Lakhdar Brahimi Quotes
Lakhdar Brahimi Quotes
- 1
Afghanistan is a land-locked country.
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- 2
Be modest, be respectful of others, try to understand.
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- 3
But I knew that what had happened was an eye-opener not only to the United States but also to Pakistan, who realized that after what has happened on the 11th of September, it was simply impossible to continue to play those games in Afghanistan.
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- 4
But you are absolutely right that when the international community decides to help in a meaningful manner a country like Afghanistan, then coordination between the various actors that are involved in these processes is very, very difficult indeed.
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- 5
For the past ten years the UN has been trying to help the Afghans end their wars against one another, but we have been unsuccessful.
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- 6
However, it does seem now that the international community, more importantly the powers that have influence, and, even more importantly, Afghanistan's neighbors realize that it is high time that they work together, and not against one another.
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- 7
I think a failed state is the responsibility of the people who have made that state fail, and those are generally the people of that country.
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- 8
I understand even the excesses that can happen once you start fighting against injustice, not to condone it but to understand how you get there.
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- 9
If you are talking about terrorism, you need to sit down and understand what is making these people put dynamite around their waists and blow themselves up.
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- 10
In Afghanistan, the first time around, from 1997 to 1999 when I gave up, that is where I had seen these foreign players do their worst.
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- 11
In the globalized world that is ours, maybe we are moving towards a global village, but that global village brings in a lot of different people, a lot of different ideas, lots of different backgrounds, lots of different aspirations.
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- 12
Iraq is a country that has been invaded. It's not a failing state that you want to help. It's a country that was functioning good or bad, with a horrible dictator, but you have invaded.
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- 13
It also seems that the Afghans themselves want to avail themselves of this opportunity and all recognize that the UN is uniquely qualified to help bring them together.
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- 14
My education took place in Algeria and briefly in Paris, France, but I didn't finish, I didn't graduate, because of the war of liberation.
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- 15
Not much, I'm sorry to say, because my father passed away when I was very young. I was eleven, and my mother was a simple, uneducated peasant.
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- 16
Of course the UN brings in a lot of moral authority.
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- 17
On the contrary. You see, the British - if there is one foreign force that would have left mixed souvenirs in Afghanistan, it's the British.
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- 18
People now realize that globalization is not only for the multi-nationals and the circulation of money.
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- 19
Several million people inside and outside Afghanistan are destitute and desperately in need of help.
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- 20
The events of September 11 and what has happened since have made people understand that even a small, distant and far away country like Afghanistan cannot be left to break up into anarchy and chaos without consequences for the whole world.
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- 21
The mandate you go with is intimidating and also is a source of respect that you gain, because you have come with this mandate from the United Nations.
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- 22
There again, that is a fundamental principle: no two situations are alike.
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- 23
There is a firm, clear commitment to provide resources and ideas to enable us to organize the Afghans towards starting the process of rehabilitation and reconstruction.
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- 24
There is a story which is not being told strongly enough of the Afghan employees of the UN inside the country who are saving hundreds of thousands of lives everyday by their bravery and nobody talks of them.
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- 25
There is also a natural and very, very strong empathy with the underdog, with people who have suffered, people who have been pushed around by foreigners in particular, but also by their own people.
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- 26
There is an element of luck, there is an element of trial and error, sometimes you fail, sometimes you succeed. It's not as beautifully simple as it may seem when we are talking about it.
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- 27
There is an expression now that is commonly used about these so-called internal conflicts which are not really internal, because they have connections to the outside world.
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- 28
What again I tell my people is that no matter how much you know, it's never enough. You will always discover, after the fact, that you've missed something.
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- 29
What we have learned from that struggle is the importance of freedom, the importance of mobilization, the importance of justice, equality, and so on.
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- 30
When you go from one place to another, you go with experience, you don't go with prescriptions.
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- 31
You are dealing with people who have taken the responsibility of killing their own because they think that they are right, they think that they are serving the interests of their people. They not going to give that up easily, just because you've shown up.
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