EDITORIAL : THE DAILY OUTLOOK, AFGANISTAN

                

 

Success of Reconciliation with Taliban

Recently the US Special Envoy for AfPak, Marc Grossman has said that all the insurgent factions in Afghanistan will not join the peace process. He said despite the efforts to reach out for negotiations, there will be people who will never reconcile and they must be defeated militarily.
It's a very realistic public admission of the US Special Envoy about the reconciliation process. Recently there have been reports in the US media about direct US talks with Taliban. Though the so-called Taliban spokesman has denied, there have been such improvements. But it is still limited to the initial talks about talks.

Taliban have intensified their attacks. This week has proved very deadly with dozens of deaths in Khost, Takhar and Kabul. The Taliban Al-Badar operations continue terror, without a single sign of their willingness to ceasefire, if ready for serious talks. Yet also, they have not signaled alienation from Al-Qaeda, about which the speculations were high following the death of Osama bin Laden. They have not only condemned and condoled his death, but also a series of attacks have been launched to avenge Osama's death. This is not show of any willingness or success in the talks.

The process of reconciliation should have limits with those to hold talks. For instance, the Haqqani Network of Taliban is blacklisted by the US, and they are part of Al-Qaeda on ground. Such other elements can never be included in reconciliation.

On the other hand, the international stake holders including the US who are making direct contacts with Taliban should not carry it as a unilateral process. Taliban have not only problem with foreign troops, and the US. Those Afghans who resisted Taliban when they hosted Osama and fought against them in front lines for years are ones who have the most concerns even today.

President Karzai's Peace Council has been making visits and meetings from Maldives to Turkey, during the last couple of months, but nothing has come out of their efforts yet. And this Council certainly do not fully represent all the segments of Afghan society. The anti-Taliban opposition forces are being ignored. Such a process, even if successful in making talks with Taliban and eventually a deal, will not succeed in long-term and instability will always be a concern in Afghanistan, not only for Afghans, but for the region and the international community too.

In reality, the Peace Council has been nothing more than a symbolic body to give face to President Karzai's intra-tribal-like dealing of affairs. If concerns of the anti-Taliban constituency among Afghans are not met, any deals or talks won't bring stability in Afghanistan.

The Beneficiary of Mistakes

Reportedly, the NATO officials believe that Afghan security forces will be competent, by the end of 2014, to defend Afghanistan on their own and the same is maintained by Afghan officials in Ministries of Defense and Interior. Should this be true, it is a music in the ears of Afghan people. But it seems like the gap between claims and ground realities are widening as armed opponent groups now in every corner of Afghanistan launching attacks almost wherever they want.

The Ministry of Defense officials have said there would be public awareness programs aimed at achieving public cooperation to the Afghan Police and Army. There is no doubt that large number of people is supporting the Afghan forces by reporting about suspicious people and whatsoever they see as leading to a terror attack.

But at the same time there are people in Afghanistan who still support the Taliban and cooperate with them in launching attacks on government and national and international forces. There are intensive trainings of the Afghan force under way and more than $ 11 billion is anticipated to be invested on them in 2011 only and military authorities hope that by 2014 Afghans can take all security of responsibilities on their own. However, experts think the other way. The period during which the Afghan soldiers are expected to nurture to a satisfactorily level is conceived too short. For their training and equipping process, more time needs to be considered – at least ten years.

The transition process which has been regarded as 'real process' by US President Barack Obama, is deemed to be starting soon. All eyes are on the strategic partnership between Afghanistan and the US. All know that the problems in Afghanistan need a long term international engagement and the beneficiary of any mistakes would be the insurgents. And it's a big mistake leaving Afghanistan without turning Afghan Army into competent force like the armies of the countries in the region. Without that, there are probabilities that Afghanistan will once again fall in the hands of extremists.

Protests in Afghanistan Turning Violent

As much as the civilian killings are condemnable, violent protests are also to be condemned at the same level. Previous experiences have shown that a demonstration against a civilian killing incident accompanied by violence has taken the lives of more people than the incident itself.

Protest is among the recognized rights of humans. This implies that, the people of Afghanistan have the right to protest too. But in Afghanistan protests are turning extremely violent. The protests, a month ago, in Mazar-e-Sharif and Kandahar against the burning of a copy of Quran by a US pastor took lives of tens of innocent people including eight UN employees. There are many other instances of violent demonstrations in past but the reason is one i.e. the killing of civilians by Afghan and/or NATO forces. Each time civilians are targeted, the anger of people is triggered which brings them on the roads to protest.

Last week, more than a dozen people were killed and many others were injured in Taloqan protests against the killings of two men and two women in a raid by NATO forces. Although the statement by NATO has pronounced the four as insurgents, people including the governor of Takhar province say they were civilians.

As much as the civilian killing is condemnable, violent protests are also to be condemned at the same level. Previous experiences have shown that a demonstration against a civilian killing incident accompanied by violence has taken the lives of more people than the incident itself. Protests have turned into another mean for insurgents to reach their objectives. Common people joining the protests do not hold weapons; it is the insurgents who use protests as a platform to promote fear and insurgency. Investigations found that the Mazar-e-Sharif protest was actually organized by the Taliban members who had joined the peace reconciliation program initiated by Hamid Karzai's administration.

Only condemnation of violent incidents is not enough, practical measures are required to be taken. The incidents where NATO has killed civilians have been mostly born by wrong intelligence reporting by the local agents. It is perceived that the reason for wrong reporting is majorly because agents tend to fulfill their own personal enmities.

It has been the habit of our government that it sends a team for the purpose of reporting on the incidents such as that in Taloqan. Most of the times, these reports are not comprehensive. Even if it is, they are not made public and are not followed by remedial plans. Of course, the incident of Taloqan condemned by the government and has already sent a team of investigators, but nothing will happen and the pains of the victims will heal by the passage of the time until another such incident happens.