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Karzai Names Peace Panel for Taliban Negotiations
By CARLOTTA GALL
KABUL, Afghanistan — Repeating his determination to find a peaceful solution to the war, President Hamid Karzai named a 70-member peace council on Tuesday, a long-awaited announcement that was the government’s first concrete step to open formal contacts with the Taliban.
The American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David H. Petraeus, indicated support for the reconciliation process on Monday and said high-level members of the Taliban had already reached out to the government.
But some immediately dismissed Mr. Karzai’s council as unworkable, given that its membership was dominated largely by anti-Taliban figures.
While a handful of influential people from the former Taliban government have been included, the council is heavily weighted with many of the same factional leaders who have dominated the wars and politics of the past 30 years, and who have been fighting the Taliban for half that time.
Mr. Karzai also named at least eight women. Their appointment signaled the government’s intention to preserve the women’s rights guaranteed in the Constitution, but they are unlikely to have any influence with the Taliban.
The government defended the nominations, saying the council needed a broad range of powerful people. The council will have the authority to develop existing contacts and open direct negotiations with the Taliban and other armed foes, said the presidential spokesman, Waheed Omer.
“They will keep the president in the picture — it is his initiative — but they are very powerful people and will proceed as they see fit,” Mr. Omer said. The council will choose its own leader and way of operating. “The structure is such that in many ways they will have the authority and mandate to act,” he said.
Mr. Karzai has been calling for talks with the Taliban for months, and has gradually won the support of the United States and NATO for his plan. People close to the president say he has largely lost confidence in the ability of coalition forces to defeat the insurgency and is tentatively seeking his own course.
The extent of his concern about the failing war effort was displayed on national television on Tuesday when he burst into convulsive sobs during a speech to mark national literacy day at a Kabul high school.
He said he feared that the war would force his 3-year-old son, Mirwais, to leave the country and grow up a refugee. “I want him to go to school here,” Mr. Karzai said. “I swear to God I’m worried, I’m worried, oh people, I’m worried. God forbid Mirwais should be forced to leave Afghanistan,” he said, according to Agence France-Presse.
Supporters of peace talks welcomed the formation of the council as a first step and said it could work despite the preponderance of people opposed to the Taliban.
“These are faces from the jihad, the resistance, and from the Taliban, and they will have to resolve it,” said Hajji Abdul Baqi Raghbat, leader of the tribal affairs department in Kandahar Province, homeland of the Taliban. “These are the most famous people, and if not them, I don’t know who else there is.”
“The most important thing is that there is willingness and freedom from both sides to move towards peace talks,” Hajji Raghbat said. “The Taliban are outside the country, and they have to show their willingness,” he said, a reference to the Taliban leadership who are widely believed to live in Pakistan.
The council members would not do the actual negotiation, but would appoint smaller commissions of neutral mediators to approach the Taliban and bring back their answers, according to a lawmaker, Hajji Musa Khan Hotak, who has long supported talks with the Taliban.
Government officials say there has been an increase in contacts with Taliban members and signals from them since the government held a peace gathering in Kabul in June. A Western diplomat confirmed that some people had approached the government claiming to represent Taliban leaders, but said that it was not yet clear if they were genuine.
Former members of the Taliban government, including Maulavi Arsala Rahmani, who was the Taliban minister of higher education and is now a senator, say that Taliban leaders know that they cannot win the war and that the time is ripe for negotiation. “No one will win this war,” Mr. Rahmani said. “When the Taliban were in power they still could not control the whole country, and they know that.”
Yet others close to members of the Taliban leadership council say their stance remains resolutely opposed to negotiations while they are increasingly confident that the foreign troops will tire and leave in the coming years, handing them a victory.
Some also question whether Mr. Karzai and the people around him are really prepared to make the necessary concessions to make peace with the Taliban. Ministers interviewed in recent months supported the peace process publicly but privately said the Taliban had to be defeated.
Referring to Mr. Karzai, Martine van Bijlert, a director of the independent Afghan Analysts Network, said: “He is not interested in substantial talks. His position towards the Taliban is, ‘You can join me, you can surrender to our side.’ This means there is little appetite to listen to and address some of the real grievances. At the same time there is a real danger that the process will just be a gathering of yet more commanders.”
In Ghazni, a province south of Kabul, the deputy governor, Khazim Allayar, was killed by a suicide car bomber on Tuesday, along with four others, the Interior Ministry said.
Ruhullah Khapalwak and Sharifullah Sahak contributed reporting.
By CARLOTTA GALL
KABUL, Afghanistan — Repeating his determination to find a peaceful solution to the war, President Hamid Karzai named a 70-member peace council on Tuesday, a long-awaited announcement that was the government’s first concrete step to open formal contacts with the Taliban.
The American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David H. Petraeus, indicated support for the reconciliation process on Monday and said high-level members of the Taliban had already reached out to the government.
But some immediately dismissed Mr. Karzai’s council as unworkable, given that its membership was dominated largely by anti-Taliban figures.
While a handful of influential people from the former Taliban government have been included, the council is heavily weighted with many of the same factional leaders who have dominated the wars and politics of the past 30 years, and who have been fighting the Taliban for half that time.
Mr. Karzai also named at least eight women. Their appointment signaled the government’s intention to preserve the women’s rights guaranteed in the Constitution, but they are unlikely to have any influence with the Taliban.
The government defended the nominations, saying the council needed a broad range of powerful people. The council will have the authority to develop existing contacts and open direct negotiations with the Taliban and other armed foes, said the presidential spokesman, Waheed Omer.
“They will keep the president in the picture — it is his initiative — but they are very powerful people and will proceed as they see fit,” Mr. Omer said. The council will choose its own leader and way of operating. “The structure is such that in many ways they will have the authority and mandate to act,” he said.
Mr. Karzai has been calling for talks with the Taliban for months, and has gradually won the support of the United States and NATO for his plan. People close to the president say he has largely lost confidence in the ability of coalition forces to defeat the insurgency and is tentatively seeking his own course.
The extent of his concern about the failing war effort was displayed on national television on Tuesday when he burst into convulsive sobs during a speech to mark national literacy day at a Kabul high school.
He said he feared that the war would force his 3-year-old son, Mirwais, to leave the country and grow up a refugee. “I want him to go to school here,” Mr. Karzai said. “I swear to God I’m worried, I’m worried, oh people, I’m worried. God forbid Mirwais should be forced to leave Afghanistan,” he said, according to Agence France-Presse.
Supporters of peace talks welcomed the formation of the council as a first step and said it could work despite the preponderance of people opposed to the Taliban.
“These are faces from the jihad, the resistance, and from the Taliban, and they will have to resolve it,” said Hajji Abdul Baqi Raghbat, leader of the tribal affairs department in Kandahar Province, homeland of the Taliban. “These are the most famous people, and if not them, I don’t know who else there is.”
“The most important thing is that there is willingness and freedom from both sides to move towards peace talks,” Hajji Raghbat said. “The Taliban are outside the country, and they have to show their willingness,” he said, a reference to the Taliban leadership who are widely believed to live in Pakistan.
The council members would not do the actual negotiation, but would appoint smaller commissions of neutral mediators to approach the Taliban and bring back their answers, according to a lawmaker, Hajji Musa Khan Hotak, who has long supported talks with the Taliban.
Government officials say there has been an increase in contacts with Taliban members and signals from them since the government held a peace gathering in Kabul in June. A Western diplomat confirmed that some people had approached the government claiming to represent Taliban leaders, but said that it was not yet clear if they were genuine.
Former members of the Taliban government, including Maulavi Arsala Rahmani, who was the Taliban minister of higher education and is now a senator, say that Taliban leaders know that they cannot win the war and that the time is ripe for negotiation. “No one will win this war,” Mr. Rahmani said. “When the Taliban were in power they still could not control the whole country, and they know that.”
Yet others close to members of the Taliban leadership council say their stance remains resolutely opposed to negotiations while they are increasingly confident that the foreign troops will tire and leave in the coming years, handing them a victory.
Some also question whether Mr. Karzai and the people around him are really prepared to make the necessary concessions to make peace with the Taliban. Ministers interviewed in recent months supported the peace process publicly but privately said the Taliban had to be defeated.
Referring to Mr. Karzai, Martine van Bijlert, a director of the independent Afghan Analysts Network, said: “He is not interested in substantial talks. His position towards the Taliban is, ‘You can join me, you can surrender to our side.’ This means there is little appetite to listen to and address some of the real grievances. At the same time there is a real danger that the process will just be a gathering of yet more commanders.”
In Ghazni, a province south of Kabul, the deputy governor, Khazim Allayar, was killed by a suicide car bomber on Tuesday, along with four others, the Interior Ministry said.
Ruhullah Khapalwak and Sharifullah Sahak contributed reporting.
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