Joint press point

Ambassador Mark Sedwill, NATO’s Senior Civilian Representative (SCR) in Afghanistan: I will just say a few words of introduction but it’s very much Governor Mangal’s topic this morning so I just want to say a few words of introduction, then Governor Mangal will take you through more of the detai;l then we we’ll take a few questions. We don’t have much time but we’ll have time for a few.

Inevitable over the next few days and weeks, the focus of media attention will be on the military phase, the security phase of the operation but it’s very important to remember, this is not the purpose of the operation.

President Karzi has made clear in several speeches, including his inauguration speech, that the focus of his second term will be Afghan sovereignty. Both building Afghan sovereignty and reasserting Afghan sovereignty over all areas of life within Afghanistan and all areas of the country.

The purpose of this operation in central Helmand is to achieve just that, it is to regain the sovereignty of the Government of Afghanistan over an area of central Helmand that has been in the hands of bandits and criminals and terrorists for too long.

And as President Karzi’s representative in Helmand, Governor Mangal has led all of the planning for this operation because the purpose of this operation is to bring security and development opportunities, jobs and justice and better governances to the people of that area.

But Governor Mangal has not been working alone in this and he has had the full support of the central government of Afghanistan and indeed he was just telling me as we were speaking that there is a team of officials and experts from various ministries in the central government of Afghanistan who are going down to Helmand today and they’ve been there over the last few weeks, in and out over the last few weeks, to prepare the ground for the key phase of this operation which is delivering services to the people of that area.

The success of this operation will not be in the military phase, it will be over the next weeks and months as the people of the central Helmand area, the Marjah area, feel the benefit of better governance, of economic opportunities and of operating under the legitimate authorities of Afghanistan and the leadership of Governor Mangal.

GOVERNOR MANGAL (translated): In the name of Allah, good morning and thank you for inviting me to this place, with the permission of the central government and my friends. Before I say something, I would like to thank ISAF as a whole and the head of ISAF, the Commander of ISAF and in particular my friend, my old friend, his excellency Mark Sedwill who’s NATO’s civilian representative in Afghanistan.

The operation which we have got ahead of us, which could happen at any time, the main purpose of the operation is to have, so called, Afghanistiation, the Afghan sovereignty in the area, to expand the sovereignty of the Afghan, of the Republic of Afghanistan. And also to implement what has been promised by my president, Mr Karzi in his inaugural speech, the sovereignty of Afghan Government and this is, this phase of the operation and the development, anything that will take place, it is to implement his plan to his own nation.

As his excellency Mark Sedwill noted and outlined that the first phase of the operation will be military operation but of course our aim is not to have military operation in the area but this is just the first phase, just to get into the area.

We have to clear the area from the opposition from the enemies, we can stabilise the area and also the stabilization will provide a good opportunity for development and progress in the area and good governance as well.

In order to achieve this, we have got in place form the civilian side, we are fully prepared to implement these plans in the area in order to bring good governance, development and stabilisation to the area.

Of course the first phase will be the military operation, as soon as the military operation is over, we have got, on the civilian side, we are fully prepared to implement what ever I have just outlined to you and we have very good organisation between the international community and the provincial governor’s office and I strongly believe that these [plans?] will be achieved.

During the operation, the military operation we have got a contingency plan in place, we’ve got a commission that will be dealing with the contingency plan and anything that should arise on the military side, the civilian side, we are fully prepared and we have got in mind anything that will come.

This commission has got in mind and is prepared to face any challenges when it comes to logistics, when it comes to the physical work, when it comes to the delivery to the people, to displaced people and so we’ve got everything in mind.

People of the area are also part of the commission so they can also take part in this because they know their area very well so we want everybody to participate from their areas. But in addition to this commission, we have got another commission in place which will be working on the reintegration of those people who wants to or the groups or the individuals who want to come and join the government, or be on our side.

Some of the military units have reached the area and in addition to that, as I’ve mentioned early on that a lot of government officials, high ranking officials from various ministries are already in place in the area and they are of course under the leadership, under the chairman, his excellency Mr ?? (porpal) who, will be co-coordinating and chairing their presence in the area.

One of the questions that you journalists may have is why there so much publication, broadcasting when it comes to this operation, why would we publish so much to everybody? It’s because in the past we would have only the military in mind, so that’s why we wouldn’t tell anybody but this time it’s different.

In the past, whether it, whether an operation was conducted by the national forces or the international forces or joint operations was conducted, they were mainly to do with military operations just to clear the area from the enemies and then to leave it or either to stay there or to go back, but of course this time is different in that military operation is the first, phase one. In addition to that we will have the development in place, the justice, the good governance in place to bring job opportunities to people, so for those reasons we had to involve the international community, we had to involve journalists, we had to involve the people in the area to make them aware of coming, the main purpose of this is to work for them not just to conduct a military operation. Thankyou.

Q: You both spoken about long term development goals for the area after the military operation but I think there’s also a lot of interest in the more urgent civilian need and I wonder if you can address that, how many civilians do you think have fled the town so far, what is being done for them, are there tents, is there food, how many people do you think are still in Marjah, should they stay, should they leave? Why if this military operation has been planned and flagged in advance for so many months, is there nothing in place to evacuate civilians and get them out of harms way?

SCR: Well let me make just one very brief comment but Governor Mangal should really answer the substance of the question because he has led the planning for exactly the issues you’re raising and that is, just to push back at the last comment, it’s not that there is nothing done, there are very extensive plans and I’ll allow Governor Mangal to, to talk about them.

GOVERNOR MANGAL (translation): I believe I have mentioned this before as well and I think it was my answer to your current question. But as I said before, we have got contingency plan in place and we have got commission that will be dealing and will be there and responsible for anything that arises, this could be IDPs, could be anything. This commission is also represented and is also assisted by UNICEF and WFP. The commission works with the co-ordination with the provincial governor’s office

Q: But how many tents do you have, how many tones of food do you have, what, I mean to say there’s a commission isn’t really much of an answer, what is being done? How many displaced persons are there now, how many do you expect there will be?

GOVERNOR MANGAL (translation): As it has been mentioned that there was a propaganda of this, the whole operation for the last three months and of course the commission was also in place from day one and so you’ve got to imagine that how much was prepared and how many tents we’ve got and how many tonnes of food we’ve got is a matter of Q: I don’t want to imagine, I want you to tell me. with the Commission so they know about it.

SCR: You’ll understand Peter, there are good reasons not to go into exact numbers of details at this stage of the operation. What we can say is we’re confident that there are sufficient resources there to accommodate and feed anybody who chooses to leave the area. In terms of advice to people there, then I think Brigadier General Nicholson has already spoken about this just this morning, or anyway, in the last day or so and we very much hope that this operation is going to go ahead swiftly, the military phase of the operation will go ahead swiftly and with as little incident as possible. But of course this very much depends on the conduct of those people who are in Marjah are present and their choices about whether to resist or to lay down their weapons and as the Governor has offered them, come over under the sovereignty of the legitimate authorities.

People need to be under no illusions, this operation is going to succeed, we’re going to bring Afghan Government sovereignty to that area, the only question is those people, are those people who have been controlling that area going to resist it forcibly or are they going to accept it and the message to them is accept it. The message to the people of the area is of course, keep your heads down, stay inside when the operation is going ahead.

Q (translation): And the same question from NATO as well, as you are the ambassador, the civilian ambassador, so what will NATO do in order to help those displaced people, do you have any specific plan?

GOVERNOR MANGAL (translation): So far we have got two waves of displace people from the area, the first number is 92, the second number is 72 and these people they have, either they’ve fled or they have left the area.

Q: 72 people or families?

GOVERNOR MANGAL (translation): 92 families, and they’re leaving with their family members.

And again I can’t go into the details of how the commission is prepared because reasons not to disclose this information but the commission is fully prepared, we have got tents, we have got food we’ve everything in place, we’ve go contingency plans for this.

SCR: I mean you can ask the same questions but in a sense it’s a single answer because it’s a single contingency plan, bringing together all of the agencies that Governor Mangal has mentioned, the international agencies, obviously with ISAF support but in the end led by the Afghan Government on the ground. But we’re confident that we have sufficient resources to deal with that, the issue of displaced persons.

Q: Could you give me some details please of the enemy that you’re intending to take on, how many militants do you think are massed around Marjah, they say they’re bringing fighters in, are they local people, are they backed up by foreign fighters, how well armed are they and what sort of percentage of the people that you think you’re fighting are likely to come over to, reconciliation plan and the other part of my question – could I translate first please?

And second part please - As the Governor of the whole province, how effective do you see, just taking one area to be, are there other areas of action that you think might be more useful then just taking one area or is this the start of an expanded, do you start here and then do you expand to other areas, have you got other areas in mind, what is this the start of and how useful is it do you see it being?

SCG: I should just as a preface before Governor Mangal answers, of course we will have to just tackle as many issues as you raise but there will be further briefings as the military phase of the operation winds up over the coming days from, well led by the Afghan Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Interior and of course with the support of ISAF so there will further opportunities to get into the military aspects of the operation with those leading it but I’m sure Governor Mangal will be able to comment on the points you raise.

GOVERNOR MANGAL (translation): Terrorists of course, they don’t have a [management?] They don’t have an organisation where they can be in one place so they can from one place to another place but Marjah for sure was a centre and it was a place from where they would give orders, where they have their activities. And also Marjah is or was an area of narcotics where the narcotics would be produced and that’s where the drug dealers and the drug traffickers would have their link to so it was also centre for narcotic drugs.

In the past also international terrorists would also come to Marjah area where they would have it as their residency and live there and do their nasty activities from. When ever we’ll start the operation we’ll see how much these terrorists can resist and I doubt it if they can resist us of course. But of course the point is the reconciliation of those Taliban, the Helmand Taliban, the local Taliban the Afghan Taliban, whether they’re willing to give up their weapons and join the government and become under the sovereignty of the Afghan Government.

We have got some preliminary messages and I believe there will be some good steps forward. But we’ve got a commission in place who will work on that.

Q: You just said you had some preliminary messages, I wonder about the reconciliation, the operation has been broadcast for several weeks now, has anybody come forward or is there a sort of deadline for them to come forward and lay down their arms, what’s the mechanism in place for reconciliation? Cause by now it seems somebody would have come forward and laid down their arms if they wanted to.

GOVERNOR MANGAL (translation): We have got some preliminary messages, we have received them, I don’t think it is appropriate to discuss those messages in detail but I’m confident that there are a number of Taliban members who will reconcile towards us and who will be under the sovereignty of the Afghan Government.