Afghan President Hamid Karzai tells RFE/RL
that he has long advocated talking to moderate
elements within the Taliban but that the
international community is only now endorsing and
supporting that view.
"During my eight
years in office and until today, I have constantly
spoken in favor of holding talks with the Taliban
and conducting peace talks with the Taliban,"
Karzai said.
"Until last year, we lacked
support from the United States, other Western
governments, and NATO [North Atlantic Treaty
Organization], and we had
differences over this issue,'' he added. "Luckily,
the Americans did agree and accepted our policy.
The conference in London was held to confirm that
policy, and we hope that we will be together in
its application. We hope that we will execute that
policy in cooperation."
Karzai spoke to
RFE/RL on the sidelines of the January 28
international conference on Afghanistan in London.
Peace talks At the conference,
Karzai set the framework for dialogue with the
Taliban by calling on the Islamist group's
leadership to take part in a loya jirga (a
large assembly of elders) to initiate peace talks.
Reuters news agency reported that the
Taliban reached out to the United Nations'
representative to Afghanistan three weeks ago to
discuss the idea. Members of the group's
leadership council, the Quetta shura, met
secretly with Kai Eide to talk about the
possibility of a meeting with Kabul, according to
a UN official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Karzai said the idea to meet with members
of the Taliban reflects his long-held belief that
ending the US-led war would always require more
than a military solution.
"Now, on our way
towards peace and stability, we believe that
military action alone can't secure Afghanistan. So
we initiated a peace process and negotiations with
all our Afghan brothers, no matter with whom they
are connected - the Taliban, Hizb-e Islami, or
other groups - but only those who are not related
to al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups and those
not holding any extreme ideology against their own
land and the world community," he said.
"[We will talk to] those who recognize
Afghanistan's constitution and are interested in
Afghanistan's security. We want them back in our
society," Karzai added.
Kabul's peace
initiative comes as Western powers involved in the
Afghanistan conflict are turning up the pressure
on Kabul to make progress that will allow them to
begin withdrawing combat troops.
Ready
to take over At the London conference,
leaders and ministers from more than 60 countries
gathered to talk about the way forward, emerging
with an agreement that Afghan forces should take
the lead role in providing security in several
provinces by late this year and early next.
The Afghan leader said he had tried to
deliver the message that the Afghan people are
ready and willing to accept responsibility for
their country's security and future.
"The
London conference was organized according to an
Afghan agenda," he said. "Our aim here was to make
sure all major efforts related to Afghanistan's
future developments, security in Afghanistan and
region, and the fight against terror - as far as
what happens within Afghanistan's territory and
related to Afghans - should be organized through
Afghans, by Afghans, and under their leadership
and by the Afghan government," he said.
The conference also agreed that a fund
should be established to pay low-level Taliban
fighters to leave the insurgency and support the
democratically elected government.
Taliban buy-out? Karzai told
RFE/RL that the Taliban has successfully turned
"thousands" of Afghans against their own country
and that regaining their loyalty has become a
priority.
"A very important point here is
that we know that there are thousands of our
country folk in the hands of others and being used
by others against their own land,'' he said.
"These are people who have been deprived of their
societies, villages, and homes as a result of our
own mistakes, mistakes that have been committed by
the international community, NATO, US troops, and
others.
"We especially want the huge
numbers of young people to come back home. We want
to provide them with opportunities and for them to
live in accordance and under the guidance of
Afghanistan's constitution," Karzai added.
On January 29, a spokesman for the Taliban
said the group's leaders would decide "soon"
whether to join peace talks.
Prior to this
latest outreach effort, the Taliban repeatedly
said negotiations with the Afghan government could
only take place when foreign troops had completely
withdrawn from Afghanistan.
Some 110,000
NATO-led troops are in Afghanistan, including
70,000 Americans.
Karzai won a small
victory on January 25 when a UN Security Council
committee removed five former senior Taliban
members from its list of individuals facing
sanctions over their links to a terrorist
organization. Karzai had sought their removal as
part of his reconciliation plan.
The UN
said in a statement that the five would no longer
be subject to international travel bans and asset
freezes.
Afghans only One of
those removed from the list is former Taliban
foreign minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, who spoke
to RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan in Kabul on
January 29 about the plan to invite Taliban
members for peace talks.
"I think it is
very important that all sides, Afghans,
foreigners, and the Taliban, consider the idea of
peace and take specific actions to lead us toward
peace," Muttawakil said.
"Both sides
should give up on setting conditions and start the
dialogue from simple positions. Directions must be
identified. The opposition party's security should
be guaranteed regarding the so-called black list,
prisoners, and sanctions. I think, even it is not
an easy task, but it is achievable through
negotiations, dialogue, and understanding,'' he
added.
Muttawakil said he wasn't sure the
idea of buying off lower-level fighters would
work.
"As far the effectiveness of
involving money in this process, I look at it as
an issue of suspicion, and it is controversial,"
he said. "First, corruption is something that the
current administration in Afghanistan cannot
simply deny. It is also lacking in ability."
"On the other hand," he added, "[the
international community] in the past were making
promises of huge amounts of money, but they don't
fulfill those promises, which are forgotten."
Above all, if peace talks are to succeed,
foreigners must be kept out, Muttawakil said. "Now
is the time for an Afghani experience."
(RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan
contributed to this report.)
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