Karzai reconciliation plan may just work

by Mai Hien

The prospect of a peaceful and stable Afghanistan has been raised with a plan for reconciliation with the Taliban.

The proposal – revealed by President Hamid Karzai at an international conference in London last week – would have those Taliban willing to renounce violence provided with jobs and money.

The president also called on the militants to participate in a "loya jirga" or a large assembly of elders – as a prelude to peace talks.

The Coalition of the Willing and the United Nations immediately supported the plan.

Participants at the conference promised to establish a trust fund to finance the reintegration project with US$140 million for the first year.

"We expect a lot of the foot soldiers on the battlefield will be leaving the Taliban because many of them have wanted to leave," AFP quoted US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton as saying.

"We believe the tide has turned against them."

The initiative is best interpreted as the result of the failure of Washington's Afghanistan strategy.

The country was made the front line of its war on terror after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

But since then, security in Afghanistan hasn't improved, it's worsened.

On January 18, Taliban insurgents infiltrated Kabul to attack government and commercial buildings. They detonated explosives and fought soldiers and police in the streets.

Their assault both highlighted the weakness of Afghanistan's security forces and proved that the militants remain a threat.

Once restricted to their southern heartland, the Taliban have now spread north and west, and are reported to maintain parallel administrations in 33 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces.

"The Taliban have a growing influence in most of Afghanistan's provinces, and the border area between the country and Pakistan remains the epicenter of global terrorism," Joint Chief of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen has told Congress.

More money

On Monday, President Barack Obama asked Congress for $33 billion in supplementary funding this year to pay for the troop surge in Afghanistan and for $159 billion for the 2011 defence budget to pay for to for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The president announced his decision to deploy an extra 30,000 troops in Afghanistan to reinforce the almost 70,000 – not counting thousands of private contractors – already stationed there on December 1.

The deployments are part of a plan to start the withdrawal of some US troops in July next year.

The effort of the US and its allies to accelerate the preparation of Afghan forces to assume responsibility for security were discussed at a NATO meeting in Istanbul yesterday.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are estimated to have cost $1 trillion since 2001.

The latest figures show that 980 American soldiers were among the 1,622 foreign troops killed in Afghanistan since then.

The presence of the US and its allies has neither brought peace to Afghanistan nor led to the capture of Osama bin Laden.

Instead, civilian deaths, including those as the result of air attacks – many by unmanned drones – have increased sentiment against the occupiers.

Precise figures of Afghan deaths are not available but as many as 2,412 civilians probably died in war-related violence last year.

Impossible

President Karzai's peace initiative confirms that a military solution in Afghanistan is impossible.

Most Afghans want the government to seek reconciliation with the Taliban despite the difficulty of the task.

The contradiction between the Taliban's determination to topple a government that it sees as illegitimate and drive out the "invaders" against the Afghan government's goal of their elimination with the help of foreign troops seems almost irreconcilable.

And while the president has said he is willing to welcome any militants who renounce violence and recognise the constitution, it will not be easy for him to find Taliban with whom to negotiate.

Negotiating with the Taliban is not a new idea. Karzai has regularly offered talks but their chief, Mullah Mohammed Omar, has always set the withdrawal of international troops as a precondition for any negotiations.

President Karzai labels the demand unrealistic.

Nevertheless, some reconciliation is essential to ending the war.

Powers have recognised the Taliban as part of Afghanistan's "political fabric". The creation of peace will require a comprehensive approach with the participation of countries such as India, Pakistan, Iran and Russia.

The eight years of conflict shows that the people of Afghanistan are the key to success and only they can bring about lasting national reconciliation.

Perhaps President Karzai's initiative will prove a beginning. — VNS