."

Through his words, occasionally backed by action, Muttawakil attempts to stave-off the propaganda campaign that is launched against his government from various capitals. Interestingly he shared a view of Islam that even many neutral observers of the Afghan scene will find hard to locate within the narrow interpretation of Islam that Muttawakil’s government adheres to in practice. Nevertheless, it was significant that he felt confident in publicly criticizing what he claimed were "weird tribal practices against women."

On January 16, during his  visit to Islamabad the Afghan Foreign Minister Mulla Muttawakil was available for a detailed discussion on various issues relating to Afghan foreign policy. The confident and reflective Afghan  Minister spoke candidly on various aspects of Afghanistan’s relations with the international community. Commenting on Afghanistan’s foreign policy goals Muttawakil was clear that Afghanistan’s foreign policy goals are largely defined by the responsibility the government has towards its own people. "Our people face extreme economic hardships and life inside Afghanistan is extremely difficult’ he explained and hence ‘the priority of the Afghan government is to have good relations with all its neighbours because this can greatly help us to create physical and economic security for our people and for the regime too.’

On Relations with Neighbours

The minister claimed that his government’s  policy of friendship and cooperation has yielded positive results. Commenting broadly on the regional-level situation he said, "With China all is normal and  there are no more controversies;  with Iran relations are improving on all fronts, there are clear signs that Uzbekistan’s mood towards Afghanistan is also changing as  they are perhaps now recognizing that the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan model of friendship has proved politically, economically and diplomatically beneficial for both countries.’

The Namangani Factor

Talking at some length about  the key issue of the armed Uzbek opposition leader Juma Namangani and about Uzbek concerns that the Afghan government was supporting Namangani and to his armed followers, Muttawakil maintained that the Uzbek government had not raised the issue with his government directly. He, however, did not rule out the possibility that the Uzbek Foreign Minister Kamilov may raise Namangani issue with the Afghan ambassador during his forthcoming visit to Islamabad.

According to unconfirmed media reports Namangani has reportedly arrived in Tajikistan from Afghanistan despite the presence of Russian forces on the Tajik-Afghan border. Uzbek security forces have launched regular anti-terrorist operations in the Tashkent border region to prevent possible attacks there. Denying reports of Afghan support to Namangani and his men for launching military offensives against Uzbekistan the Afghan Foreign Minister said that "Namangani who has links with groups inside Tajikistan was expelled by the Tajik authorities, possibly came to Afghanistan as a refugee in early 2000.’

He added that ‘Namangani has connections with the Nuri group, Afghanistan is not supporting him and the Namangani issue exists because of Uzbekistan’s internal problems.’ Muttawakil said ‘when everyone is quick to blame our government for these regional problems they conveniently forget that many of these problems existed before the Taliban government came to power in Afghanistan. "  Complaining about the influx of political refugees from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan into Afghanistan the Afghan minister said his government had repeatedly asked the neigbouring governments to prevent their citizens from entering Afghanistan since we are not in a position to welcome them."

Relations With Tajikistan

Indicating that no immediate breakthrough in Tajik-Afghan relations was possible Muttawakil maintained that it was controlled largely by Moscow’s interests ‘Tajikistan is a para-independent country." Moving beyond Afghanistan’s immediate neighbourhood the Afghan minister questioned India’s position of boycotting the Afghan regime. Rather bluntly confronting one of India’s major apprehension the Afghan minister said, ‘India  has a misconception that the Taliban are a tool of Pakistan, they are wrong. Even if we have some differences with India we can still establish diplomatic relations with them. After all they have major differences with Pakistan over the Kashmir issue but still they have diplomatic relations. Similarly why can’t they have diplomatic relations with us?

Russian-Afghan Relations

On Russian-Afghan relations Muttawakil referred to Moscow’s operational policy of ‘increasing the hardships of our (Afghan) people and of our government.’ He accused the Russians of supplying weapons to the opposition which were  being used ‘to destroy the peace that prevails inside Afghanistan, to further destroy our country’s already destroyed infrastructure  and to kill the people of Afghanistan.’  Pointing to his government’s commitment to peace in the region and to  resolving inter-state problems through dialogue he recalled that there has been some Afghan-Russian diplomatic contact. The Russian intent, Muttawakil maintained ‘remained hostile ruling out good relations with Moscow if the Russians continue supporting the opposition with arms and ammunition.’

United Nations Political

Broadly commenting on the United Nations and international community’s support for  peace and stability in  Afghanistan, the Afghan minister said the nature and degree of support was dictated by the Security Council. He asserted that while the international conflict zones require that a genuinely neutral and fair-minded mediating body help resolve these conflicts, the UN Security Council has failed to play this role. Instead he complained that this Security Council is bringing more insecurity in our world. Given its actions, that promote more conflict in the world and injustice in the world and especially inside Afghanistan, Muttawakil said ‘we should call it the Insecurity Council." 

Commenting specifically on mission of the UN Secretary-General Special Envoy on Afghanistan Francis Vendrell, the Afghan Foreign minister explained that because the Security Council’s second one-sided sanctions resolution has clearly established that the Security Council is not neutral, the Afghan government has decided to boycott the Vendrell mission. Although the UNSMA offices are functioning inside Afghanistan Muttawakil said the Afghan government will shortly be closing those offices.

Muttawakil was, however, quick to qualify his criticism of the UN. While criticizing UN’s political role in Afghanistan he was highly appreciative of the UN’s humanitarian work for the Afghan people. He said the UN’s seven humanitarian assistance offices in the seven regions of Afghanistan were helping to reduce the misery of the Afghan people. In his earlier meeting with senior UNOCHA officials the Afghan Foreign Minister had assured them that despite the fact that the highly unjust and immoral SC anti-Afghan sanctions being imposed on the Afghan people will cause much hurt and anger among the Afghan, his government will ensure the security of all UN personnel and offices involved in providing humanitarian support. UN has in fact received assurances from the top leadership as well as regional level that maximum security will be provided to the UN staff at all locations inside Afghanistan.

UN’s Humanitarian Effort

Interestingly as if to de-link themselves from  what UN humanitarian wing also understands to be an anti-Taliban move by the UN Security Council, the head of UNOCHA operation Eric de Mul will be present in Kandahar on January 19, the day the UN sanctions against Afghanistan come into effect. UNOCHA supported by the UN Headquarters and by the Secretary-General Kofi Annan personally is committed to continued functioning inside Afghanistan of all the UN humanitarian support offices.

Regarding Afghanistan’s relations with the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) member states Muttawakil maintained that the entire Muslim Ummah was supportive of his government and of the Afghan people. His message for the OIC governments was that they should re-think their Afghan policies. They are all our brothers.  History, he claimed would note that many Muslim governments stood as spectators when major players in the world were pursuing unjust and harsh policies against the already suffering people of Afghanistan.

Closing the discussion on the international community’s policy towards Afghanistan Muttawakil referred to the degree of influence that  United States appears to have on this policy. His advise to those members of the international community who understand the need to replace antagonism and suspicion with dialogue and trust in conducting inter-state relations was that it was time that they moved away from Washington’s influence. Washington he reminded them " is not so high that there is no space above it, Allah’s space reigns supremeÉ and US power too is not everything, right too is a powerful form of might.’ He appreciated the fact that US was the biggest donor of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. Only he said Washington should match its political policy towards Afghanistan with its humanitarian support.

Sanctuary to Terrorists

Responding to the complaints of many members of the international community including key Muslim countries, that the Afghan government provides sanctuary to international ‘terrorists’ Muttawakil said that those countries which accuse us of providing sanctuary to terrorists should give us proof and we will return the terrorists. We have no extradition treaty with anybody and if there is any proof we can let them give it to us. We will make sure justice is done.

On Osama

Afghanistan’s position on the Osama issue has evolved from completely dismissing the US concern to conceding that Osama can be tried by a three country panel of jurists. One of the countries would be a key US ally Saudi Arabia. In making this offer the Afghan government appears to be invoking a precedent where the UN Security Council agreed to the Libyan proposal that instead of extraditing the Libyan suspects of the sabotaged flight PAN AM 103, they would be tried by a Dutch court. Muttawakil repeated the three offers made by his government; one that his government will try him with proof inside Afghanistan; two that three Muslim countries Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and a Muslim country can decide his fate and three that  OIC monitor Osama’s  movements so that they are not against any country.

Islam

Putting forth what he maintained was his government’s understanding of Islam the Afghan Foreign Minister said that Islam is not a strict religion. He reiterated his government’s commitment to the enforcement of Shariah since it was ‘a system that the Afghans had fought for two decades and it is the demand of the people  which our government will fulfil.’ He detailed his broad understanding of Islam: "Islam is  a moderate religion. Nobody can separate it in Islam. Shariah is a system which protects peoples’ life, property and freedom; Islam teaches us good social teachings and eradicates crime and social mess; Islam forbids us from taking over others rights and violating others privacy and property. Islam is for prohibition of interest.’ Without elaborating on Jihad he said "we should not mix Jihad with terrorism; only those against us are using terrorism against us.’

Education

While appreciating that "education creates the future of a country" Muttawakil reaffirmed his government’s position on the curriculum issue.’ We will have a national curriculum, we do not want others to give us their curriculum ... Taliban critics argue that the current curriculum in Afghan schools only focuses on religious education.

Women

On women Muttawakil chose to speak at length. He projected his government as one that will implement that version of Islam which "prohibits weird practices against women. Elaborating on his position he said that ‘for example honor killing is against Islam. Islam does give the right to women to choose her husband. Also women were exchanged at the end of a male’s victory in a dual between two men." Muttawakil claimed that ‘We have ended that practice.’

Regarding education for women we have to expand the education to every woman and protection to everyone. We are committed to giving education to women and we will give it to them. We have always talked of resources. Why don’t they try us, those who think we are against women’s education. They can give resources for women’s education and see if we open schools.    

We believe in women’s higher education. In Herat, Kabul and Kandhar, women are working in the 5 cities. For example they are working in the health, haj, education and police department. We are not opposed to women working but they cannot work in all departments. We are against their doing hard physical work and against their working in harsh work conditions. Westerners will never understand these points.