HEAD OF AFGHAN SENATE CONDEMNS PAKISTAN DURING

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 007551

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/21/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV FR AF PK
SUBJECT: HEAD OF AFGHAN SENATE CONDEMNS PAKISTAN DURING
VISIT TO FRANCE

REF: PARIS 6542

Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Josiah Rosenblatt
for reasons 1.4 b and d.


1. (C) Summary: In private meetings at the French Senate and
MFA November 14-16, head of the Afghan Senate Sibghatullah
Mujaddedi had only one aim: forcefully and obsessively to
denounce alleged Pakistani support of Taliban insurgents and
to call for international condemnation of Pakistan. The
impression his broken-record performance left behind was
decidedly weak, however, especially when compared with the
earlier visit of an engaging Yunus Qanooni, Mujaddedi's
counterpart in the lower house. The French Senate sought to
reinforce the need for the development of an effective Afghan
Parliament, while MFA interlocutors emphasized France's three
principle areas of reconstruction interest: agriculture,
public health and education. End Summary.


2. (SBU) During a three-day visit to France, November 14-16,
head of the Afghan Senate Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, accompanied
by three other Afghan senators, met with French Senate
President Christian Poncelet, the French Senate's nine-member
Afghanistan Friendship Group, and Brigitte Girardin,
Minister-Delegate for Cooperation, Development and
Francophony at the MFA. The group also visited the city of
Dijon, home to one of the friendship group's members, where
they were shown how local governments can administer
independently while remaining under the overall authority of
the central government, explained Jerome Cauchard, diplomatic
advisor to the President of the French Senate.


3. (SBU) According to Cauchard, Mujaddedi's visit was a part
of the French legislature's most recent contribution to SEAL
(Support to Establish an Afghan Legislature),a UNDP program
for which France is the lead nation. The Senate and National
Assembly have already provided technical support and training
in both Kabul and in Paris, sponsored a delegation of women
parliamentarians to Paris, and hosted Yunus Qanooni,
Mujaddedi's counterpart in the lower house. Cauchard said
the Senate's goal is to help develop an orderly Afghan
parliament that passes laws effectively, respects the views
of all its members (particularly women and ethnic
minorities),and is sustained by a well trained corps of
civil servants. Further, the French Senate hopes to cement
an enduring friendship and collaboration with the Afghan
parliament.


4. (C) According to Sultan Bonyad, Charge at the Afghan
Embassy in Paris, Mujaddedi emphasized in all his meetings --
to the point of crowding out other issues -- his conviction
that Pakistan is behind most of Afghanistan's ills. He
claimed that Pakistan's intelligence agency (ISI) supported
and financed "90 percent" of Taliban forces in Afghanistan.
Mujaddedi further contended that Taliban and Al Qaeda forces
trained in Pakistan and then crossed the border "to kill your
(French) sons and our sons." Mujaddedi believes it is
inconceivable that ISI could operate without the full
knowledge and support of President Musharraf, Bonyad said.
The MFA was not impressed, according to Pierre Fournier,
Afghanistan desk officer at the MFA, who dismissed
Mujaddedi's arguments as "simplistic."


5. (C) Afghan Charge Bonyad claimed to us that, in response
to Mujaddedi's venomous criticism of Pakistan, the friendship
group's nine French senators said that if India, Uzbekistan
and Afghanistan made common cause in the U.N. to condemn
Pakistan, France would support them. "France is ready to
support peace and security in Afghanistan through the
framework of the UN," Bonyad quoted one unnamed French
senator as promising. (Note: Under France's constitution, it
is the executive, not the legislature, that has responsiblity
for the conduct of foreign affairs. End note.)


6. (C) For her part, Minister Girardin focused on France's
interest in three principal areas of Afghan reconstruction:
agriculture, public health and education. Military efforts
in Afghanistan were not discussed. Fournier described
Mujaddedi's meeting with Girardin as a disappointment in
comparison with the visit in October of Yunus Qanooni,
speaker of the lower house of Parliament, who engaged in a
wide-ranging and spirited debate with French Foreign Minister
Douste-Blazy on a range of issues facing Afghanistan
(reftel). As a side note, Fournier related that -- in what
was interpreted by the French more as theatrics than piety --
Mujaddedi interrupted his hour-long meeting with French
Minister Girardin twice in order to pray. From the Senate
perspective, Cauchard characterized Mujaddedi as "very
religious but with an element of moderation...a statesman."

Please visit Paris' Classified Website at:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm
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