Miliband urges Afghans to seek political settlement to end conflict

Описание: (11 Mar 2010)
AUDIO AND VIDEO QUALITY AS INCOMING
1. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband walks to podium
2. SOUNDBITE: (English) David Miliband, British Foreign Secretary:
"Now is the time for Afghans to pursue a political settlement with as much vigour and energy as we are pursuing the military and civilian effort. The political settlement needs to be external as well as internal involving all of Afghanistan''s neighbours as well as those parts of the insurgency willing permanently to sever ties with al-Qaida, to give up the armed struggle and live within the Afghan constitutional framework."
3. Cutaway of audience
4. SOUNDBITE: (English) David Miliband, British Foreign Secretary:
"British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said we need not just a military push, but a political push, and General McChrystal has himself acknowledged that, quote, ''A political solution to all conflicts is the inevitable outcome.'' So while the violence of the most murderous and indiscriminate and terrible kind started this Afghan war, politics will bring it to an end on the back of concerted military and civilian effect."
5. Cutaway of audience
6. SOUNDBITE: (English) David Miliband, British Foreign Secretary:
"The end state that we are striving for and they are praying for, in Afghanistan, is far from utopian. But within two to five years, it is realistic to aspire to see a country on an upward trajectory, still poor, but with a just peace with democratic and inclusive politics bedding down at all levels, and with incomes growing. The urban population should have access to electricity 24-7. More shops will be open in the local bazaars, and more children, in particular girls, will be going to school. Most grass roots insurgents, the so-called 10-dollar-a-day Taliban, should be resettled in their villages with at least some of the insurgent leaders reconciling into legitimate political process. Communities will be increasingly able to rely on the Afghan national security forces rather than ours for protection. International troops will have stepped back from the front line to focus on the still dangerous work of training and mentoring. The neighbours will be working together preventing trouble, not fuelling it. Above all, al-Qaida will be kept out. That vision depends on sacrifice and on money, but it is only feasible if politics comes to the fore. That is how the war in Afghanistan will be brought to an end."
7. Cutaway of audience
STORYLINE:
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband urged the Afghan government on Wednesday to aggressively pursue a political settlement with insurgents to help end the war in Afghanistan, and do it now while the military and civilian surges are putting pressure on the Taliban.
Miliband said conditions made it possible for sides to come together because the current military surge has been seen as a success.
"Now is the time for the Afghans to pursue a political settlement with as much vigour and energy as we are pursuing the military and civilian effort," said Miliband in a speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
"The political settlement needs to be external as well as internal, involving all of Afghanistan''s neighbours, as well as those parts of the insurgency willing permanently to sever ties with al-Qaida, to give up their armed struggle, and live within the Afghan constitutional framework."
Miliband, an MIT graduate, acknowledged that "violence of the most murderous and indiscriminate and terrible kind started this war," but said politics could end it.

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