Peace is imperative for progress: Afghan President

Friday, 7 March 2014 07:03 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Karzai hails President Rajapaksa for post-war development
Says it was up to countries to protect the rights of its people
Visiting President says post-war Sri Lanka is “qualitatively different”
“If West wants respect for human rights, it should help countries to achieve peace”: Karzai

By Dharisha Bastians Outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai yesterday hailed Sri Lanka’s post-war development and said it was up to individual countries to protect the rights of their people, but stopped short of criticising the US-led process to censure the Government over its human rights record in Geneva. Claiming that his third visit to Sri Lanka had been “qualitatively different” post-war, President Karzai praised President Mahinda Rajapaksa for proving that peace was imperative for progress. “War is the greatest violator of people’s rights; peace guarantees those rights,” President Karzai said during a media interaction in Colombo last afternoon.

The visiting President said his trip to Sri Lanka had been an ‘eye-opener’ about the dividends of peace and said it was his hope that Afghanistan could achieve similarly ‘complete peace’. Karzai said President Rajapaksa was a friend and brother who had been attentive to the issues in Afghanistan and the region. “He once told me peace will bring all you need – and President Rajapaksa has proved that,” the Afghan President said, following bilateral talks yesterday. Responding to questions about US drone attacks in Afghanistan, Karzai charged that the Western media was often blind to their own problems but very open to the rest of the world. “If they really want respect for human rights, they should help countries like our achieve peace,” the visiting President charged. Admitting that he was being careful about the tenor of his remarks with regard to Western states while he was in Colombo, President Karzai said human rights was an issue to be attentive about in every country. “It is for us, our countries to make sure our citizens are protected by all means,” the Afghan President explained. The visiting President who has been vocal in his criticism of Western powers in his final weeks of his 12 year term of office, refused to get drawn into criticising the US-sponsored resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, over the Government’s human rights record. “If I was in Kabul, I would have spoken more openly about the West,” Karzai told Colombo based journalists. President Karzai said Sri Lanka was now a country at peace. “The suffering of the Sri Lankan people will end,” he assured. Introducing the Afghan President, Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said Karzai had engaged in an “absolutely friendly” visit to Sri Lanka, when the country was under fire in Geneva. “Our friends have given us so much courage and strength as we face this,” the Minister said. President Karzai, who will leave office in April after the country holds presidential polls, visited Sri Lanka twice before, once as Afghanistan’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for the funeral of President Ranasinghe Premadasa and again in 2008 for the SAARC summit.