YouSaid · the spoken record

Karim

lines on the record
8
first
2021-11-17
most recent
2021-11-17
sittings or episodes
1
sources
un-security-council

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  1. “I will end with a call to all of us to make brave decisions, because it is the darkest of our times that require our bravest decisions.”

    2021-11-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8908 (2021) · source

  2. “Secondly, I urge all rival regional Powers, including India and Pakistan, but not limited to them, to bring the best versions of themselves, setting aside their regional rivalries, to genuinely work for peace. Moves to gain power in the region cannot gain them respect when it comes at the cost of misery of children, of people living in war and of graveyards full of young men who could have had a life. Thirdly, I urge the global community to support local actors, non-governmental organizations and associations working in Afghanistan. They must be given financial and social support to continue their grass-roots work for peace. In that way we can have a local-level peace effort working in parallel with international efforts.”

    2021-11-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8908 (2021) · source

  3. “However, it is only through non-violent means and negotiations involving all groups that we can create a new political system in which we can all coexist. Only in that way can we end war and sustain peace. We need a genuine global effort to turn the current moment into a window of opportunity for long-lasting peace. To that end, I have three recommendations. First, I urge the United Nations and friendly neutral Governments to play a leading role in bringing all stakeholders back under a Bonn Conference model. The aim should be to ensure transitional justice through that model so as to create a political system acceptable to all and inclusive of all — one that will ensure social justice, the distribution of wealth and opportunities and the decentralization of power — as well as ensuring the fundamental rights of all citizens.”

    2021-11-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8908 (2021) · source

  4. “Without a political structure that allows all groups to make themselves heard through non-violent means, they are likely to use violence. Violence is still pervasive in the country even after the takeover by the Taliban. We already see Da’esh doing exactly what the Taliban were doing: committing suicide attacks. It is sobering to see soldiers from the previous Government joining them. Also, I wish to mention that just a couple of hours ago there was a suicide attack in Kabul, killing two children and several other people. That is why I say we are seeing a pause to the war. Unless we act to break the cycle, it will continue to repeat itself. We have seen the violent takeover of power in Afghanistan by different groups over the years. At best, they only paused the cycle of war for a few years.”

    2021-11-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8908 (2021) · source

  5. “They exclude women and all previous political actors. Exclusion and lack of power-sharing does not work in Afghanistan, in the same way that it does not work in any other part of the world. People dissent, and our recent history is proof of this. Just looking at history, we had a civil war among different ethnic groups just 30 years ago, in the 1990s, after the withdrawal of the Soviet Union. Furthermore, post- 2001 when the Taliban were excluded from the Bonn Conference and negotiations, they came back. We witnessed that. Another problem of Afghanistan is that it has an overly centralized political structure and system, which the Taliban inherited from the previous Government. It disempowers people in provinces and rural areas. That is why so many of our rural, excluded and poor citizens joined the fight to take over Kabul.”

    2021-11-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8908 (2021) · source

  6. “Since the Taliban takeover, the global approach has been to focus on evacuations, the Afghan migrant crisis, humanitarian aid and lobbying for girls’ education. All of those are very important, but the well- being of Afghan citizens can be sustainably realized only if we have political stability. However, I do not see enough global efforts for that. That frightens me. That absolutely frightens me because without it, we have just a pause to the war — just a pause. This is not the end of it. There will be more human lives lost, poverty and global isolation. Let me explain why I say that this is a pause to the war rather than an ending. It is because the current arrangements of political power by the Taliban are exclusionary. They exclude other Pashtuns beyond themselves. They exclude all ethnic groups.”

    2021-11-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8908 (2021) · source

  7. “After years of suffering, every one of us — from me as an Afghan, to my peers, to the Taliban and the international community — must stop seeing each other as enemies. We need to make the effort to see the humanity in others and hear their suffering and their stories. We also need to be brave, to apologize for our wrongs and for the lives that were lost. It is not easy, and I understand, but we need to do that. Today I start this journey by declaring that no one is my enemy. Each of us has our own demands and our own vision of truth and future. We do not agree on many things, but we must coexist. I call on the United Nations to work with all stakeholders in the creation of a political structure that allows for co-existence and an end to the cycle of war that Afghanistan has been trapped in for decades.”

    2021-11-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8908 (2021) · source

  8. “Ms. Karim: I thank the Security Council for inviting me. It is an honour to be here, but I must admit that it took a lot of courage for me to join this meeting. That is because I am exhausted by this war and on the verge of an emotional breakdown, just like every other Afghan. The sense of loss is huge. Every Afghan family, including my own, has lost at least one of its members to the decades of never-ending war. Our graveyards are a proof of that, and our land is witness to the amount of human blood spilled on it. In the silence of the graveyards, looking at the graves of soldiers from the previous Government, soldiers from the Taliban, young women and children, I have come to a stark and clear realization: that no one is an enemy, and no human must be killed anymore for this war or any other war.”

    2021-11-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8908 (2021) · source