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SPEAKING FREELY
A chance for redemption in Afghanistan
By Sharif Ghalib
has to do with the border dispute over the Durand Line, that separates the two
countries, then the two countries must demonstrate mutual sincerity, political
maturity and the guts to hold serious negotiations under the supervision of the
international community and by holding a referendum and/or national plebiscite
in the two nations aimed at bringing the issue to a peaceful resolution.
Pakistan has generously been given the benefit of doubt over its
activities in Afghanistan for decades, and clearly the time has come that the
international community must deal with Pakistan firmly and resolutely and make
the junta halt its overt and covert support for the insurgency in Afghanistan,
end cross-border militant incursions and verifiably dismantle all terrorist
camps inside Pakistan. Otherwise, as Karzai has emphatically said, the
international community must take the war to the actual sources of terrorism.
Secondly, the selective mindset and duplicitous methodology of the
international community towards the dynamics of the political setup and the
overall process will have to change.
With much of the security situation in shambles, the international community
has reached a critical juncture to embrace an inclusive, balanced approach
toward all moderate peaceful political forces across Afghanistan. In this
context, the international community must recognize that when it joined the
theater of the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan in late 2001, it was
virtually half a decade after it had started and was being waged in full swing
by the indigenous Afghan national resistance forces comprising all ethnic
groups of the country with enormous sacrifices.
The international community must rise to the opportunity, now and before it is
too late, and reach out to all forces, those loyal to the government, to the
constitution and the overall process, willing and capable to render their
sincere services as part of the methodical state apparatus and in the spirit of
national unity to sway, motivate and rally the general public around the
democratically-elected government of Karzai, aimed at breaking the cycle of
terror and violence and providing an environment for the vital rehabilitation,
reconstruction and development of the county.
And finally, the international community must work cohesively and in close
collaboration with the government of Afghanistan, including the country's
elected Parliament, with due transparency, in its bid to pursue negotiations
with all those rank-and-file combatants who are willing and ready to lay down
their arms, break with their past and come to the political fold in good faith
and without any preconditions with the sole aspiration to re-integrate into
society and pursue a peaceful life.
The international community must strictly adhere to its commitments and
obligations to the inviolability of the sovereignty of the elected government
of Afghanistan and the sanctity of its constitutional duties before the Afghan
nation in dealing with the state affairs.
Indeed, the situation in Afghanistan requires a review. But a review must
sanction fresh perspectives and an altered modus operandi to lead us to the
desired end.
Sharif Ghalib served at the United Nations for 10 years, and was the
first Afghan diplomat to negotiate the establishment of full bilateral
diplomatic and consular relations between Afghanistan and Canada at
resident-embassy level. He opened the Embassy of Afghanistan in Ottawa in late
2002 and served as the country's charge d'affaires and minister counselor until
2005.
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