President Hamid Karzai’s election campaign has largely been a question of ”don’t call me, I’ll call you”. After talking to a gathering of 200 tribal leaders — with nine women in the assembly — under huge sycamores in the grounds of the palace, Karzai returned to the building.
Palace guards and United States-hired security men kept us outside the entrance — the very spot where coup leader Daud Khan was gunned down in 1978 — but Karzai insisted we come in for a chat.
How long do you estimate it will take to get rid of the warlords?
This country has to take its time to build. Its time to strengthen institutions. Its time to strengthen bureaucracy. Its time to apply the law in the form that any society should do.
We are moving towards the rebuilding of a state structure in this country that was destroyed. It will be very difficult for me to give specifics.
The country is open to all Afghanis to come and participate. They must come and disarm, and all the people must have a place in the country. If they have military training, they can go to the army or those with other skills can use those skills. Everybody must have an opportunity to participate in rebuilding the country.
How long will you need to be backed up by the United States and international forces?
This process of rebuilding the country will take a number of years. It will take some time before we can stand on our own feet. For those years, we hope the international community will stay with us.
The benefit of the international community to stay in Afghanistan is for all of us. It could take five or 10 years. I would guess closer to a decade. In five years maybe we won’t need the security forces. Maybe we will have our own security forces. We may not need so many coalition forces. We may have our own army. But we will need the international community in many forms, like the civil service and in other skills like education. In all sorts of ways, the international community will be needed, especially in funding.
You are fighting two wars, one on terrorism and one on drugs. Is there conflict within this conflict and is it possible to do both and rebuild your country at the same time?
We have to confront all our challenges and we have to continue to build in all areas. Afghanistan was damaged and destroyed in certain periods of its life and this has affected it badly. Afghanistan needs to recover. It needs to remove certain things, particularly drugs, and fighting terrorism is part of that. The rest is about rebuilding.
We should do all of this. It is a society, and we are fighting what any society needs to fight.
What obstacles are there to national unity?
People don’t speak of national unity because there are obstacles, but because they love it so much. It is a sign of patriotism. It comes up in every speech of the candidates. The unity of this country, the government of this country. We see it all the time.
Muslims in Europe say Afghanistan has been conquered by crusaders. What is your response?
In Europe? Well, they are not aware. They are out of touch with reality. They don’t know what happened to the Afghan people. They don’t know what terrorism did to Afghanis. They don’t know what Osama [bin Laden] and his buddies did in the destruction of Afghanistan. They don’t know how many mosques were destroyed by these people. They don’t know how many children were killed.
They don’t know how many, many thousands of families are left without their beloveds. They don’t know about the destruction of this country.
They should come and see and then talk. They have a nice life in Europe. They judge things from the comfort of their homes and not from the misery of the Afghan people. They should come and see for themselves.
The US is fighting two wars. Why is Afghanistan going so well compared to Iraq?
Afghanistan is very different. Afghanistan was invaded by one of its neighbours, the former Soviet Union, and millions of people were made refugees. The rest of the world helped us to fight the Soviet Union. We did. We succeeded.
Afghanistan was then against invading in a creeping manner by others using terrorism, and some of our neighbours were involved in a terrible manner. That made our life even worse than it had been.
The Afghan people have suffered for 30 years. The Afghan nation was deprived of its ability to resist terrorism — the Taliban.
The Afghan nation wanted to be free of that. The moment we had the opportunity in the form of help from the international community and the Western world, we took it.
Before the events of 9/11 I told them the Afghan people need help or you’ll have a lot of trouble yourselves. The whole world saw that Afghanistan was right.
It took a month and a half for the Taliban to run away from this country.
Afghanistan is an example of the cooperation of civilisations. It has provided a platform for different nations, different continents, different regions to come to Afghanistan and work with us — to cooperate. There are Japanese, Indians and Chinese.
Afghanistan is accepting this cooperation and is asking for more.
Is Afghanistan ready for a Western-style democracy?
Why should we have a Western-style democracy? We’ll have a democracy. Is democracy only in the West?
Yes, but things like a secret ballot, consultation?
The Afghan people love this. It does not have to be Western. It’s freedom. The tribal culture in Afghanistan is one in which democracy and consultation is embedded. The concept of democracy is fundamental. It cannot function without democracy.
What percentage turnout do you expect?
What is the average around the world? Fifty percent. Ours will definitely be above 50%. It should be because so many people want to vote. I heard a refugee in Pakistan say on the BBC that the election is a filter to clean [out] the bad guys.
Do you know you are considered one of the best-dressed leaders?
What do you think? I must be the least expensive well-dressed man, perhaps.