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American Morning

Can Karzai Make the Interim Government Work?

Aired December 10, 2001 - 08:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: As the General made abundantly clear just now, the war on terrorism is far from over, but the job of rebuilding Afghanistan is already beginning. The leader of the country's new interim government warns that will not be easy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAMID KARZAI, INTERIM AFGHANISTAN LEADER: (INAUDIBLE) Afghanistan that we should make should be one that's not ruined by warlordism (ph). Warlordism (ph) must finish. If it does not finish, Afghanistan will not be made. Terrorism will come back. So we must finish warlordism (ph) in order for us to make a good (INAUDIBLE) Afghanistan free from terrorism, free from bad guys - bad people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Mile O'Brien is standing by the big board with a look at some of the obstacles facing Afghanistan as it gets about the business of trying to rebuild itself. Miles, good morning again.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, we're talking about hundreds, really thousands of years of bitter rivalries among these various ethnic and religious groups in Afghanistan. It's really the history of the country when you start taking a look at it. Let's take a quick look before we bring in our guest at the map and just give you a sense of the ethnic makeup once again.

We've shown this to you before, but it's worth pointing out again. Thirty-eight percent of the county is Pashtun. The area in the dark maroon area right around this region being the predominant area for the Pashtuns. The next group is the Tajiks, which are in this area up to the north not too coincidentally near Tajikistan. From the Uzbeks, up here near Uzbekistan and then Hazaras, which are in the central portions of Afghanistan.

All of these groups with different ethnic backgrounds, in some cases different religious backgrounds, all of that factoring into a lot of - a lack of unity in this country over the course of history.

To talk a little bit more about this and the prospects for this new interim government, we turn now to Omar Samad, who is at the Afghanistan Information Center. Good to have you with us Mr. Samad.

OMAR SAMAD, AFGHANISTAN INFORMATION CENTER: Good to be here, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, well first of all, do you think things are different now when we -- when we hear Mr. Karzai saying that this time the warlords are going to get along. Do you feel that there's a chance of that?

SAMAD: Well I think yes, there is the chance of that. The chances are much better today than they used to be a few months ago, before September 11th. Afghanistan has an opportunity now to not only be rebuilt and reconstructed, but obviously the politics of Afghanistan and the differences that existed among the various ethnic groups and political groups and regional warlords or tribal leaders can also be addressed within the next period -- within the interim government period within the next six months or the next two years.

Afghanistan is going to be looking at a new constitution at the end of the two-year period. It's going to be looking at two (UNINTELLIGIBLE) grand assemblies in order to be -- to bring together a representative body of Afghans who will decide the fate of the country. So I think all of these are mechanisms to which Afghans can come together, solve their past issues and create a new country, a new nation, and a new polity, if you want to call that.

O'BRIEN: All right, Mr. Samad, we had a graphic up. let's put it up one more time. I just want to go through Mr. Karzai, who is the head of this interim government, which begins on December 22nd. Obviously the chairman, we mentioned that, he's a tribal chief.

He is a Pashtun, which is very critical, a deputy foreign minister from '92 to '94 and is a -- is a worldly guy, speaks many languages. much of his -- spent a lot of time in the U.S. -- is also related to the exiled king, but he will be governing over a group that is predominantly made up of other ethnic groups, in essence here to the victor (UNINTELLIGIBLE). The Northern Alliance controls perhaps 80 percent of the country right now, and thus the groups that he will be governing over his cabinet, if you will, are other ethnic groups. Can they really work together?

SAMAD: Yes, Miles. I think that there are 29 members working under Mr. Karzai and the new administration for the next six months. There are probably about a third of them are Pashtuns and these are Pashtuns who belong to various alliances like the Northern Alliance also. Then you have a large portion, about 40 percent or so that are Tajik and then, there are about six or seven Hazaras and three Uzbeks and one Ristoni (ph) even from the northeastern part of Afghanistan, and there are two women.

You know after a very long time, we see women leaders in Afghanistan emerging again and both of these women are people who have worked quite hard in Afghanistan or for Afghanistan. So I think that, yes, that he will be able to bring the country together. Obviously you can not satisfy everyone. it's impossible to have every Afghan group or every Afghan political segment of society be totally satisfied with the -- what the outcome, the future holds.

I think that over time, we need to build a system that's more inclusive and a system that is more democratic and where the individual vote will count and people on the individual -- on an individual basis will be able to go to the ballots.

O'BRIEN: Omar Samad with the Afghanistan Information Council. Thank you very much. Worthy goals -- goals that may be very difficult to accomplish over the course of time in Afghanistan -- Paula.

ZAHN: Thanks, Miles.

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