Karzai cries

[Charwak]

With his lips quivering and voice breaking, a tearful President Hamid Karzai on Sunday lamented that Afghan children are being killed by NATO and U.S. bombs and by terrorists from Pakistan — a portrayal of helplessness in the face of spiraling chaos.

In a heartfelt speech that brought audience members to tears, Karzai said the cruelty imposed on his people "is too much" and that Afghanistan can't stop "the coalition from killing our children."

"We can't prevent the terrorists from coming from Pakistan, and we can't prevent the coalition from bombing the terrorists, and our children are dying because of this," he said.

The president, who turned tearful after relating stories of children maimed by bombings, took long pauses between sentences and at one point covered both eyes with a white handkerchief.

A single tear rolled down his right cheek and bounced off his suit lapel.

"Cruelty at the highest level," he said, his lower lip quivering. "The cruelty is too much."

The taped speech was shown later on state TV, though that broadcast and other news shows did not show Karzai crying.

Karzai's spokesman, Khaleeq Ahmed, said the president was saddened over the deaths of a 2-year-old child and two Afghan teachers on Saturday — "and it really got to him." Ahmed said Karzai was not trying to send any larger message to NATO or the United States about their presence here.

"I think what he was trying to say is that our country — 30 years of war has made us so weak that we don't have the institutions to control these types of things (violence)," Ahmed said.

Speaking on the 58th anniversary of the U.N.'s universal declaration on human rights, Karzai said Afghanistan has a decades-long history of limited rights, from the time of the Soviet invasion to civil war and the Taliban's rule. Thousands of Afghans fled the country as refugees, and women were "humiliated" by the Taliban, he said.

The ultraconservative Taliban regime during its rule from 1996-2001 banned girls from schools and didn't allow women to leave the house without a male escort or without wearing an all-covering burqa.

The president also announced a reconciliation plan that could be a first step toward bringing the perpetrators of human rights violations during Afghanistan's past wars to account, a measure hailed by the United Nations.

Karzai turned emotional about 10 minutes into the speech, after talking about an Afghan boy left paralyzed by a NATO airstrike in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar province.

A spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force declined immediate comment.

"Every day our children are dying," Karzai said, noting that two children were killed in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province recently. He said girls are afraid to go to school and that NATO bombs have killed entire families. He noted that two teachers were killed by Taliban militants in the eastern province of Kunar on Saturday.

"Our life is living with suffering," he said.

Karzai composed himself a bit by the end of the 15-minute speech, thanking the international community for coming to Afghanistan and asking for Afghans to unite.

Afghanistan has seen more than 100 suicide attacks this year, a record number, and close to 4,000 people have died in insurgency-related violence.

Tom Koenigs, the U.N.'s special representative to Afghanistan, said the newly launched Action Plan on Peace, Reconciliation and Justice was a first step in coming to terms with decades of human rights violations.

U.N. spokesman Aleem Siddique said that countries in post-conflict situations need to document the past "and acknowledge the suffering of people."

"It's just looking back at who did what and holding people accountable and giving the people of past abuses the recognition they deserve," he said.

Siddique said that perpetrators of abuses would "eventually be held to account," though he said it was too early to say how that would play out and he didn't know if it would involve charging people in court with crimes against humanity


The Associated Press
International Herald Tribune

[qamparast]

I wish if MMA leadership and the Pukhthoon who voted them to Power could also shed a tear on the plight of poor Afghan nation, who are suffering for over three decades now. If there was no, Pakistan supported, terrorism and bomb blasts there would be no NATO or American bombs or vice versa.
It seems like the question " Egg first or chicken first". In this particular case ,though, its the rotten eggs first, the so called war agianst " the evil power-USSR" started by America was the start of all this mess.
Pukhthoon leaders like Bacha Khan, Wali Khan and Mahmood Khan Achakzai were tearing their vocal chords by shouting loud and clear that it was a war of Interest between the two super powers,USSR & America, it was not a Holy war and it would destroy Afghan nation for generation to come, no body Listened. " Ameerul Momineen- Gen. Zia" and his accomplices declared the the scattered lonely voices against that war at that time as " Kafirs" and as a result earned "Janat" for them selves and their families, at least in this world,( look at the sons of those army generals e.g. Hamayun Akhthar and Ijazul Haq and so very many more hidden hungry Vultures feeding on the same booty).
America has no right to be there, NATO has no right to be there and Pakistan's ISI has no right to be there. As for MMA is conserned once ISI is out MMA would not be found even under electron microscope. Further MMA has a big " JIHAD" at their hand now in Pakistan, i.e. whether to resign or not from assemblies.
"Pakistani Kursee" is very sweet it needs a big Jihad with in one inner-self with his/her those Greedy surges for perks and privileges before one can come out with a clean slate. After all promise is something, IS IT NOT MMA? You promised to resign on that Bill, now it has been passed signed and it is the law of Land, irrespective of its Pros & Cons, should you not honour your promise? If i am not wrong there is a Hadith, the near meaning of which is
" that you are not a momin if you dont keep your promise"
Is this " Kursee" that sweet that you would sacrifice your " MOMINEATH".