Kabul, November 16: Afghan political activist Malalai Joya has said that Canadian troops must leave Afghanistan.
Joya just wrapped up a US tour, and began a two-week tour of Canada on Friday.
Canada must pull its soldiers out of Afghanistan and let the people of the war-torn nation overthrow the “corrupt Mafia system” that has been allowed to rule, she told The Times Colonist in a telephone conversation from Vancouver on November 14 that was published in the November 15 edition of the daily newspaper based in Victoria, British Columbia.
She called for the speedy exit of all international troops from her country, saying that is the only way Afghanistan can find peace.
Joya urged the Canadian government to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan and allow the Afghan people to resolve their problems themselves.
“No nation can deliver liberation by occupation,” she added.
“It is much easier [for the Afghan people] to fight one enemy instead of two,” noted Joya in reference to the Taliban militants and international forces on the ground.
“The situation will be more black, with more disaster … to come should foreign forces remain on Afghan soil,” she continued.
In response to the recent statements of Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay, who had said that Karzai’s recent re-election would help stabilize the country before Canadian troops withdraw in 2011, she said that after the “most fraudulent election in the world,” Afghans have little hope of achieving true democracy under his reign.
Canadians should “help us financially to provide education support and support for the voiceless people of my country,” she suggested.
The 31-year-old political activist also criticized US President Barack Obama for his plan to deploy more soldiers to Afghanistan, calling his war policies worse than those of his predecessor, George W. Bush.
Joya was scheduled to speak at the University of Victoria on November 15.
Malalai Joya was the youngest person elected to the Afghan parliament in 2005. Two years later, she was expelled from parliament for criticizing the warlords, who she says remain in control of the US-backed Kabul government.
In Afghanistan, she must pay for armed guards to protect her 24 hours a day and must sleep in a different location every night because of the numerous death threats she has received from the warlords.
But despite her difficulties, Malalai Joya refuses to back down.
She says she is doing the current speaking tour of Canada to try to convince Canadians that their country must withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
—–Agencies