October 12, 2005
NOTE: The following transcript is presented
in the language(s) in which it occurred. There is no translation
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Operator: Good morning and afternoon. My name is Marie-Eve and I will be your conference facilitator today. Welcome to the teleconference with the Honourable Bill Graham, Minister of National Defence. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker’s remarks, there will be a question and answer period. If you would like to ask a question during that time, please press star followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad. Due to time restrictions, only one question will be permitted per journalist. If time allows, follow-up questions will be entertained after all participants have had a chance to ask a question. Media are welcome to pose their questions in French and English. There is a possibility that during this teleconference we may temporarily lose our connection with this deployed operation. In that event, please stay on the line, await further instructions and we should be reconnected shortly.
Bonjour. Je m’appelle Marie-Ève et j’ai été désignée pour animer la conférence. J’aimerais tout d’abord vous souhaiter la bienvenue à la téléconférence de l’honorable Bill Graham, ministre de la Défense nationale. Toutes les lignes téléphoniques ont été coupées afin d’éviter que nous soyons dérangés. L’exposé du conférencier sera suivi d’une période de questions. Si vous souhaitez poser une question vous devrez tout d’abord appuyer sur la touche étoile suivie du numéro 1 de votre téléphone. Vous comprendrez que le temps nous est compté. Par conséquent, chaque journaliste devra s’en tenir à une seule question. Toutefois, advenant qu’il reste un peu de temps, nous passerons à une seconde ronde de questions. Les journalistes peuvent poser leur question en anglais ou en français. Il est possible que pendant cette téléconférence nous perdions la ligne. Dans ce cas, s’il-vous-plaît restez en ligne, attendez les instructions et nous reprendrons.
Thank you. Mr. Graham, you may begin your conference.
Hon. Bill Graham: Well, thank you very much. I’ll be short in my introduction. I think there’s been publicity about my trip here. As you know, I was in the Persian Gulf area, met with the crown prince of Abu Dhabi on my way to Afghanistan to meet with Afghan leaders and of course spend some time with our troops who are engaged in the difficult, challenging and important mission of moving from Kabul down to Kandahar where we presently have set up a PRT and where we will be transferring the focus of our operations early next year when we transfer approximately 1,400 of our men and women there to be actively engaged both in providing stability in the region and in reaching out to the people.
I have to say that from President Karzai who I met today, the defence minister, the foreign affairs minister, Dr. Abdullah, the rural development minister I have heard nothing but complimentary comments about the actions of our troops who, as they have all said, go out of their way to try and help people. I had a British general tell me at dinner last night how in fact our troops by their willingness to go and help others is actually an inspiration for other NATO troops in the region. So it is a great opportunity for me to meet the young men and women of our forces and to ascertain from them the challenges that they have in this mission and to understand better from the Afghan authorities what they expect of us as we move to Kandahar.
I’ll have more meetings tomorrow and then I will be leaving the area to go to Kiev on my way back to Canada where I will meet with the defence minister of Ukraine.
While we have been here of course there has been a great deal of talk about the terrible earthquake in Pakistan and I participated in a cabinet meeting by telephone in the middle of the night the other night when the decision was made to provide $20 million in relief to Pakistan and today Colonel Noonan who is the colonel commanding this base left with several of his fellow officers to go to Pakistan on a reconnoitring mission to determine exactly what are the necessary assets that might be sent to Pakistan. I know there’s been speculation about the possible use of the DART or other assets. This will give us an opportunity to ascertain whether -- what assets are needed and what Canada can contribute.
Donc en français je suis dans la région primordialement pour visiter nos troupes les leaders afghans pour déterminer les conditions de notre déploiement ici en Afghanistan. En venant ici j’ai passé par Abu Dhabi où j’ai pu rencontrer le prince, the crown prince, le prince principal. En plus, j’ai eu l’occasion ici à Kabul de rencontrer le ministre des Affaires étrangères, le président Karzai, le ministre de la Défense, ministre du développement rural. Et j’aimerais souligner que tous les Afghans auxquels j’ai pu parler ont insisté sur la contribution de nos troupes, à leur volonté de prendre des risques pour déterminer la stabilité ici en Afghanistan mais aussi pour venir à l’aide aux gens. Ils sont énormément appréciés et maintenant ils sont en train de faire le travail de démanteler la base ici à Kabul, Camp Julien, et faire le transfert pour Kandahar où nous avons établi un PRT pour le moment et où nous enverrons environ 1 400 troupes au mois de février prochain.
Évidemment les problèmes au Pakistan, le terrible tremblement de terre nous préoccupe énormément et j’ai pu assister par téléphone à une réunion du cabinet l’autre soir où nous avons décidé de fournir 20 millions de dollars pour les affectés en Pakistan. Et aujourd’hui le colonel commandant la base ici est parti avec des collègues pour une mission de reconnaissance au Pakistan pour déterminer quel est le genre d’aide que le Canada peut y apporter y inclu, le cas échéant, le DART qui est toujours disponible dans le cas où les gens veulent le déployer.
Donc si vous avez des questions, je suis prêt pour des questions.
Operator: This is the conference operator. I’d like to remind all participants that you may ask questions or make comments by pressing star followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad. Again, if you would like to ask a question, press star and the number 1. Ici l’opératrice. J’aimerais vous rappeler que vous pouvez poser une question ou faire un commentaire en appuyant l’étoile suivie du 1 sur votre clavier téléphonique. Encore, si vous voulez poser une question, appuyez l’étoile suivie du 1. Veuillez patienter un instant lorsque nous compilons les questions. Your first question comes from, votre première question vient de la part de Kathleen Harris from Sun Media.
Question: Hi, Minister. I was hoping you could just bring us up to date on the explosion outside the Canadian embassy in Kabul. And also given the recent explosions and the inherent dangers in the region do you still think it was wise to bring a delegation of sports celebrities and comedians to the region?
Hon. Bill Graham: Well, that obviously is very much General Hillier’s call. They are -- I do not know yet whether they are in the region. They are certainly not in the region at this time. I understand their departure was delayed but I can assure you that they would not be brought here under any circumstances where anybody would be -- lives would be put in danger. This is an opportunity for eminent Canadians to familiarize themselves with the nature of the mission here. It’s an opportunity for the troops to meet some of them. I got some enthusiastic comments from some of the troops this morning at breakfast about they’re looking forward to meeting them and I think it’s a great initiative. The attack on the embassy last night, frankly, I’ve discussed this with the authorities today and our own intelligence people are not of the view that this was an attack specifically on the Canadian embassy. This was a rocket which are launched from time to time in this region and which can land anywhere. They are not capable even of being directed at one specific target. They are very inaccurate weapons and are just launched as trouble-making. It was unfortunate it landed near the embassy. There were some minor injuries to a couple of the embassy guards but fortunately it landed outside the walls of the embassy and I do not believe that -- we do not believe that the Canadian embassy itself was specifically targeted. There was also an attack on the Norwegian camp last night but, again, our troops are managing this situation. They know how to deal with these situations and nobody will be put in a position where they’re in harm’s way.
Operator: Your next question comes from, votre prochaine question vient de la part de Chris Wattie, National Post.
Question: Minister, given the attack last night and last week’s attempted suicide bombing of a Canadian convoy in Kandahar do you feel that the -- particularly with the coming Canadian -- the increased presence in Kandahar do you feel that we can expect or that Canadians can expect more to be targeted by the elements in Afghanistan who are trying to destabilize the government or convince foreign troops to get out? Can we expect more of this sort of thing or more serious attacks on Canadians either in Afghanistan or even potentially in Canada?
Hon. Bill Graham: Well, thanks, Chris. I think there’s no question but that the mission in Kandahar is a much more dangerous mission than the one here in Kabul. We’ve always said that. We chose to put the PRT in Kandahar because we know that region, having been there before. But we were under no allusions that this would be an easy PRT. There are other places in the country where they are more stable. So our troops were ready and prepared to face the fact that they may have to face attacks. There’s also been an attack on a British unit, an American unit. And, as you know, when we move our troops to the Kandahar region they will be actively engaged in providing stability in the region and actually it will be more in the nature of a combat mission where they will be out looking for people who are doing exactly this type of thing to try and destabilize the country and they’ll be on the lookout for them. That’s going to be their job is to go out and meet them in the field and destroy them and destroy their capacity to attack our troops and to attack innocent Afghan people. So there’s no question but that is the nature of that mission and it will bring those consequences with it. We know from reports that have already been made some of our forces have already been engaged in that type of operation and we expect will be engaged in more. I do say, however, that discussions I’ve had with the authorities here and our members of our PRT is that they’re determined that when they’re in Kandahar they are going to be reaching out to the local people. They are there to provide governance help to the local governor and they will be making sure that they are able to do their job with the aid of the police, members of the PRT that we have in the region and our political officer that is there to give the type of local governance support, aid and police and security support that the PRT is designed to do. Will this lead to attacks on us? You know how we have analysed this very carefully in Canada. We know that Al-Qaeda has put us on a list. I do not believe that our being attacked in Canada in any way will be linked to we reach out to defeat the enemy where we have to meet it abroad to create stability in our own country. That will not lead to attacks. What we are doing here is trying to make sure that we will not be attacked in the future and we are engaged in that enterprise with our NATO allies and other countries who are all determined to do exactly the same thing. There are some 23 countries here in Kabul and around in this country providing troops here specifically with a view that we want to see this country stabilized so it won’t be a breeding ground for terrorists who will come and attack us at home.
Operator: Your next question comes from, votre prochaine question vient de la part de Marc Pépin, NTR.
Question: Oui. Bonjour, monsieur le ministre.
L’hon. Bill Graham: Oui.
Question: Monsieur le ministre, oui, j’aimerais vous entendre en français au sujet de l’incident qui s’est produit à l’ambassade du Canada à Kabul. Qu’est-ce qui vous fait croire qu’on ne visait pas spécifiquement l’ambassade canadienne et est-ce qu’il y a des mesures particulières qui vont être prises parce que j’imagine que l’ambassadeur qui n’est là que depuis peu doit se sentir très insécure à la suite de cet incident, non?
L’hon. Bill Graham: Comme j’ai expliqué en anglais, le type d’engin qui a touché dans la région de l’ambassade - ça a pas touché l’ambassade même si ça a touché le terrain à côté de l’ambassade - est un engin qui n’est pas capable vraiment d’être visé à des cibles spécifiques. C’est quelque chose qui est lancé par des gens dans une direction sans avoir exactement où ça va toucher. Pour vous donner un exemple, vous avez lu dans les journaux tout l’exemple de ce que les Palestiniens ont fait de Gaza vers les cibles israéliennes. C’est le même genre d’engin qui, franchement, n’est pas sophistiqué mais qui peut certainement causer des dommages. Donc cela nous mène avec les consultations avec les autorités afghanes y inclu le ministre de la Défense aujourd’hui et d’autres et nos propres troupes et les autres experts ici de l’OTAN qui sont dans la région sont tous d’accords qu’on ne peut pas du tout conclure que l’ambassade canadienne a été visée spécifiquement. C’était une attaque contre la ville de Kabul et ça a touché le terrain vers -- dans la région de l’ambassade. Et, comme je vous ai dit, il y avait une autre attaque dans la région d’un camp des Norvégiens hier soir aussi. Ces genres d’attaques arrivent ici dans la région. Est-ce que nous avons pris des mesures spécifiques? Oui. On a établi un cordon de sécurité autour de l’ambassade aujourd’hui juste au cas où on a envisagé une autre forme d’attaque contre l’ambassade et moi-même j’ai été aujourd’hui à l’ambassade pour plusieurs réunions. C’était bien sécuritisé et je suis confiant que les gens ont pris toutes les mesures nécessaires pour garantir la sécurité de l’ambassade et le personnel là. L’ambassadeur lui-même est en très bon état, très bonne morale aussi bien que tous les membres de l’ambassade qui tous m’ont dit on est là, nous faisons notre travail, nous sommes fiers du travail que nous faisons ici. On ne permettrait pas des gens comme ça d’interrompre notre travail.
Operator: Your next question comes from, votre prochaine question vient de la part de John Ward, Canadian Press.
Question: Good evening, Minister. Is there anything you can tell us, tell us more about Colonel Noonan’s reconnaissance mission, where he’s going, how long it will last, what kind of things he’s going to be looking at? And just by the way, are you calling from Kabul?
Hon. Bill Graham: Yes, I am, sir. Yes, I’m calling from Kabul and I’m calling from Camp Julien in Kabul where, as I said, I had meetings today with the president, the defence minister, foreign minister and the rural development minister. I’m having a dinner tonight and another meeting with the defence minister as we review how Canadians can contribute to the stability here in Afghanistan and particularly the nature of our mission in the south as we move towards that. And I can’t really give you much specifics, John, about Colonel Noonan’s mission. He did leave with several of his colleagues. He was mandated to go first to Islamabad which logically would be the place he would go. That’s where the embassy is and that’s where the capital of the country is. But from there he will be able to decide. He is the commander of this base but he’s also an engineer by training. He’s the perfect type of person to send to this type of mission. He’s going to be there for four days doing strategic reconnaissance. As I said, he’ll start in Islamabad but then he’s capable of going out to view and outlying areas to determine exactly what type of assistance we can provide and I think it’s great to have had him and his qualified personnel here in the region because they can get there more quickly than we could have from Canada and they’ll be able to advise us on the nature both the type of damage that’s there and what is the nature of the assets that we can provide to the affected in the region.
Operator: Your next question comes from, votre prochaine question vient de la part de Bruce Campion Smith, Toronto Star.
Question: Hello, Minister. Just a follow-up. Do you think it’s likely that elements of DART or all of DART will be deployed to Pakistan? And, if so, you know what the timing of that might be?
Hon. Bill Graham: Well, I can’t say, Bruce, that it is likely because, as you know, the DART is only deployed once we’ve determined if the country in question specifically wants that aspect and that the damage there is of the type that would be that the DART could respond to. We do know that we sent the DART to Turkey after the extent of damage suffered by an earthquake there. We know that the DART has remarkable unique capabilities in that it brings together the capability to produce large amounts of fresh water, has a clinical medical team with it that can give first aid responses and also has engineering capacity to help basically construction, clearing roads and things like that and, as you know from what it did in Sri Lanka it helped reestablish the schools and the local hospitals. So it could well be the type of asset that the Pakistani government will ask us for. If they do ask, I can tell you that the DART is now on notice and it can be pulled together very quickly and its airlift capabilities will be there and it can be moved if, as and when it’s asked for. But until it is asked for and until we’ve completed the initial reconnaissance I couldn’t say whether it’s going to be deployed or not.
Operator: Your next question comes from Tom Perry, CBC Radio.
Question: Hi, Minister. Just to follow up on that last question, have you secured airlift in case the DART is requested by Pakistani authorities?
Hon. Bill Graham: My understanding is that we have begun the process of securing airlift and by the time the DART would be ready to be moved if it were asked for we will have the airlift capacity there. We’ve always been able to do that and certainly we’re in the process of assuring that.
Operator: Your next question comes from, votre prochaine question vient de la part de Peter McCluskey, CBC Online.
Question: Minister, can you tell me about your meeting with President Karzai and senior ministers today? Did you discuss the increasing opium problem in Afghanistan and whether or not Canadian troops will have any role in containing the increasing drug problem in Afghanistan?
Hon. Bill Graham: Yes. Yes, Peter. We certainly did, both President Karzai, Defence Minister Wardak, myself and the other ministers that we’ve had an opportunity to meet with, in fact the rural development minister as well, we discussed the issue of the narcotic trade because we recognize that the growing of poppies here in Afghanistan and the narcotic trade that it’s associated with is at a point where it has serious consequences on the stability of the country, the capacity for corruption of local administrations, judges and others and this is a matter which we’ve discussed at NATO when I was there in Berlin recently and we always discuss it with our Afghan colleagues as well. I can tell you that our view for NATO forces point of view is that our job is to provide stability in the region so that the police can carry out police matters which basically are for in terms of the drug controls and having our local matters that local authorities have to carry out. However, that said, those local authorities are not in a position to act if they don’t have basic stability on the ground and security within the region and we will provide that basic security. The other thing we will try and provide through our development assistance, and here I had a very interesting meeting with the rural development minister and a group of about six NGOs today where we talked again about how we can help. We -- Canada is providing money for crop substitution, for programs to get farmers off poppy cultivation. This is extremely complicated. Many of them are indebted to the drug dealers and so they need financial help. They need not only crop substitution but they need a way to have an alternative life where they can approach this from a complete way of changing what they’re doing. And we have to work on that from a development point of view very strongly and I’ll bring this up with my colleague Aileen Carroll and I hope we can strengthen some of the programs we have here but I can assure you President Karzai discussed it. He’s conscious of it. Every official here in the country is conscious of what it means to the country and the need to eradicate the drug trade and we’re going to approach it not from the military position alone but from the point of view of development and how we can provide an alternative system of agriculture for the country.
Operator: Time allows for one final question. It comes from, il reste seulement du temps pour une question qui vient de la part de Stéphane Leclerc, Radio-Canada.
Question: Oui. Bonjour, monsieur Graham. Pour revenir à DART, l’équipe d’intervention en cas de catastrophe, je ne sais pas ce quel est le processus de décision, comment ça fonctionne. Mais est-ce que vous allez attendre d’avoir la demande officielle du pays avant de préparer les troupes ou les troupes vont être déjà prêtes à partir en attendant la décision du Pakistan?
L’hon. Bill Graham: Non, la DART est dans cette situation de semi-alerte à tous temps. Nous avons un noeud d’experts qui sont toujours là pour la DART et c’est pour eux le moment quand la demande est reçue de recueillir les autres forces nécessaires pour déployer la DART. Donc la capacité pour la DART est là, est prête. Nous avons déjà entamé les demandes en ce qui concerne la capacité de l’acheminer ici par les avions nécessaires mais, ceci dit, il y a deux étapes absolument essentielles avant de toujours de déployer la DART. D’abord c’est de déterminer si les conditions sur le terrain sont propices pour la DART, les capacités de la DART. Comme j’ai dit en anglais, la DART est un outil extraordinaire parce que c’est une combinaison rare d’une capacité de produire de l’eau potable, des soins médicaux de premier ordre, une certaine capacité de engineering pour reconstruction dans une zone dommagée et aussi sécurité dans la zone. Donc tout ça rend du DART un outil extraordinairement efficace comme nous avons démontré récemment en Sri Lanka. Mais, ceci dit aussi, c’est un outil militaire et il nous faut absolument la demande du pays en concerne parce qu’il y a pas un pays dans le monde qui veut avoir des troupes d’une force étrangère sur leur terrain sans avoir leur permission. Lorsque nous avons employé nos marins et nos troupes aux États-Unis pour Katrina évidemment c’était à la demande des Américains et avec la permission des Américains. On n’envoie pas des troupes canadiennes sur le sol américain sans avoir la permission, c’est évident. Mais c’est évident pour les autres pays aussi. Donc d’abord déterminer si les conditions sur le terrain demandent la nature de la capacité de la DART. Deuxièmement, est-ce que le pays est d’accord et nous avons la chance d’avoir le Colonel Noonan ici à Kabul qui est parti ce matin pour Islamabad. Il est déjà là avec ses collègues. Il peut faire la reconnaissance à Islamabad et dans la région -- les régions affectées hors Islamabad et faire un rapport très tôt à Ottawa pour savoir d’où on va ici.
Operator: This concludes the question and answer session. La période des questions est terminée. Mr. Bill Graham, do you have any closing remarks?
Hon. Bill Graham: No, again -- well, I’d just like to reemphasize for everybody there that the gratitude of the Afghan authorities and the Afghan people for what we’re doing here in Afghanistan on the one hand which is extraordinary. There’s a recognition by the Afghan authorities that Canada and Canadians are bringing something very special to this country in the way in which we go about delivering the help that we’re delivering and that thing that’s special really is the quality of our troops, our young men and women who are willing to risk their lives to go out and help others. And I have to say that being here as the defence minister and talking to them and being with them just reinforces my tremendous admiration for the work they do and my admiration for their professional competence both as soldiers but also people that are willing to help in any circumstance where they can get out and help others. So it’s something that I hope the Canadian people know just what an extraordinary achievement we are making here in Afghanistan and what an extraordinary group of young men and women we have that are acting on behalf of Canada and for us and what credit we are getting for it. Okay. Thank you very much.
Operator: Pictures of the minister’s visit to Afghanistan can be found on the National Defence website, http://www.forces.gc.ca/. That brings us to the end of our call. La conférence est maintenant terminée. Vous pouvez raccrocher les téléphones. Thank you.
