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Anchor Jeb Sharp speaks with Jean MacKenzie, Kabul correspondent for the on-line news site, Global Post.com, about the current situation in Afghanistan, where continuing violence poses a serious challenge to the US military.
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JEB SHARP: I’m Jeb Sharp and this is The World. There is no let up to the violence in Afghanistan. A bomb destroyed a bus in Kandahar province today. At least thirty people were killed. At the same time, last month’s presidential elections are still up in the air. The elections were marred by allegations of fraud. Afghanistan was on President Obama’s agenda today. He met with NATO chief, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. They discussed the situation in Afghanistan and Rasmussen said NATO would keep troops there “as long as it takes to finish the job.” Jean MacKenzie is Kabul correspondent for the online news site Global Post.com. Jean, first give us the latest on the violence. What more do you know about the bus blast?
JEAN MacKENZIE: Well, we’re not actually sure what was going on. In order to cause the level of causalities, thirty dead and an additional forty injured is what we’re hearing. This had to have been a very big explosive device, the type that are usually targeted against military convoys so we’re not sure whether this was a mistake, whether something went wrong. This is not normally the type of bombing we would see in Kandahar.
JEB SHARP: And obviously this comes against the backdrop of the controversy over the election. What’s the latest with the election count?
JEAN MacKENZIE: Well, we’re expecting the final results within about ten days. The electoral complaints commission are going through ballot boxes with suspicious counts but because there were so many of those, they’re only doing a one in ten sampling. We’re not really sure what that is going to give us in terms of a feeling of legitimacy or comfort that the elections were transparent but we expect that within ten days we will have a final announcement.
JEB SHARP: From afar, there already seems such a cloud over the elections, I wonder what it feels like there, what people say and what they ask and what the mood is like. I mean, is it already considered to be completely illegitimate or what’s the word like on the street?
JEAN MacKENZIE: Well certainly people are more than aware of the fraud and very aware that this casts a cloud over the entire process. But frankly, people are just tired of it. They’re tired of the discussions, they’re tired of the fights and they just want it to be over. What I’m hearing from most people is that we know what the result is going to be, we know what the end result is going to be which is President Hamid Karzai will be in office for another five years so why drag it out, why prolong the agony? We don’t want more of the squabbling, we don’t want a second round of election, we just want an end to this entire mess.
JEB SHARP: Jean MacKenzie, what are you, yourself watching the most? What strikes you at this moment and what are you most concerned about?
JEAN MacKENZIE: Well, we are watching a series of political standoffs around the country that have been triggered by the election. Specifically in the north, which had been an area that was quite safe and quite calm up until now. The elections have triggered some severe ethnic and political divides and we’re quite worried that might lead to some violence up there.
JEB SHARP: Jean MacKenzie is Kabul correspondent for the online news site Global Post.com. Thanks, Jean.
JEAN MacKENZIE: Thank you.
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