9 September 2010 - SRSG Staffan de Mistura appeared on the BBC's programme, The Hub, on Wednesday to call on the religious group to not go ahead with its threat to burn copies of the Quran. 

GOWING: The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has added her voice to the Whitehouse condemnation of these plans by a small Evangelical church in Florida, to burn copies of the Quran on Saturday; that’s the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York City. This echoes the warnings from the top US commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Petraeus that the burning will inflame emotions and endanger US troops abroad. Well the pastor who runs this church says the plan for the burning has not changed. Let’s get another view from Afghanistan, live to Kabul and Staffan de Mistura, UN special envoy to Afghanistan, Mr. de Mistura, we’ve heard from the Whitehouse we’ve heard from the US Secretary of State and the US military commander. What voice are you adding? And what is your assessment if this burning of the Quran does go ahead?

DE MISTURA: The voice I’m adding is the voice on behalf of all UN staff in Afghanistan, who are 1,000 foreigners and 6,000 Afghans, and thousands and thousands members of the international community; think about it. And I would like to be able, if they were listening to us, to talk to these people who are planning to do this type of thing. Think about this, more than 200,000 foreigners are here in Afghanistan. We’re working hand in hand with millions of Afghans, who are moderate, who are believing anyway in a religion that we should be respecting, and the threat of destroying and burning the holy Quran, not only 9/11, but on the very time of the end of Ramadan. That could be terrible. Now this has nothing to do with freedom of expression. Freedom of expression cannot be just the freedom of offending one billion people in the world who believe in Islam.

GOWING: What kind of, dare I say; I know in the United Nations you don’t talk about intelligence; but what kind of information from the ground are you getting. Are there people aware of this, who feel deeply upset if this does go ahead?

DE MISTURA: If this goes ahead, particularly in coincidence with this type of very special religious activities, in the whole Islamic world, i.e. the end of the Ramadan, the Eid, well we could have terrible consequences. Now we are here to try to stabilize the country, Afghanistan. We are here to try to show that we respect their culture, we respect their tradition and we respect their religion, and we are actually fighting against the extreme side of any part. Now this group of people would be the best allies of the Taliban if they do that, and I hope if they put their hands on their hearts they will not want to do that.

GOWING: How are you handling this given your deep concerns? Here we’re talking in English on an international television channel, but of course most people in Afghanistan get there message through radio. Now, what is the balance of judgment you’re having to make about mentioning this case, but also reassuring at the same time?

DE MISTURA: I have just done that two hours ago, I addressed all the radios and televisions in Afghanistan, and issued a press release, both in Dari and in Pashto, telling them that we are outraged at the very idea that the international community the thousands and thousands of people, men and women who are here in Afghanistan, are condemning the very idea of trying to do so. That the culture needs to be respected and that we are feeling that that would be terrible. At the same time we are also believing that our work would be damaged, not only ours but the ones of many Afghans who are working with us. I had a reaction from them that they understood that we feel totally differently and that we are in fact going to be as offended and damaged as the Afghans would be in that took place.

GOWING: Staffan de Mistura, head of the UN mission, thank you very much indeed for joining us live from Kabul in Afghanistan.