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Afghanistan on its way to democracy: ambassador

By: Dan Lett

Posted: 06/24/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Canadian ambassador to Afghanistan Ron Hoffmann says Afghans do not support the Taliban. (JOE.BRYKSA@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)

Canada's outgoing ambassador to Afghanistan is leaving his post with full confidence that the troubled, war-torn country is on its way to becoming a high-functioning democracy.

Ron Hoffmann, a Winnipegger who grew up on Toronto Street in Winnipeg's core, said he sees real progress in Afghanistan that will pay dividends in the years to come. However, Hoffman warned that it's going to take some time for all the hard work to come to fruition.

"I'm very confident Afghans will prevail and they will prevail in large part because of the help provided by Canada," said Hoffmann, visiting family in Winnipeg.

For the past two years, Hoffman has helped run the Canadian embassy in Kabul; over the last year he has served as Canada's ambassador to Afghanistan. It was a gruelling 24 months, a blur of armed guards, bullet-proof glass and ramp ceremonies to send off fallen Canadian soldiers.

Hoffmann said it has become easy for the Canadian media covering Afghanistan to focus on the insurgency in the Kandahar region and miss out on the signs of progress and stabilization that exist in other parts of the country.

Hoffmann noted that there are 2,500 new army recruits each month, and that opinion surveys have shown a high-degree of support for the Afghan army, its political leaders and the international military force that is trying to sustain a delicate balance between a minority of extremely active insurgents and the gross majority of citizens who want only peace.

"Afghans do not support the Taliban," he said. "They do not support the insurgents. They don't want them back running this country. More and more Afghans, even in the conservative south, are turning their backs on the Taliban."

A graduate of the University of Manitoba and Carleton University, Hoffman has been posted previously to the Netherlands, South Africa, China, and before Kabul, London. He moves on from his current post to Bangkok, Thailand.

Hoffmann said he moves on with the knowledge that Canada's mission in Afghanistan will not end with the expected withdrawal of combat troops in 2011. Efforts to rebuild Afghanistan's democratic institutions, educational system and civilian police force will continue for some time to come, he added.

The mission in Afghanistan is proving to be a proving ground for Canada's unique approach to foreign aid and peace building, Hoffman noted. No longer satisfied with dropping peace keeping troops into a country and then withdrawing when the military threat had passed, Canada is showing other nations how to perform the slow, methodical work of rebuilding a society, he added.

"Our objectives will be met by 2011 but Afghanistan's nation building will not be completed by 2011," he said. "But I feel confident that Afghanistan will become and is rapidly becoming an independent sovereign state."

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 24, 2009 A7

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