AN APPEAL FOR AFGHANISTAN

Source peaceandjustice

Maria Chiara

Domenica 25 Marzo 2007

Conclusions of a public meeting held on March 25th at Ex Hotel Bologna Via di Santa Chiara Roma

A path towards and justice in Afghanistan; considerations and proposals of the civil society.

www.afgana.org

Among the others Giuliana Sgrena, Sen. Francesco Martone, Vittorio Agnoletto, Luciano Vecchi (responsible member of DS at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Elettra Diana, deputy, Gianni Rufini (professor of Humanitarian Aid and peace keeping at York University) attended the meeting.

The meeting has been organized 24 hours before the vote at the Senato about the financing of military missions. It is meant to be a contribution to the defining an alternative plan for Afghanistan. To carry it out the persons who will sign the appeal, will set up a tavolo di lavoro permanente that will help to build a shared working plan: among other proposals there is a seminar held by international experts and delegates of the Afghan civil society, a mission in Afghanistan.

First of all we promise to do our best in order that the Italian Government may succeed in obtaining the liberation of the two Afghan people who are still in the hands of Taleban and of the Afghan Services.

We all agree that the situation in Afghanistan is getting worse and more dramatic every day and so we firmly believe that it is necessary to elaborate an alternative, effective, multidisciplinary peace program. A global approach is needed because the situation is very complicated. Everybody should work with this in mind. We should urge politicians to organize the peace conference. We hope that after the vote at the Senate it will be possible to start a new route towards peace.

We wish that in Afghanistan not only armed troops but politics and diplomacy will be at work again; even if it is realistic to state that at the moment soldiers will have to stay there, we must think seriously about different recruitment rules.

We think of creating a tavolo permanente in view of the peace conference, in cooperation with other groups already existing in order to study different aspects of the Afghan situation, social reality, etc. Everybody should choose a work area to devote his/her interest. The deadline has been fixed at the end of June.

Some points to treat in view of the peace conference can be:

How to set up peace negotiations
How to treat with enemies
How to increase humanitarian aids
To elaborate and provide good means of defence of civilians
Which should be the extension of the UN mandate
Should only NATO be present? Also Islamic countries should attend the conference
An international police force is needed
To break the mechanism of international contracts: in fact 70% of the resources assigned for people have gone to contractors and subcontractors
Opium: to set up laboratories for experiments in different areas. To eradicate poppies and try alternative cultivations is very hard to propose because they are usually less remunerative than opium. One should buy from peasants tomatoes or potatoes at the same price as opium! If one buys drug from drug traffickers to buy medicines for Afghans, the money goes to warlords.
How to guarantee free information from dangerous areas? (Mastrogiacomo's kidnapping is a sign that the situation in Afghanistan is worsening also for journalists). Do people think that information is important from difficult areas? If so it is not only the individual journalist's problem, but everybody should feel responsible. If nobody writes about Afghanistan, people will forget about the problems of that country. Iraq is slowly slipping from people's attention; in Iraq there are only embedded journalists.
We plan to organize a seminar lasting 1 day, or 1 half day, divided in various sections.

We should try to communicate with the whole of the Afghan society, not only with groups that are more similar to us.

We should also produce some elements in view of a peace plan in Afghanistan.