Former President Hamid Karzai says freedom of expression has been under threat over the past three years, calling on the international community to raise its voice in support of freedom of speech in Afghanistan, as it is one of the major gains of the presence of international community in the past two decades.
Speaking at a press conference in Kabul on Monday, Karzai claimed that people who raised their voices for support of peace in the country in light of freedom of expression had been directly threatened in the recent past.
“People with dissenting voices have been recently threatened, wounded, even killed,” Karzai said referring to the killing of a prominent political analyst Wahid Muzhdah in Kabul last week.
He said Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, former Taliban ambassador to Islamabad, was the first public figure persecuted.
“Some political analysts have been threatened with death after their appearance in some TV shows,’ he said.
He termed the free speech as the foundation of the new Afghanistan, warning all the rest of the gains will go in vain if it is silenced.
“If free speech is threatened, Afghans are deprived of an important right and they need to defend their right,” Karzai said.
The former president also said he would not participate in a planned peace dialogue in China, due to opposition by the incumbent president Ashraf Ghani.
“They thought that national reconciliation government would be discussed in China meeting and I don’t want to attend the meeting while Ghani has worries,” Karzai said.
Referring to presidential election which faces a deadlock, Karzai warned that the country was heading toward a political crisis, urging President Ghani “to rethink the situation.”
He said that the low turnout in the presidential election suggested peace was the top priority for Afghans.
Concerns over the freedom of expression are rising as at least three public figures and political analysts have been attacked in Kabul recently, with one killed and another wounded.
