Afghan President Hamid Karzai has urged former
members of the hardline Taliban to participate in
elections and reconstruction efforts. He made the offer
during a weekend visit to the southern Afghan city of
Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold.
"If the
rest of the people - Taliban or non-Taliban, especially
those in the Taliban - want to come and live in this
country, if they want to work and farm here, they are
most welcome. This is their country, their home. Our
dispute is only with those who destroy Afghanistan, who
blow bombs and who, with the support of foreigners,
bring destruction here," Karzai said.
The Afghan
leader said only a few hardcore members of the Taliban
group are unworthy of rehabilitation. "Our problem is
mainly with the top Taliban - who may number no more
than 150 people - who had links with al-Qaeda," said
Karzai, referring to Osama bin Laden's terrorist
network. "Those people are the enemies of Afghanistan,
and we are against them."
It appears the United
States, which helped sweep the Taliban from power in
late 2001, supports Karzai's call for the reintegration
of former members of the group into the Afghan society.
On April 20, US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad
reportedly said he favored amnesty for all but the worst
members of the old government - those who had allied
themselves with the terrorists and committed crimes
against humanity.
Karzai's two-day visit to
Kandahar province took place under tight security
measures. On April 25, authorities said they arrested a
man who was allegedly preparing to throw a bomb at the
president's passing convoy. Karzai has already survived
an assassination attempt in Kandahar in September 2002.
The security situation in Afghanistan has
worsened in recent months, especially in the south. On
Monday, the United Nations said because of several
attacks it had temporarily suspended activities,
including registering voters, in Kandahar province.
Vikram Parekh, an expert on Afghanistan for the
International Crisis Group, said Karzai's trip to
Kandahar and his overtures to the Taliban are attempts
to defuse opposition to the elections scheduled for
September.
"I think with the elections coming
up, with the registration rate still being lower in the
south and east of Afghanistan than they are in the north
and in the center, [Karzai] may have concluded that this
would be one way of defusing intimidation or opposition
to the process in areas that have been Taliban
strongholds. It may also be a continuation of efforts
that were apparent even during the constitutional
loya jirga [tribal council] to bring [opponents]
into the political process," Parekh said.
There
has been no reaction so far from the Taliban to Karzai's
call. Karzai said his government has been negotiating
for several months with less radical members of the
Taliban. He did not reveal their identities or any
further details.
Parekh said that in his view,
however, it is unlikely that any Taliban member trying
to disrupt the political process would react positively
to Karzai's call.
"I think the insurgency is led
by a very limited number of Taliban, figures like Mullah
Abdullah, Mullah Baradar. And this type of offer, I
don't think it's going to be of interest to them. I
think they've staked out their position as rejecting the
international presence here, rejecting the Bonn
political process and as far as the insurgency goes, I
think that's going to continue. I mean you continue to
see improvised explosive devices planted, [and] ambushes
on international targets [and] NGOs. I think the people
who are leading these operations are not interested in
the political process," Parekh said.
The
elections, which were postponed in June because of
security concerns, are due to be held in September. So
far only about one-fifth of the 10 million eligible
voters have been registered for the ballot.
Copyright (c) 2004, RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted
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