Powell Says American People Committed to Afghanistan

(Talks with Afghan leader focused upon Afghan fiscal needs) (2740)

Secretary of State Colin Powell conveyed the greetings of President
Bush and the American people to Afghan Interim Authority Chairman
Hamid Karzai and vowed that the American people "are committed" to
helping Afghanistan.

Speaking with Karzai at a press conference in Kabul January 17, Powell
said that for the Afghan people it was a "time of challenge ... but it
is also a time of hope."

"We will be with you in this current crisis and for the future. We are
committed to doing everything we can to assist you in this time of
transition, to a new Afghanistan, an Afghanistan where people will be
able to live in peace and security, raise their children, dream of a
better future ... You can take that message to the Afghan people. The
American people are committed," said Powell.

Powell said his talks with the three-week-old Afghan administration
were mostly about the current and short term fiscal needs of country.
He praised Karzai's determination to ensure that Afghan warlords would
not be allowed to divert international aid for their own use.

"I was particularly impressed, if I may add a word, by the Chairman's
commitment to making sure that the money goes for intended purposes
and strong commitment against corruption ... I was moved by the depth
of his commitment to make sure that corruption does not rear its ugly
head again as we move forward," said Powell.

Looking forward to the international conference on Afghan
reconstruction to be held in Tokyo January 21-22, Powell said he would
encourage the international community to contribute generously and
that Afghanistan could expect a significant contribution of further
aid from the United States.

"[T]his coming Monday at the conference, in keeping with American
tradition, as the collection plate is passed, the United States will
make a significant contribution, but I think I'll wait until Monday
before I announce the size of that contribution because work is still
going on in Washington to make it as significant a contribution as we
possibly can," said Powell.

Also, the U.S. was working to release Afghan assets frozen by the
United Nations. "In a matter of days or so," said Powell, "some of
that money will start to be available to the government."

In welcoming Secretary Powell to Kabul, Chairman Karzai thanked the
United States for its assistance in liberating it from military
occupations by terrorist organizations and the former Soviet Union. He
also asked the United States to make a "staying commitment" to
Afghanistan in order to help make the region safe from terrorism.

Following is a transcript of the press conference:

(begin transcript)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman (Kabul, Afghanistan)
January 17, 2002

Remarks by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and AIA Chairman Hamid
Karzai

Kabul, Afghanistan
January 17, 2002

CHAIRMAN KARZAI: Welcome to Afghanistan. Many many years ago when we
were fighting the Soviets. I also thank you very much for the
assistance the United States give to Afghan people now, to liberate
Afghanistan, to free Afghanistan, from the occupation of terrorism,
from the presence of terrorism. They were the government here. And we
knew all along that we could not free ourselves from that occupation
without the help of the United States and the international community.
So I'm here to announce our thanks again and we hope that the two
people will continue to have very good relations, very strong
relations, to come in the future. Thank you very much.

SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I thank you
very much for those very warm words of welcome. It's a great pleasure
for me to be here in Afghanistan to meet with you and with your
ministers, to bring you greetings from President Bush and greetings
from the American people, and to deliver a message of commitment. We
will be with you in this current crisis and for the future. We are
committed to doing everything we can to assist you in this time of
transition, to a new Afghanistan, an Afghanistan where people will be
able to live in peace and security, raise their children, dream of a
better future. To work with you in restoring your health care systems
and your educational systems and all the other systems that one
requires to be successful in the twenty-first century. You can take
that message to the Afghan people. The American people are committed.

As I said to the Chairman earlier in our meeting, that every morning
with President Bush, we talk about how the war has been going, how the
military campaign has been going, but President Bush also wants to
know, how is the humanitarian effort going and how is the
reconstruction effort going, because he is committed to this cause for
as long as it takes.

The reason it was important for me to come here today is that an
important conference is being held in Tokyo next Monday and Tuesday
where a number of nations will come together under the Chairmanship of
Japan, the United States, Saudi Arabia and the European Union, to make
a commitment to the Afghan people, contribute funds for reconstruction
of this country and its society.

I also wanted to have this opportunity to express directly to the
Chairman and to his colleagues our admiration of the courage that they
have shown in recent months, and to thank them for the cooperation
that they have given to our efforts to defeat terrorism and to be a
partner in this continuing campaign of anti-terrorist activity
throughout the world.

This is the time of challenge for the Afghan people, but it is also a
time of hope, and we are determined to work with the Chairman and with
the other authorities in Afghanistan to make sure that that hope is
realized in a better life for all of the Afghan people. Mr. Chairman,
I thank you for your welcome, I thank you for your hospitality, and I
look forward to my next visit of longer duration.

QUESTION: (question asks if the Secretary was able to tell the
Chairman anything more specific about the amount of money that will be
unfrozen in assets and the amount that will be pledged at Tokyo.)

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, you know we've made a small contribution to
the initial UN fund, and we have already paid that amount. What I said
to the Chairman is that this coming Monday at the conference, in
keeping with American tradition, as the collection plate is passed,
the United States will make a significant contribution, but I think
I'll wait until Monday before I announce the size of that contribution
because work is still going on in Washington to make it as significant
a contribution as we possibly can.

QUESTION: (inaudible)

CHAIRMAN KARZAI: Good question, good question. In addition to money,
in addition to help Afghanistan, as I mentioned in my opening remarks,
the Afghan people have been asking for staying commitment, staying
partnership of the United States with Afghanistan in order to make
this region safe, in order to make Afghanistan stand back on its own
feet and continue to fight against terrorism or the return of
terrorism in any form to this country or to the region. So we are
asking for a partnership that is much longer in years and that brings
Afghanistan back to its own people to control its borders, to generate
its own revenues and income, to bring the people of Afghanistan the
prosperity and the freedom to choose their own governments, and to go
back to the world community as a stable, strong member of the world
community.

Now, with regard to the absorption capability of the Afghan
administration, we have comprehensive plans for that. We are trying to
correct the administrative capabilities of the government, we are
trying to have the institutions that will have the capability to
absorb money and then spend it in Afghanistan. Be sure that warlordism
is over in Afghanistan. You may not see the signs, ma'am, but it's
over. And we'll make sure that it's over. And there, too, is a good
question you asked, we'll have the help of the United States to do
that.

SECRETARY POWELL: I was particularly impressed, if I may add a word,
by the Chairman's commitment to making sure that the money goes for
intended purposes and strong commitment against corruption. He was
describing to me what happened when he came in and took over and
discovered that all the banks have been totally looted, and I was
moved by the depth of his commitment to make sure that corruption does
not rear its ugly head again as we move forward, otherwise it will be
difficult for the international community to make the kinds of
contributions in the future that will be necessary. And I got that
assurance from the Chairman and all of his cabinet.

QUESTION: (question referred to interim government's ability to print
checks, money, central banking, etc.)

CHAIRMAN KARZAI: We have great ability to print as much money as you
want.

That's part of the problem. (laughter) That's part of the problem.
Now, coming back to corruption, I remarked to Secretary Powell that we
will be going towards an Afghanistan where the people will have the
choice to choose their own government. People will be empowered, will
be free there, absolutely. But one area where we'll be extremely tough
and rather oppressive will be against corruption. So trust is there.
We will be very very very rough there. There is no way that we can
allow that. No way, because we know if we allow that, the country will
not do well.

Coming to the banking system, we have a fine gentleman here that came
from Washington, who's not with us today, who's been appointed as the
deputy Chairman of the central bank, the deputy governor of the
central bank. We are looking for other fine Afghans, very educated,
very experienced in the banking sector, to come and join as governors
of the bank. It's an important area. We will correct it, we will
regulate it, we will make it in tune with the banking system of the
rest of the world, and we have also made plans to allow foreign banks
to come and set up shop in Afghanistan. So yes, Afghanistan has a
tradition of banking, we will stop the printing of checks and money,
that's one thing that we will do definitely. We are looking for ways
to make the money supply in Afghanistan in accordance with the needs
of the economy and the production that we have here.

QUESTION: (inaudible)

SECRETARY POWELL: I think it's, no, the cooperation between the
interim authority and US forces has been excellent. There have been
various reports of people who turned themselves in and were
subsequently let go, and we're chasing all of that down. But the
cooperation has been fine, quite satisfying. Obviously, there's still
Al Qaeda and Taliban people who are on the loose, and that's the
continuing mission of General Franks and his troops, working with
Afghan military units to bring them all to ground because we don't
want to leave any contamination behind, and I think that's in the
interest of the Afghan people and certainly the mission we came here
to perform.

QUESTION: There are millions of Afghan natives now in the United
States. Very few of them have returned to help you and your cabinet to
rebuild their homeland. Why do you think that is?

CHAIRMAN KARZAI: Well, let me look around.  One  -- 

SECRETARY POWELL: I see a few.

QUESTION: There's two of you there.

CHAIRMAN KARZAI: No, no, just wait. Two, three, four. And I can show
you at least 20 right now. Professor Amin, yes. No, he's been with us
all the time.

QUESTION: But that's what I'm asking. That's a small percentage of the
millions --

CHAIRMAN KARZAI: It is not for three weeks, sir. We're here three
weeks only. And I tell you, there are so many Afghans calling us.
Unfortunately,

I've not been able to respond back to them. They will all come. But we
must first do something else for our people. We must provide them a
full sense of security. That has to be shown to them. That has not
been yet shown to them. And you'll see that those Afghans will come.
And we will be counting on the United States to help us bring those
Afghans back. And there has been help in this regard.

QUESTION: Have you discussed security with Mr. Powell, and the use of
US forces in a peacekeeping or other security mission?

CHAIRMAN KARZAI: Do you want to answer that?

SECRETARY POWELL: We have discussed the security situation. We
understand the importance of it. The United States presence here is
still directed toward pulling up al-Qaeda and Taliban. That will help
improve the security situation, just the continuation of Operation
Enduring Freedom, until such time as General Franks believes he has
accomplished the mission he came here to perform. That will help
improve the security situation.

Then, of course, you have the international security assistance force
that is here that is providing security in Kabul. And as it grows in
size and capability, I am sure it will be working with the Chairman to
see what else it might do.

So, yes, we did discuss those issues. But ultimate security will come
from the creation of an Afghan national army committed to the new
Afghanistan, and the creation of police units that are also committed
to the new Afghanistan.

That is the area that we have to really focus our attention, training
Afghans to take care of themselves and not depending on foreign forces
to do so.

CHAIMAN KARZAI: The lady over there has been asking for many minutes
now, please.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, were you able to tell the Chairman what the
status is in regard to (inaudible) the Afghan fund in the United
States? You told us that the (inaudible) away so that he had access to
that money (inaudible). Can you give us an update on that?

SECRETARY POWELL: Yes, the Chairman is aware of the status of those
funds.

We didn't have to spend a lot of time on it, because it's pretty well
known that the gold reserves -- access to that money is moving along,
and several other accounts, access is moving along, and new accounts
are being found. And as I said, I believe to you yesterday, I expect
in the very near future, in a matter of days or so, some of that money
will start to be available to the government.

CHAIRMAN KARZAI: Last question.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) the United States (inaudible) that the alarm
fell on Tuesday, saying that the $20 million start-up fund was not
enough; they upped the ante to $100 million, and very few of the
players have actually committed the money and put the money in the
bank. What is the United States going to do about that, and how can
you help?

QUESTION: And also, how much have we contributed?

SECRETARY POWELL: Yes, of the $20 million in the initial start-up
fund, our commitment to that was $1 million, and we have put it in the
bank. I think the number is somewhere in the neighborhood -- and there
are others here better qualified to speak to this -- perhaps four of
the 20. We can do a lot better than that. I will be calling some of my
colleagues in the international community to encourage them to pony up
as fast as possible, and we'll be making other calls to people who are
not part of that initial $20 million tranche to see if they can do
something right away. And of course, the Chairman will be traveling
immediately to visit countries that might have the ability to make a
contribution.

And so we had a good discussion. In fact, I would say the majority of
our time was spent on the fiscal needs of the country over the next
year and a quarter.

CHAIRMAN KARZAI: All right. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much.

SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

CHAIRMAN KARZAI: Thank you very much.

SECRETARY POWELL: See you in a couple weeks.

(end transcript)

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