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2 Giving peace a chance in
Afghanistan By Syed Saleem
Shahzad
KARACHI - Since chasing the
Taliban out of Afghanistan in 2001, the United
States' efforts to stabilize the country have
ranged from hard military options, to trying to
establish a democratic government, to courting
"moderate" Taliban.
The combined outcome
has been less than successful, with the Taliban
controlling large areas of the country and gaining
strength - and popularity. With the Republican
administration of US President George W Bush keen
to settle this troublesome South
Asian theater before next
year's presidential elections, Washington has now
devised a two-pronged approach.
On the one
hand it has indicated that it will not hesitate to
attack directly Taliban and al-Qaeda bases in
Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan if it sees
fit, although this is a controversial matter and
carries with it the dangers of severe backlash.
At the same time, Washington and its key
ally in the "war on terror", Pakistan, are
promoting an unprecedented large-scale interaction
among tribal elders, Islamic clerics, politicians,
journalists and leaders from Pakistan and
Afghanistan in the form of a three-day
jirga (council), which opens in Kabul on
Thursday.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai
and Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf
will open the event, which will be attended by
more than 700 people. For centuries, the region
has relied on jirgas among tribes to settle
problems. But this will be the first time that
neighboring tribal elders have come together for
talks on the growing violence in both Afghanistan
and Pakistan.
The underlying aim of the
event is to share information about the militancy.
"It is a traditional tool that will be used to ban
support and hideouts for terrorists in their
regions," said an Afghan Foreign Ministry
spokesman.
"The jirga will find the
roots of terrorism, the elements of insecurity and
the sanctuaries for terrorists, their means of
financial and other support. It will seek ways to
tackle the problems," the spokesman said.
A Pakistani Interior Ministry spokesman
was reading from the same script when he said the
meeting would look at factors behind the growth of
militancy and come up with a strategy to combat
terrorism through cooperation. Promotion of
people-to-people contacts will also be discussed.
Significantly, though, the Taliban will
not be formally represented, although they are
sure to monitor developments through proxies.
Elders from the North Waziristan and South
Waziristan tribal areas in Pakistan - where the
Taliban have a deeply entrenched presence - also
will not formally attend. The Taliban have called
for a boycott of the talks.
Unlike
previous jirgas that only aimed to bring
peace to Afghanistan, this one is focused on all
Pashtun areas, that is, on both sides of the
porous Durand Line that separates Afghanistan and
Pakistan and which Pashtuns have never recognized
as an official border anyway.
After
Thursday's inauguration, the jirga members
will be divided into seven different committees
that will then forward recommendations to the main
jirga, and a joint declaration will the be
adopted. A permanent commission will be set up to
monitor - and try to ensure - implementation of
the decisions adopted in the declaration.
Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao will head
the 350-member Pakistani delegation, while Pir
Syed Said Ahmad Gilani, the jirga's
chairman, will lead the Afghan members.
Interestingly, the Pakistani delegation includes
no women, while the Afghan one has several,
including members of Parliament and provincial
councils. The Pakistani delegation is made up
entirely of Pashtuns, while the Afghan list
includes non-Pashtuns.
This whole
Washington-sponsored exercise is aimed at a
broader regional political resolution of the
problems in the Pashtun lands in which the Taliban
and al-Qaeda operate. There is a clear realization
that any military or political solution has to
include the Pakistani Pashtun lands.
As a
result, Washington has encouraged the
participation of previously marginalized
sub-nationalist, secular Pakistani Pashtun
elements in the broader regional jirga
process. Under US prodding, the Awami National
Party (ANP) and the Pashtoonkhwo Milli Awami Party
(PMAP) have joined to form the Pashtoonkhwah
National Democratic Alliance, with Senator
Asfandyar Wali Khan as is its chairman. The ANP
and PMAP historically opposed the creation of
Pakistan.
The ANP is a left-leaning and
secular party whose ideology was influenced by the
former Soviet Union. The PMAP derives its strength
from Pashtun nationalism, and most of its support
comes from the Pashtun areas of Balochistan
province.
This is the first time since the
fall of Mohammad Najibullah's communist Afghan
government in 1992 that Pakistani Pashtun
sub-nationalists have been officially invited to a
jirga in Kabul.
The revival of
these groups is seen as a counterfoil to the
religious forces (read Taliban and al-Qaeda) on
both sides of the border, and as a ready force to
fill the vacuum once these religious elements have
been broken militarily by Pakistan, the US or a
combination of both.
Washington is
believed to have identified at least nine areas in
Pakistan where the Taliban and al-Qaeda have a
strong foothold from where they operate inside
Afghanistan. They are likely to be attacked sooner
rather than later.
Pakistan has
consistently argued that such an action would
provoke an adverse mass reaction. Washington tried
to resolve this problem by successfully
encouraging Musharraf to talk with
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