HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
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[To be succeeded by the rule of cruise missiles,
cluster bombs, depleted uranium weapons, daisy cutters
and all the other ordnance that Lockheed-Martin,
Boeing and assorted Western-based death merchants (and
handsome campaign contributors) can churn out to help
a dragging economy.
Much as with those who provided the guns in question
below, along with Stinger missiles, grenade launchers
and other tools of the freedom fighter and
humanitarian trade.]
UN: Afghan 'Rule of Gun' Must End
By Ted Anthony
Associated Press Writer
Monday, January 7, 2002; 3:34 PM
KABUL, Afghanistan �� Saying the "rule of the gun"
must end, the U.N. human rights representative for
Afghanistan insisted Monday that Afghans will feel
truly free only after weapons are restricted, jobs
created and daily routines re-established.
But Kamal Hossain said that can happen only if two
pivotal parties � Afghanistan's interim government and
the international community that backs it � keep their
word to a population already hardened by years of
broken promises.
"These are the priorities of the people � to be secure
in their lives and to be able to be productive again,
to have employment, to have the wherewithal to sustain
themselves and their families," said Hossain, the U.N.
special representative for human rights in
Afghanistan.
"In that sense, it's a time of hope and expectation,"
he told a news conference after days of speaking to
government officials, U.N. Afghanistan Special Envoy
Lakhdar Brahimi and ordinary citizens.
Three weeks into Afghanistan's post-Taliban interim
government, Hossain drew a portrait of a people who
hunger not only for stability and safety, but for the
chance to reconstruct their lives as they see fit.
That, he suggested, is among the most basic
definitions of human rights � along with food, shelter
and the freedom from being shot or blown up by a land
mine.
His field visit to Afghanistan comes as thousands of
refugees � both from bordering Pakistan and Iran and
from within Afghanistan � are on the move, aided by
both their new government and the United Nations in
returning to their home villages.
Hossain said disarmament � and the willingness to do
it � will create the environment that all Afghans,
including refugees, require to start rebuilding their
lives.
"The rule of law must replace the rule of the gun. Too
long has the gun created an environment in which
people have lived in fear," he said.
"The guns that have been firing until very recently
... must not only be silenced, they must be
decommissioned," Hossain said. "You must develop the
capacity of the state to protect life and property."
He said the U.S.-led coalition should make sure that
civilian casualties are not only minimized but avoided
through all steps possible.
"If there are errors, there should be an attempt to
inquire into it to see that those errors could be
avoided in further conduct," he said.
Hossain said the world has "a commitment which it must
keep" to assist Afghanistan both now and further along
in its reconstruction.
"There is a great amount of this feeling that
Afghanistan has been let down in the past," he said.
But help, he said, is not the same as nations pulling
strings for strategic purposes.
Afghans, he suggested, "would want to tell the world
outside: 'You have interfered with us in the past. You
have sent the guns. you have used those guns for
various purposes which are not Afghan purposes. And we
want to see that end.' "
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