Interview with human rights advocate Bianca Jagger

Bianca Jagger, the human rights advocate and convener for humanitarian causes, has stressed the need to extend the operations of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to beyond the Afghan capital, Kabul. She has also called on the United States government to provide civilian victims of the coalition bombing of Afghanistan with fair compensation. In an interview with IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, following a visit to Kabul, Jagger also said the United Nations must ensure that women have a strong presence in the Loya Jirga (supreme national tribal assembly) - which will decide on a two-year transitional government for Afghanistan. QUESTION: What are your impressions of Afghanistan? ANSWER: The international community needs to focus on the people of Afghanistan at this crucial moment and to support the effort to establish peace and security. It was a lot more secure in Kabul than what I had expected, which means ISAF has done a good job in establishing peace. The only problem that I find is although they have managed to create a safe environment in Kabul, their mandate does not allow them to get out of the capital. I think that is one of the things which is important. Chairman [Hamid] Karzai has asked them to expand and to expand their mandate as well. If we really care what will happen and if we want to support the process of Loya Jirga, the expansion is quite crucial. Q: You are part of Global Exchange, an American NGO working to get compensation for Afghan civilian victims of coalition bombing. What can you tell us about that? A: The other message for me is the importance of responding to the victims of the bombings. When I was there [in Afghanistan], I talked about it. I know that the [US] Defence Department have the precedence of compensation. It has compensated people in Panama and Grenada. I met officials of the US government, the United Nations, to say how important it will be not to forget the victims, because giving compensation to them today will go a long way in making Afghans to feel that the US government responded fairly to victims who lost everything they had, who lost many of their loved [family] members. It will be the only fair thing to do. Q: Do you have any estimate of the number of Afghan victims of war? A: We are talking about thousands, but there is no exact estimate. That is why I appealed to Chairman Hamid Karzai to help. The government must have information, not just in Kabul but throughout the country. Q: You attended the International Women's Day meeting in Kabul on 8 March. How did you find Afghan women? A: I found that we have a great misconception about the women in Afghanistan. The idea that because they wore burka [head-to-toe, all-enveloping gown] and that the women were totally submissive was absolutely wrong. I met extraordinary women in Afghanistan. I have worked a lot in the last 20 years on humanitarian issues in Latin America, Kosovo and many other parts of the world. I have met a lot of women in my travels, but Afghanistan’s women are women who carried out a peaceful resistance. It [the International Women's Day] was not just symbolic where you have speeches. It was a very important day, because women were able to discuss their future and what they intend to do. The one thing that is very important for the people from the outside to understand is that we cannot come to Afghanistan and lecture the Afghan women. Q: How crucial is security for Afghanistan, and what about its future? A: The international community has to understand that you cannot imagine and expect that you are going to solve the problem for Afghanistan because you have established peace and security in Kabul. As long as we do not take the steps to do the same in other parts of the country, we are endangering the process of Loya Jirga. It is also important that the international community understand that the evolution of their [women's] condition has to be according to what they feel is proper. It should not be something brought from outside. We have to give them all our support, but we have to respect their internal process of change. It is so important for the UN to ensure that women of Afghanistan will have a quota in the Loya Jirga, a percentage that will have an impact on the political life. For that reason it is so important for them to obtain IDs [identification cards], because until today women in Afghanistan do not have an ID. As long as they do not have an ID, they do not exist. They officially don’t exist.