Afghans Awake to New Agreement with US

Tuesday night President Obama flew into Afghanistan after dark for an unannounced visit to the country.

Once in the Afghan capital, Kabul, he and Afghan President Hamid Karzai signed a new agreement that governs future relations between the US and Afghanistan.

The agreement commits the US to a role in Afghanistan’s future beyond the 2014 withdrawal date of most US troops.

Hours after President Obama left Afghanistan, at least seven people were killed in a suicide bomb attack in Kabul. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

Marco Werman talks with Sultana Parvanta, a Kabul resident and a consultant on economic development and women’s issues, about her reaction to President Obama’s visit to Afghanistan last night.

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Marco Werman: I’m Marco Werman and this is “The World”, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH in Boston. President Obama said last night that the tide has turned in Afghanistan. But just hours after his surprise trip to the country, Taliban insurgents answered with more of the same. They staged an attack in Kabul that killed at least seven people. The President traveled in secret to Afghanistan to sign a new strategic agreement. The deal spells out a long term American role in the country beyond 2014 when most US troops are scheduled to leave. While many Americans heard about the deal from the President himself in a televised speech last night, most Afghans didn’t even know about Obama’s middle of the night visit until they woke up hours later. Sultana Parvanta lives in Kabul. She’s a consultant in economic development. Sultana, what’s your reaction to President Obama’s surprise visit?

Sultana Parvanta: Well, it’s always good to have President Obama visiting us. It’s just we didn’t know. Nobody knew. He came in the middle of the night, signed an agreement, and then left. A couple of interesting things I have, my personal view is that it’s really good to have some assurance in connection with the United States in Afghanistan beyond 2014. We’re very worried about the few recent developments and we were very concerned about what’s going to happen to us after the NATO troops and the forces leave. There are a lot of concerns because there’s still not peace and stability here. The other point that I’m thinking about is that nor he nor Mr. Karzai gave any information prior to the visit about what are the contents of this agreement. We know there were some rumors and some information, but nothing was specific.

Werman: Well, news is just beginning to spread in Kabul about what was in this agreement the two Presidents signed last night. How do people feel about what they’ve learned so far?

Parvanta: I think that the people are encouraged more. The people who really want peace and stability here, they’re encouraged. It’s almost like the most important thing is that we will have some support and stability here, and the contents look good. I think personally the most important one for me and for my friends is the piece about stressing the point about election. It was very important to us that the election will not be hijacked, the process will happen, it will be clear and transparent, and it will be with the help and monitoring of the international assistance over the process of election. We have a very bad memory and bad experience in 2009 when the election was full of fraud and cheating and really bad things happened. And so this is a transition time. It’s the transition of the Afghanistan government, it’s the transition of the forces. It’s a critical time, so yeah. The most important part of that was perhaps the election one.

Werman: Right. Transparent elections, obviously a big part of that new strategic agreement. I mean Hamid Karzai was seen as one of the problems with those parliamentary elections back in 2009 as we were saying. He has had his ups and downs in Afghanistan. What is Karzai’s credibility like these days? Do the Afghan people trust him to sign this agreement on their behalf?

Parvanta: It’s kind of continuously being on the minus side, I would say. It’s decreasing. And we are Afghans who, again, have seen the brutality of the Taliban every day and the terrorists and he calling them brothers. “My brothers”, you know, I mean we don’t want the President’s brothers to be terrorizing us every day. You know, today, the body of those kids who were on the way to school and they were killed in a very brutal manner. No. No. No. We just don’t like this kind of stuff. You just can’t do that, you know. So they are showing their power and their negative influence everywhere. I’m afraid they’re strong and they’re getting help, and it’s not helping when our President calls the Taliban brothers and is extending a hand of friendship to them. It’s very confusing in terms of the world’s politics, the west. The US are negotiation with Taliban. I mean what is this negotiating? You know, what are they negotiation about? For ten years this negotiation was trying to happen. Meanwhile, they’re killing us everyday in our streets.

Werman: Sultana Parvanta, a Kabul resident. Thank you very much for your time. Always good to speak with you. Thanks.

Parvanta: Oh, thank you, Marco.

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