NATO HQ 5 April 2004

Video interview with Hikmet Çetin Special Civilian Representative for Afghanistan Biographies Hikmet Cetin, NATO Senior Civilian Representative (SCR) in Afghanistan Background NATO in Afghanistan Multimedia Video interview Audio file .MP3/6825Kb Q: Mr. Çetin, in January this year you were appointed NATO's Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us today. To start off, could you explain, as NATO's Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan, what are your main tasks and responsibilities? Çetin: Well, first of all, Afghanistan is NATO's first out of region mission and it is very important. NATO has assumed an important mission to this scope and magnitude first time ever. And NATO has political and military objectives in Afghanistan. And the main objective and strategy of NATO is, in Afghanistan, is emerging the independent, united, sovereign Afghanistan with broad-based, multi-ethnic government representative and democratic Afghanistan. And also we expect that Afghanistan will integrate with the international community and good relations with its neighbours. This is the objectives of NATO in Afghanistan. And to this end, I've been appointed the Senior Civilian Representative of Afghanistan. My main task and responsibility, of course, to carry forward the Alliance's political and military objectives in Afghanistan, liaison with Afghan transition authority, co-ordinating with the international community principals and other international community engaged in Afghanistan, particularly United Nations and European Union, and some other international organizations. And actually then to contact with alliances, or with Afghanistan neighbouring... representatives of neighbouring countries, consistent with NATO general policy. And also contact with the civilian authority of Afghanistan, and NGOs, all other organizations. Shortly I am representing the political leadership of the Alliance in Afghanistan. Q: So you would say that... would it be correct to say that you're something of NATO's Ambassador to... Çetin: Well not that, of course. There are many NATO Ambassadors. There are so many nations, so of course, it is not Ambassador, actually. I think it's beyond that. And I think what... I would say that the political leadership of alliances, alliance in Afghanistan, in Kabul. Q: Thank you. And you mentioned, of course, the other international actors present in Afghanistan; the United Nations, the European Union. How important, would you describe, is the co-ordination of efforts for Afghanistan between the United Nations, the European Union and NATO? Çetin: What I have seen in Afghanistan when I arrived there, there is a kind of lack of co-ordination among different international community and organizations. Since we have a common objective and we should have common efforts and common message for Afghanistan, for that reason, of course, I have started to have good co-ordination and co-ordinate with the United Nations, European Union and after two months now I would say that I have very good co-ordination and very good relations with United Nations, the UNAMA, European Union, European Commission and also all other international organizations. But I will do more because I do think that we need more co-ordination because this is also important to have... to serve in Afghanistan. Not only that we should have good co-ordination among us. We also should have good co-ordination between the international community and the Afghan national authority, because they should know that we are there to assist the Afghanistan, the Afghan government, and for that reason we have a unity of objective and at the same time we must have unity of efforts and unity of message for Afghanistan. But I do think it will even be better in the future. Q: Speaking about your relationship... your role vis-à-vis the commander of the NATO-led Security Assistance Force, what is the division of responsibilities? Çetin: I have very... I would say I've have an excellent relation with General Hillier and with all his staff, because after all we are representing the same organization. One is the military part, one is civilian part, but we are working there as a team, and I have good co-ordination with all teams of ISAF and we have normal weekly meeting and we are informing each other about any events or any important situation that happen in Afghanistan. Q: Looking at the general picture, what would you describe as the main challenges for NATO in Afghanistan? Çetin: Well, first of all the expectation is very high in Afghanistan. NATO has very high credibility in Afghanistan, and this is very important and also we have to be very careful about that, because they're expecting too much from NATO. But we have a... we cannot do everything there, because we have mandate. And the main thing that now I think the main thing that we have to do it, as you know, the last October the United Nations Security Council pass a resolution, and opened the way for ISAF to expand beyond Kabul. And firstly thing we have done it, of course, we have expanded ISAF in the north to one of the German-led PRTs, Kunduz. And now the expectation is that we have to have more PRTs in Afghanistan because we are going to support and assist election also through PRTs. And one of the things that now the expectation is, that we must form or take over some other PRTs. And this is one thing, of course. And then of course, as you know, President Karzai has sent letter to Secretary General. And asking the support for the electoral process. And as you know now, in NATO, of course, working very hard to meet this demand. And operation plan for ISAF expansion beyond Kunduz is now also come... well is now studying very carefully and now I think that NATO are discussing with non-NATO troop contributors and we shall complete... it shall be completed very soon. And then, of course, the expectation is that we go beyond Kunduz and in the north we should get the responsibility of new PRTs. And also, we have to support the electoral process. This is another expectation. Although that the Afghan national authority, national army, national police, will be mainly responsible for that, but we are going to assist the Afghan authorities to have a free and fair election in Afghanistan. Not only elections, of course. Voter registration as well. And these are the expectations that... and NATO Headquarters are now working on these issues very hard, I do know that, and the plan will be ready very soon and we do hope that we will be able to meet the demands of Afghanistan. Q: Looking at your personal goals and your priorities for the months ahead, what would you describe as your main priorities for the months to come? Çetin: Well, I think not only my priority, I think now everybody's priority in Afghanistan is elections, because after so many years that Afghanistan's going to have democratic elections, which is very, very important. And it is a country that had 23 wars against occupation and civil war and then the Taliban regime and so on. And now after two years, of course some important things have been achieved in Afghanistan, and now it is the first priority, of course, to have free and fair elections in Afghanistan. This is our first priority and as I have said not only my priority, it's NATO priority, it's the international community's priority and we are all working on them and supporting them, because first of all... first there is a voter registration. The voter registration is primarily UNAMA respons... under the UNAMA responsibility. UN is responsible for conducting voter registration, but we are supporting and assisting them, where they need it. And also during the election period we will continue to do that. This is first priority that we have. And of course, the other thing is we continue the co-ordination with NATO Ambassadors with other international community because we do need that. And one other important thing that we have to do in the next few months or days and months, to support DDR, the Demobilisation... Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration, which is one of the very critical security sector reforms and we are supporting and assisting for that. Because when we talk about DDR, DDR actually means of course, to get rid of over 100,000 former fighters in Afghanistan, and last week the government and international community have reached an agreement that until the end of June about 40,000 will be demobilised. And by June 2005, 100,000 is planned to be demobilised. But demobilisation is okay, but the re-integration is very important because you have to re-integrate this 100,000 people in Afghanistan, which is not easy to have created jobs for them. We are supporting for this, of course, we are not responsible for that, direct responsible for that. As for any other things, of course, I think ISAF... NATO ISAF is helping and supporting many other... in many other areas. For example, now security in Kabul and around Kabul, it's almost excellent because of ISAF role, and also, of course, some of our nations are... are helping to train or to build that nation, army nation, army in Afghanistan, and of course ISAF supported security during the Loya Jirga. In other words, I think we are supporting and helping and assisting in all area to central government, to government authority. Q: In a way you answered already the next question which is going to be, what would you describe as some of the main achievements of the international community in Afghanistan to date? Çetin: Well, I think still I have to say a few words. Since NATO took its lead role in Afghanistan some important things have been achieved. First of all, as I have mentioned, of course, our first responsibility was to provide, to help assist Afghan government to provide security in Kabul and around Kabul. That was done very well until now, and it is going very well and everybody is happy. Now, Kabul became very crowded city now, because people are moving to Kabul because more safety. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't have... we will not have small scale incidents in Kabul. This is always possible, but normally it is a secure place now. Secondly, especially during the consultation of Loya Jirga ISAF supported the Afghan authorities for providing security. And thirdly, of course, we will, and we are, and we are ready to support electoral process. And also NATO ISAF has continued to support security sector reforms in all areas. National army, national police, DDR and heavy weapon cantonment, for example in Kabul and around Kabul, mainly supported by the ISAF and this is our main thing, because we are ready there to support and to assist Afghan authority and Afghan people and Afghanistan until, until they become safe, secure and democratic country. Q: And of course, last week there was quite an important event for Afghanistan in Berlin, the Berlin Conference on Afghanistan, the donors Conference. How would you describe the outcome of this conference? Çetin: Well, it was a very good conference. First of all, of course, international community reiterated their commitment, the political commitment for Afghanistan. It was very important and encouraging. And the Afghan authority will have seen that the international community will not leave Afghanistan until its mission is accomplished. That was the first and important message from Berlin Conference. In addition to that, Afghan government was requesting important financial support, and for first three years $8.2 billion was pledged in Berlin Conference which is very important, of course. For example, for year 2004 $4.5 billion was pledged and I think it was quite successful conference. Because in the conference, of course, everybody agreed that the economic and social components should go hand in hand with military efforts and military issues. Because without the economic and social development you cannot... we cannot reach real safe, stable and secure Afghanistan. Because the people of Afghanistan are very poor. Their expectation is very high. They need roads, they need education, they need health and everything. And for that reason, of course, to support the military action with economic support I think will be very important for international community and for Afghanistan as well. Q: Mr. Çetin, thank you very much and best of luck in your very important work. Çetin: I think you very much. Thank you.