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Afghani ambassador traces history of conflict

April 25, 2010 By

To understand why the international community still needs to be involved in Afghanistan, one must first understand why it was necessary to intervene there more than eight years ago, Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United Nations said in a talk this week as part of the Lehigh/U.N. Partnership Ambassadorial Speaker Series.

“What took the United States and NATO forces to Afghanistan was to deal with the threat that came from Afghanistan,” Ambassador Zahir Tanin said, referring to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States in New York and Washington, D.C.

“The United States needed to intervene because the terrorist groups using Afghanistan posed a threat to the United States and its allies. (They went in because) the situation in Afghanistan gave Al-Qaeda a place to prepare for further attacks against that United States and the world. We cannot forget that history,” he told an audience of Lehigh students, faculty and staff, and students from Allentown Central Catholic High School’s Model U.N. Team.

However, while the Sept. 11 attacks are commonly cited as the starting point for U.S. involvement in Afghanistan by the mass media, Tanin pointed out that one needs to review the preceding three decades of Afghan history to get a more accurate picture of the climate that led up to Sept. 11, 2001.

The true starting point, he said, dates back to 1978, when the former Soviet Union intervened in Afghanistan.

“Afghanistan became the last battle of the Cold War,” Tanin said. “Afghanistan became a new ground for rivalry between the original powers.”

‘When there is no state, they flourish’

Fast forward through about 20 years of almost constant war in Afghanistan in which, as Tanin said, “ultimately everyone got involved” and you are left with the perfect backdrop for the emergence of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in the mid-1990’s.

“With the withdrawal of the Soviet Union, the Afghan society underwent critical changes. The economy was decimated. The magnitude of the destruction in Afghanistan, when the society was broken, when the economy was weakened, when the state was disintegrated, that is when the Taliban and Al-Qaeda moved in, and when there is no state, they flourish.”

“The Afghani people became the first victim of the Taliban regime,” he said, “and the international community tried to tolerate what was happening. It was seen as something happening far away in an isolated nation.”

In the aftermath of Sept. 11, he added, what was going on in Afghanistan could no longer be ignored by the rest of the world.

To those who believe that the United States should not be involved in nation-building, Tanin said that Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups cannot be stopped unless Afghanistan is stabilized.

“You have to invest in a situation that prevents the Taliban and others from coming back,” he said.

Among the issues that have slowed progress in Afghanistan, he said, are the war in Iraq, which made Afghanistan a secondary war for the United States, diverting focus and resources, and a lack of coordination among the 40-plus international groups working in Afghanistan, which resulted in the wasting of aid monies and “money not being used in the best way.”

“It’s a problem with capacity,” he said. “It’s a big tragedy. As a result of 20 years of being at war, a generation has been lost. A good government is not about a leader with good will. A good government is about capacity and resources.”

Afghanistan on The World Stage

April 9, 2010 By

Afghanistan on the world Stage

Statements, Addresses and Articles By

H.E. Dr. Zahir Tanin

Ambassador and Permanent Reprentative of the
Permanent Mission of The Islamic Republic of
Afghanistan to the United Nations in New YorkDECEMBER 2006 – SEPTEMBER 2009

Click here for PDF version

commemorative meeting of the fifteenth anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Women

March 2, 2010 By

Statement by HE Dr. Zahir Tanin, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations

Chairman of Asian Group for the month of March

on behalf of Asian Group

to the commemorative meeting of the fifteenth anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Women

Mr. President,

First and foremost, on behalf of the Asian group, I would like to express my heartfelt condolences to Chile. We wish the Chilean people a speedy recovery and we admire their strength during these tragic times.

Mr. President,

On behalf of Asian Group, it is an honor for me to address this historic gathering commemorating the fifteenth anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration.

In September 1995 we gathered in Beijing for the United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on women. Today, fifteen years later, we come together again to commemorate the occasion, acknowledge progress made and challenges ahead, and pay tribute to the ideals embodied in the Beijing Platform of Action. In Beijing we unequivocally declared our shared determination to advance the goals of equality, development, and peace for all women everywhere in the interest of all humanity; we recognized the persistent inequalities between men and women and the repercussions they have on societies; and we acknowledged that the situation is exacerbated by the abject poverty that affects the lives of many of the worlds people, in particular woman and children. We concluded by dedicating ourselves to addressing these constraints and obstacles, and, perhaps more importantly, we recognized the urgency of this endeavor and the need for collective determination and cooperation for the tasks ahead.

In assessing our progress in implementing the commitments we made to the world’s women in Beijing, we realize much progress has been made, but considerable obstacles remain that hobble and dehumanize women throughout the world.

Women’s rights are progressive and evolving. Since the Beijing conference men and women throughout the world have become ever more aware of the inequities that women endure, and they have spoken up to demand change. It is that demand that has brought about the improving recognition of women’s rights in each country’s legal system and here at the United Nations.

Furthermore, the Beijing Conference cemented the notion that it is unacceptable to differentiate women’s rights from human rights. But still in many countries around the world women are not safe from the threats of domestic violence, continued discrimination, and wide-ranging socio-economic barriers. We must continue our efforts toward the implementation of Beijing Declaration.

But progress has been made through a concerted effort of the international community, national governments, and in part through the action of women and girls themselves. According to the World Bank, women in South Asia now live longer than men for the first time. This improvement in women’s longevity is an indicator of better treatment of women and girls and a valued outcome identified in the Beijing Platform for Action. In addition, high economic growth has led to significant reduction in gender gaps in the labor markets of Asian and Pacific nations.

In the political realm, Asia, where, according to the World Bank, women political leaders are more prevalent than anywhere else, has certainly made progress through the introduction of quota systems to increase women’s representation in political governance structures. For example, in Afghanistan where the misogynistic Taliban once ruled and women were deprived of their very basic human rights, now constitutional law stipulates that 27% of all seats in parliament must be filled by women.

Undoubtedly, because of our actions over the past three decades, women’s issues have gained prominence on the international and national development agendas. Attention has gone not only to the plight of poor and disenfranchised women in developing countries, but also to the unfinished gender agenda in more developed countries, such as addressing women’s representation in higher-paying jobs and management positions and reducing the prevalence of gender-based violence.

We gather here today to commemorate this special occasion, to celebrate a cause, to celebrate progress, but more importantly to realize that our job is not finished – to realize that there are remaining and arising new challenges. We have come a long way since the conference in Beijing; we shall be ruthlessly unyielding in our pursuit to ensure that our mothers, our sisters, our daughters, are treated with equality, respect, and dignity.

I thank you, Mr. President.