*EPF203 06/15/2004
White House Report, June 15: Afghanistan, Iraq
(Bush, Karzai meet with U.S. Afghan Women's Council; U.S. wants security assurances before Saddam Hussein transfer) (550)

BUSH REAFFIRMS U.S. COMMITMENT TO AFGHANISTAN

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan told reporters June 15 that President Bush and Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai met with the United States Afghan Women's Council to reaffirm their commitment to Afghan women and women's empowerment.

The council, created by Bush and Karzai in January of 2002 to help Afghan women gain important skills and education, "is announcing a new health advisory committee to build on its earlier major initiatives, such as the $5 million rural education and community health care initiative, which just graduated its first class of 25 trained midwives," McClellan said.

According the White House spokesman, President Bush reiterated the U.S.'s ongoing commitment to Afghanistan and the political and civil transformation under way there.

Bush and Karzai also discussed the growing role of Afghan women in Afghanistan's September elections.

According to Karzai, 35 percent of Afghanistan's registered 3.8 million voters are women. He said that the Afghan government hopes to increase that percentage to 40 by the elections.

SECURITY ASSURANCES SOUGHT FOR SADDAM HUSSEIN HANDOVER

President Bush said June 15 the United States will hand over former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to the interim Iraqi government once adequate security is in place to ensure he does not escape trial.

According to news reports, a senior Iraqi official said Iraqi authorities want to file criminal charges against Saddam Hussein and other top leaders of the former regime before the June 30 transfer of sovereignty to the new Iraqi government.

The president said the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) is working with Iraq's interim government to ensure that security measures are in place before transferring Saddam Hussein to the Iraqi government.

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said "we want to see him face justice from the Iraqi people on the atrocities he committed over the decades."

U.S. troops captured Saddam Hussein in December near his home town of Tikrit and he has been in U.S. custody since, held as a prisoner of war at an unknown location.

When asked about a recent statement from Vice President Cheney about the long established ties between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, the spokesman said, "We talked about the ties between al Qaeda and the former regime before the decision was taken to remove that regime from power, and they were certainly supporting suicide bombers throughout the Middle East."

At a June 14 speech in Florida, Cheney said Saddam Hussein was a "patron of terrorism" and had "long established ties" with al Qaeda.

McClellan noted that senior al Qaeda associate Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was in Iraq before the decision was taken to remove the Saddam Hussein regime.

The spokesman also addressed the legality of keeping Saddam Hussein detained, saying that United Nations Security Council Resolution 1546 "provides authority for the multinational force to continue to detain individuals in Iraq after June 30 and detain new individuals where it is necessary for security purposes."

"We're going to work in cooperation and close coordination with the interim government," McClellan said, "That's what we have been doing and that's what we will continue to do."

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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