Speeches
Ambassador Wood Pledges U.S. Support to the People of Musa Qala
January 13, 2008
January 13 - U.S. Ambassador to Kabul William Wood pledged his support to the people of Musa Qala yesterday during a trip to the Helmand Province district, which was liberated one month ago from a fearsome, ten-month Taliban occupation.
“We pledge our support to you and to the people of Musa Qala,” Ambassador Wood told Mullah Abdul Salaam, the newly-appointed district governor. Ambassador Wood toured the district, met with the Afghan, British, and U.S. forces responsible for its liberation, and spent several hours talking with the Mullah, who described Afghanistan as a long-sick patient with several critical ailments, such as terrorism and a proliferating narcotics trade.
Mullah Salaam, a former Taliban commander, thanked the United States and the United Kingdom for their support to Afghanistan during the anti-Soviet jihad and added, “I ask the international community to help us now against the terrorists as much as you did during the jihad.” He also asked insurgents to lay down their arms and join the Government, and for the Government to send 200 more police to help him secure the district.
During their long occupation of the district, Mullah Salaam said, the Taliban turned Musa Qala into a center of terrorism and the illegal narcotics trade. He said that he joined the Government to rid his district of these scourges.
Now, Musa Qala is the site of renewed U.S. and international investment in reconstruction and redevelopment. The U.S. has so far committed approximately $3 million in new aid, including new school supplies, equipment and furniture for the District Center, and emergency reconstruction equipment. Future projects to be implemented as security stabilizes may include improved electricity transmission lines and contract farming opportunities for farmers who turn away from illegal poppy cultivation in favor of growing legal crops.
“I think that the situation in Musa Qala is filled with hope,” Ambassador Wood said. “One of the elements of that hope is that a former Taliban commander has now not only agreed to support the Constitution and respect the authority of the national government, but as district governor, will defend the Constitution and represent the national government. I offered Mullah Salam all of our support in that effort.”