Afghan Leaders In Talks With The Taliban

by Yvonne Ridley

05/23/03 Afghan leader Hamid Karzai has held top secret talks with 
members of the former Taliban government. The dramatic move could 
see a return to power of some of the most senior members of the 
Taliban, once described by Tony Blair as the most evil, brutal 
regime in the world.   

However President Karzai praised the Taliban's "good elements and 
said the movement had done a "great service to our war torn country". 
The interim leader, who is becoming increasingly isolated, has lost all 
power and influence outside of the capital Kabul. However, news of his 
attempt to broker a peace deal with his old enemies is bound to cause 
shock waves across the world.  

The Taliban delegation was led by the former Health Minister Mullah 
Abbas who was last in the capital as British and American bombs 
rained down out the outbreak of war in October 2001. The meeting will 
certainly cause huge embarrassment to British Prime Minister Tony 
Blair who celebrated the demise of the Taliban so publicly after the fall 
of Kabul. Foreign Office officials said they were ''aware'' of the peace 
move but preferred to remain muted last night.  

Although it is quite clear President Karzai's initiative was done with 
the backing of the Bush Administration, White House spin doctors also 
remained unusually muted in their response to the meeting. A senior 
delegation of Taliban, led by Mullah Abbas, slipped in to Kabul for 
the top secret several days ago after being given assurances of their 
personal security as some are thought to be on America's "wanted" list. 

"President Karzai appeared to be delighted to see his old Pashtun 
adversaries in the room. There were a number of respected Afghan 
scholars also present just to try and keep things civilised in case 
old arguments got out of hand.  

"Karzai saluted some of the Taliban and said that their movement had 
done a great service for the country. It was a very tense, and at times 
emotional, meeting and one of many to come", a Taliban source told 
Globe-Intel. He said the interim leaders main bodyguards, all American, 
were kept outside of the meeting, adding: "It was just as well because 
while there was praise for the Taliban there were few good words for the 
United States."  

Since the Taliban regime was deposed in November 2001, a US-
dominated military coalition of 9000 troops remains, under orders 
to hunt Taliban and al-Qaeda members. Last week a pocket of Taliban 
fighters seized control of part of a district in southern Zabul 
province. American casualties have increased and 10 days ago two 
US servicemen were killed and five injured in a fire fight near the 
Pakistani border bringing the number of US dead to more than 80.  

An anti-American wave is also sweeping across the country because of 
the military presence and a series of US blunders which have led to 
the deaths of Afghan civilians. These include the death of 11 Afghan 
children who were killed when a laser guided missile hit their home in 
Bermil near the Pakistan border as revealed exclusively in the Sunday 
Express last month.  

US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, on a flying visit to 
Afghanistan last week, acknowledged there were "still pockets of 
resistance" but hinted that troops would be pulled out of the country 
next year. A source close to Hamid Karzai said: "The country is no 
more at peace now than it was a year ago, in fact in some ways we are 
even more fragile because good will which was given at the time of the 
Loya Jirga has now gone.  

"Our attempt to try and persuade 100,000 fighters to disarm and 
reintegrate them into the Afghan national army is failing because the 
regional warlords and local militias see it as a threat to their own 
power. "Unless we make a peace deal with the Taliban we have no hope 
of restoring Afghanistan and no chance of holding elections next year.   

The majority of the Afghan people are still suffering from food shortages, 
housing, and medical care problems." Continuing American military 
operations and political uncertainties are increasing tensions across 
the country which is becoming more unstable by the day. Poppy production 
for opium, which had been largely stamped out by the Taliban, is now 
back to its peak as farmers prepare to harvest their crops of death 
this week.  Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is understood 
to have approved of the meeting taking place. He is thought to be in 
hiding along the Pakistan border, but prospects of capturing him remain 
slim. Another Karzai aide commented after the first meeting:  

"He has his back to the wall. Karzai has failed to get a grip on the 
country and they (the Taliban) are the only ones who can hold anything 
together here. "He has to talk to them whether he likes it or not - he 
has no one to support him, all the warlords are against him and there are 
few of his ministers he can really trust. However there will be an adverse 
reaction among the ranks of the Mujaheddin, especially the Jamiat-e-Islami 
faction who were part of the former Northern Alliance. They will not see 
this as a meeting for reconciliation."  

Ahmed Wali Karzai, the Afghan president's brother, commented recently: 
"There have been no significant changes for people. People are tired 
of seeing small, small projects. I don't know what to say to people  
anymore."

                            -==-

Source: Information Clearinghouse ...
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3514.htm


Cheers, Steve..

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