Karzai defends prisoners' release
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai has defended a Cabinet decision to release about 200 prisoners from Afghan jails, despite the possibility some may be terrorists.
The prisoners were being held without a trial, following the U.S.-led Afghan War, which began after the September 11, 2001, attacks, according to the newly elected president.
A human rights report from the United Nations indicated that holding the prisoners was "very bad," he told CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour.
"I put that to the Cabinet and we decided for humanitarian reasons to release them all," he said..
"Now, if out of 200 or 300 people one or two of them have said that they will fight back, it's only natural and possible. We're not bothered with that.
"The majority of those people were people that went back to their homes and have resumed their lives as citizens of this country. The two or three who have made those statements will be considered terrorists, and if they come across us again, we'll arrest them and put them in jail again."
The U.S. military launched the war in Afghanistan to rout the Taliban regime, which was harboring al Qaeda terrorists.
"In my opinion, and also in the opinion of many, many Afghans, events in Afghanistan has proven that terrorism has no place in here, that it's defeated, that it's gone," Karzai said.
However, three U.N. workers were kidnapped in Afghanistan in late October.
According to the Arab TV network Al-Jazeera, the militants holding them threatened to kill them unless the United Nations pulled out of the nation.
The captors also demanded the release of Afghan and non-Afghan prisoners in Afghanistan and at the naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Karzai said Afghans were angry over the kidnappings, and some volunteered to be taken hostage in their places.
"We're working very hard to have the safe and secure release of the U.N. workers."
Karzai did not say whether the prisoner release was part of any deal to get the workers released.
"I can't go into the specifics, obviously," he said.
Last week, Karzai, who had been serving as president, was declared the winner of Afghanistan's first direct presidential election with 70 percent of the vote.
Asked Tuesday how he would secure the countryside, Karzai said he would keep warlords who deal in Afghanistan's lucrative opium trade out of the government.
"Warlordism and private militias will not be tolerated at all. They'll have to go away," he said.
"They run counter to the making of the Afghan state. So will be the case with narcotics. Narcotics will have to go away from Afghanistan."
