Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

Former Afghan President Returns to Kabul

Aired November 17, 2001 - 09:21   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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: The former President of Afghanistan Burhanuddin Rabbani, has returned to Kabul. It is the first time he's back in that capital since the city was deposed by the Taliban in 1996.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour is live in Kabul with that development -- Christiane.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, his arrival here is a matter of great interest, not just to the people of Afghanistan, but also to the United States and all the other members of the international community and the U.N., who are trying to put together a broad-based future government for Afghanistan.

Certainly the people here, and perhaps outside, were scared that the president, Rabbani, who still holds the U.N. seat of Afghanistan, would come back in victory and triumph to claim back the presidency and to extend his government.

But he said clearly that that is not what he had come to do, that he had come to call for a broad-based new alliance to rule Afghanistan, and he had come to make it clear that despite the Northern Alliance's military victory, that the victory, he said, was not for one ethnicity but for all of Afghanistan north and south.

And he said he was here to lay the groundwork for peace.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BURHANUDDIN, RABBANI, EXILED AFGHAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We have not come to Kabul to extend our government. We came to Kabul for peace. We are preparing the ground to invite the peace groups and all intellectuals at once outside who are working for peace. From this tribune, from here, I will announce, and I gave my message (inaudible) of the agenda of the United Nations that they put the peaceful solution in Afghanistan in his first agenda.

I warmly welcome the United Nations secretary general's special envoy to Kabul.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Now, clearly, this press conference was designed to send out two messages, one, that the Northern Alliance appeared ready to work with all sorts of different factions in trying to form a broad-based alliance. They seem to be going to pains not to claim victory, despite their military victories. And two, they want to call on the international community, both the U.N. and the United States, to remain engaged in Afghanistan, to help reconstruct Afghanistan, and certainly to help bring about a political settlement.

He said very pointedly that when the United States and the rest of the world turned away after the Soviet forces were expelled from Afghanistan, this country became, he said, a safe haven for terrorists. In order for that not to happen again, they need help from the outside to maintain a stable, secure, and prosperous future here -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: CNN's Christiane Amanpour reporting to us live from Kabul this morning. Thanks very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com