In Exclusive RFE/RL Interview, Afghan President Urges Pakistan To Cooperate Against Terrorism

(Prague, Czech Republic — April 5, 2006 ) Afghan President Hamid Karzai today urged Pakistan to work closely with Afghan forces in the fight against international terrorism.

Karzai made the comment in an exclusive interview with RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan in the presidential palace in Kabul. He said: “Most of Afghanistan’s problems [with foreign support for terrorist acts] are along the border — especially at the borders with our brethren country Pakistan… We hope that our brothers in Pakistan and the esteemed president of Pakistan — President General Pervez Musharraf — will give us a helping hand with this strong and essential fight against terrorism both in Afghanistan and in Pakistan” (an English language transcript of the interview can be found on the RFE/RL website).

In the wideranging interview, Karzai also commented on the representation of women in Afghanistan’s parliament, the composition of his new cabinet, religious tolerance and other issues.

The interview in its entirety was broadcast today on Radio Free Afghanistan in both Dari and Pashto — the two principal languages spoken in Afghanistan. A translated English transcript will be posted on RFE/RL’s webpage.

Karzai said he chose Radio Free Afghanistan as the venue for his remarks because of its large listenership — over 75 percent weekly reach in the most recent survey of 31 provinces by Intermedia Survey Institute — and what he described as “high quality service to the people of Afghanistan.”

Radio Free Afghanistan, the Dari- and Pashto-language service of RFE/RL, broadcasts 12 hours of programming a day, with programs produced in Prague and the service’s Kabul Bureau and transmitted to listeners via shortwave, satellite and AM and FM signals provided by the International Broadcasting Bureau. Radio Free Afghanistan programming is also available via the Internet, at the service’s trilingual website www.azadiradio.org and at www.rferl.org; English-language news about events in Afghanistan can also be found on the RFE/RL website.