Ambassador Joseph A. Mussomeli
Interview with Radio Azadi
August 31, 2009
Question: Ambassador, first I would like to know your job title and full name.
Ambassador Mussomeli: My name is Joseph Mussomeli. I’m one of the many Ambassadors at the U.S. Embassy. I was recently the Ambassador to Cambodia, and now I am here as the Assistant Ambassador.
Question: Thank you very much, sir, for joining us in Kabul. We will start.
Recently we had some reports that the United States embassy in Kabul wants to open some consulates in different Afghan cities. Can you give us some details on that? How many consulates do you want to open in Afghanistan, and in which cities?
Ambassador Mussomeli: Sure. For now, and only for now, there are two consulates that we plan to open very quickly. One is in Herat and the other is in Mazar. These are the first. The way I understand it, these are the first consulates of any Western government. So we’re very excited about this. We think it will take very soon “Inshallah.”
Question: Can you give us some details about the activities of this consulate? What kind of services will they provide to the people?
Ambassador Mussomeli: At first we’ll begin very slowly, because the consulates here will be like the consulates throughout the world. There will be a management officer, a political officer, a public affairs officer, and a consular officer for American services. Eventually we would like them to grow and become much larger so we could issue visas there, and so we can engage more with the local communities, as well as have AID officers there for assistance programs and things like that.
We really are concerned, not “concerned” so much but, we want to make sure we have consulates throughout the country so that we are not just focused on Kabul. Afghanistan is a much bigger country. It’s a much more diverse country. To only have an embassy suggests that all we’re interested in is in Kabul, and that’s not true. Our interests are country-wide, and so we want to engage with all the different people of Afghanistan. So Kabul is not enough.
Question: Thank you sir.
Don’t you think that this initiative has been taken rather late?
Ambassador Mussomeli: Well, we’re the first of the Western countries, so maybe we’re early. To be honest, some of us wanted to open consulates much sooner. I think they’re very important to open. I think one of the main things is that it shows our commitment to Afghanistan. That you know, to be very honest, our relationship and our interest in Afghanistan has not always been enough. But once you open up consulates it shows very deeply our close and deep commitment to Afghanistan. So we’re very proud we’re doing this. Maybe we should have done it even sooner, and maybe we should do even more consulates at some point. But these consulates, more than an embassy, show a long-lasting commitment to Afghanistan in a way that America has never had here before. It is a way of saying that we’re not leaving. We’re staying. Not only are we staying, but we want to engage with the Afghanistan people everywhere. In a funny sort of way it’s sort of like wedding rings. This is not a temporary relationship. We’re here for a long, long time.
Question: People in the cities where you are going to open your consulates eagerly want to know what kind of services these consulates would provide for the people, especially about the issuing of visas.
Ambassador Mussomeli: The visas will come eventually, but not right at the beginning. Issuing visas takes a lot of equipment, it takes a lot of training. But I would guess, and this is my personal guess, that certainly within two years we would have visa services as well in those consulates. Because it’s very hard for the Afghans to come all the way from those distances all the way to Kabul for a visa interview. So we would want to be good neighbors, we would want to provide as many services as possible, and visas are certainly one of those things we are seriously looking at.
Question: People in Afghanistan in many cases say the conditions for getting U.S. visas are very tight and that the conditions should be easier. What is your comment?
Ambassador Mussomeli: The conditions for getting a visa are the same everywhere in the world. But I would tell you this, as far as issuing visas for Afghans, we’re trying to be very flexible, especially for students, especially for people who are going to America for training or other things. We are stretching and being as flexible as we can because we want more Afghans to visit America. Just as we hope for more Americans to visit Afghanistan.
We can’t have a really close, good relationship if people don’t visit each other. Government to government is not enough. We need people-to-people relationships. So we want to issue more visas. It’s just that if people are too poor, if they don’t have jobs, if there are the usual problems throughout the world, then it’s sometimes hard to issue visas.
Question: Once again we will come to the opening of new consulates in Afghanistan. You said that the U.S. Embassy has decided to open a consulate in Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif. Why have you chosen these two cities? And what kind of political impact will it have on these areas?
Ambassador Mussomeli: I don’t think it’s true, but I think some people feel that we have neglected the West and the North, that all of our concentration, all of our developmental assistance, hundreds of millions of dollars are going all to the South and the East. This is a way of showing that we are concerned about the entire country of Afghanistan. We want to pay more attention, not ignore the South and the East, but also pay more attention in the future to the North and the West.
Question: You just mentioned that many people say that they think the United States has neglected the North and West. So actually you don’t have any consulates in the South and East.
Ambassador Mussomeli: That may also be true some day. We have PRTs in the South and the East, and those are growing. We have a lot more civilians going down to Kandahar and Helmand and into the Eastern provinces as well. We are doubling, even tripling the number of civilians from the embassy who are living in those places. So ultimately if things continue to go well, and we’re very confident that things are going to continue to improve, there may be consulates there as well.
Question: Would you like to say anything about the political impact of these consulates on the areas that you are going to open them?
Ambassador Mussomeli: I think the political impact will be more of a human impact. People will see that the Americans are friends of Afghanistan, and that they are not going to leave Afghanistan, that the political commitment to this country is something that’s going to last forever. And the opening of consulates has that political impression.
I think it’s also good politically because the people who live in those areas will now see that we are interested in them as well.
Question: Do you have any security concerns about the consulates that you are going to open?
Ambassador Mussomeli: Of course there are always security concerns and it’s not unique to Afghanistan. There are worries about security throughout the world, even in Washington, DC. In fact an times when I’m walking through the streets of Herat or Mazar I feel safer than when I’m walking in Washington, DC. But certainly, yes, we are going to be careful to make sure that there’s adequate security, but we have great faith in the Afghan people, that the Afghan people will be part of that security. That they will, since we are guests here, take care of us.
Question: What about Kandahar City. You don’t think there is also a need to establish a consulate there?
Ambassador Mussomeli: Inshallah we will be opening a consulate there someday too. I think right now because of the military operations in that part of the country, it’s a little premature. But as things calm down, this time next year maybe we’ll have another conversation and we’ll be talking about how things have so markedly improved in Kandahar and elsewhere that we should consider also consulates there.
Question: In long term, how many consulates do you want to open and which cities do you want to --
Ambassador Mussomeli: Again, in Washington they’ve only decided on these two consulates but that’s because of the situation right now. A year from now we’ll be talking to Washington again, and the possibility of opening more consulates is very real. How many? God only knows.
Question: There is a lot of criticism being said in the Western media about the election process in Afghanistan. What is the stand of the United States about this election?
Ambassador Mussomeli: What we have been saying and what seems to be true is that it wasn’t a perfect election. There were problems with the election. But it’s really too soon for any outsider, especially, to be talking, and to make a judgment on the election itself. It’s up to the ECC and the IEC to continue the process, to do an evaluation and assessment, and it’s time for us to just be silent or to at least step back and let them do their job. We’re here to support the election process and part of that process is what the ECC and IEC is doing right now. So we’re going to be patient and observant and wait to see what they do.
Question: There are reports about an argument between Holbrooke and President Karzai. Can you confirm?
Ambassador Mussomeli: I think those reports are exaggerated.
Question: One thing more about General Dostum: At the beginning when when U.S. forces first entered Afghanistan, General Dostum had really strong support from the coalition forces. Now it has been changed. What are the reasons behind this?
Ambassador Mussomeli: As we have said before, we are very concerned about what General Dostum’s role might be in the future of Afghanistan. This has not been a change of policy, this is something we’ve been concerned about for a long time, and I really have no more to say on that.
Question: Do you have any idea that in the future what kind of role he may play?
Ambassador Mussomeli: I think we’re very concerned about him playing any role.
Question: Thanks.
Ambassador Mussomeli: Thank you.
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