In Delaware, Ambassador Says Fight Not Over
Hiran Ratnayake
The Delaware News Journal
05/24/2006
By HIRAN RATNAYAKE
In the 3,000-year history of Afghanistan, its
people have never enjoyed the freedoms they are experiencing
right now, said the Afghan ambassador to the United States.
The people of Afghanistan were eager to rid themselves
of the Taliban, whose members would regularly flog elderly women
for wearing colorful socks, Said Tayeb Jawad told an audience
of about two dozen Tuesday afternoon at the University &
Whist Club in Wilmington.
But since Operation Enduring Freedom started,
Afghanistan has not been given adequate outside resources to
fight the Taliban, Jawad said.
"The Taliban are acquiring advanced weapons,
sophisticated explosive devices, better communications gear,
and more pickup trucks and motorcycles from abroad," he
said. "While there is no sympathy for terrorists and those
who wish to prolong Afghanistan's suffering, some people in
deprived provinces are afraid and disillusioned."
Afghanistan, the sixth-poorest country in the
world, according to the World Bank, needs help from the international
community to derail its drug trade, the proceeds of which fund
terrorism.
Because of wars and droughts during the past three
decades, the country's farmers have leveled their vineyards
and orchards in favor of opium poppy crops, which take only
three months to reach harvest.
"They do this because for them, there is
no tomorrow," Jawad said. "If a poor farmer's choice
is between life and death, he will choose life, even if his
action is illegal. However, once farmers are given a legitimate
alternative, they will take the legal and dignified option."
Jawad also addressed the negative publicity that
surrounded Afghanistan in March, when an Afghan convert to Christianity
faced a death sentence in Kabul. The man was found innocent
by reason of insanity and granted asylum in Italy.
Jawad said the situation was incredibly difficult
because the people of the country might turn to the Taliban
if they found that the leaders were not strong supporters of
Islam.
"We don't want the terrorists to be a cause
of the religion," he said.
Jawad's talk was sponsored by the World Trade
Center Delaware, a nonprofit group that helps small companies
expand their markets overseas.
Four members of Afghanistan-Delaware Communities
Together Inc., a nonprofit based in Hockessin that helps further
the education of Afghan children, mostly girls, were on hand
to listen to Jawad.
"I think the speech was very good and exactly
what people want to hear," said Abdul Nisar, co-founder
of the nonprofit. "He talked about the progress in Afghanistan
and he talked about the challenges and gave a good evaluation
about them."
