Kabul Regime Offers Amnesty to the Taliban in a Bid to End 16-Year War By Abdus Sattar Ghazali Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, March 10, 2018

Smoke rises from the Intercontinental Hotel, hours after the attack had ended, January 21, 2018

 

US-client Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Wednesday (Feb 28) proposed the recognition of the Taliban as a legitimate political group, as part of a process that could lead to peace negotiations and put an end to more than 16 years of war. His offer came days after the Taliban called for direct negotiations with the US.

Ghani made the proposal during a conference of countries and organizations involved in the so-called Kabul Process aimed at setting up a platform for negotiations with the militants who control about 70% of the country. The one-day conference in Kabul was attended by representatives from more than 20 countries and several international organizations. The Taliban was not invited.

"I call on Taliban and their leadership -- today the decision is in your hands. Accept peace -- a dignified peace -- come together to safeguard this country," Ghani said.

Ghani offered the militants a cease-fire, a release of prisoners, passports, an office in Kabul or another agreed location, and the removal of sanctions. The Afghan president also said he would be ready to accept a review of the constitution as part of an accord with the Taliban.

In return, the militants would have to recognize the Kabul government and respect the rule of law, Ghani said. "We are making this offer without any preconditions in order to pave the way for a peace agreement," he said, insisting that Kabul "will consider the Taliban's view in the peace talks."

It was Afghanistan's most significant peace overture to the large, fractious militant organization that currently controls more territory than at any time since the 2001 U.S.-led military invasion, Los Angeles Times said adding: Ghani's peace overture reflects an understanding — shared not only by the U.S. and its allies but also the Taliban — that the Afghan war will not be settled militarily and that the growing cost in Afghan lives is unsustainable.

Taliban refused talks

The Taliban refuses to hold direct talks with the Afghan government, which it calls a "puppet regime," instead demanding to speak to the United States, the largest contributor of troops to the war.

"It would help in finding a solution if America accepts the legitimate demands of the Afghan people and forward its own concerns and requests for discussion to the Islamic Emirate through a peaceful channel," the Taliban said in an open letter to the American people last week.

The Trump administration rejected the Taliban proposal, with State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert saying: “Any peace talks with Afghanistan have to be Afghan-led and Afghan-owned.”

President Donald Trump has raised the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan from 11,000 to 15,000 troops at the urging of Pentagon officials who argue the increased firepower will force the insurgents to come to the negotiating table.

Trump has also raised pressure on Pakistan — the neighboring country that Afghanistan accuses of sheltering and supporting the Taliban — by withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. security assistance. Pakistani officials have rejected accusations of being soft on terrorism and said they can do without the U.S. support.

Kabul Think Tank

The Los Angeles Times quoted  analysts  as saying that Ghani's adversaries judge him as increasingly weak, desperate to make peace and possibly unable to fulfill his end of any agreement.

"Unfortunately, the overall situation is not in favor of peace in Afghanistan because of the Taliban and Pakistan's assessments of the situation — they think they'll win eventually," said Davood Moradian, director general of the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies, a Kabul think tank.

"A fragmented, divided Afghan government cannot bring peace with very resistant and confident adversaries such as Taliban and Pakistan. I think the priority has to be internal stability. The prospects for peace with the Taliban will be more promising if the government is united."

Reuters news agency said Ghani’s comments, a month after a suicide attack in central Kabul killed around 100 people, represented a change in tone for Ghani, who has regularly called the Taliban “terrorists” and “rebels” although he has also offered to talk with parts of the movement that accepted peace.

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan welcomed the offer and said it “strongly supports the vision for peace through intra-Afghan dialogue”.

AFP quoted Pakistani journalist and Taliban expert Rahimullah Yusufzai as saying that the Taliban leadership remained committed to the US-only position, but others in the movement were less dogmatic about talking with Kabul. "There are some people among the Taliban who believe that they will have to negotiate with the Afghan government," said Yusufzai.

He added that the militants have suffered heavy casualties under the new US strategy of increased airstrikes and commando raids. Despite the losses, Yusufzai said the group would continue the insurgency. "They derive their power from their ability to keep fighting," he said.

New York Times

There appears little chance of any breakthrough, but the Afghan government made the offer to demonstrate to an international audience that it is willing to negotiate, and to encourage those participating in the conference to pressure the Taliban to accept, according to the New York Times. The government is under pressure to offer incentives as the United States increases military pressure.

The Taliban’s main faction has insisted on direct negotiations with the United States and dismisses the American-backed government in Kabul as a puppet, the paper said adding:

“The Taliban has yet to respond to Mr. Ghani’s proposal. But in a statement on Monday, they said they had asked American officials to talk directly to their political office, and not through the Afghan government. The statement also said that “military strategies which have repeatedly been tested in Afghanistan over the past 17 years will only intensify and prolong the war.”

While the insurgents dominate only a sliver of the country, they still hold substantial sway. The Taliban collect taxes from businesses and run a shadow judicial system for settling disputes, preferred by some Afghans over the corrupt government courts.

In one measure of the Taliban’s reach, cellphone companies comply with the group’s request to halt service around 5 p.m. in parts of the country, including in Kunduz, a major city, lest the insurgents blow up transmission towers. The blackouts demonstrate influence, and the Taliban say they also serve a practical purpose of preventing government informants from calling in tips about their nighttime movements.

Taliban: Doha office remains vital for talks

The Afghan Taliban has called for direct talks with the US to take place in its political office in Qatar.

A senior Taliban official based in Doha told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that the group invites US officials to its political office in Qatar to discuss a "peaceful solution" to end the bloodshed in Afghanistan.

His comments followed local news media reports in Kabul on Friday, claiming that the Afghan government has been discussing with Qatari authorities the closure of the Taliban's Doha office.

The media reports cited government officials as saying the Doha office had "no positive consequence in terms of facilitating the peace talks".

In an apparent warning to the Afghan government, the Taliban official said further talk of shuttering the Doha office would scuttle the group's offer of talks altogether.

The Taliban official also said that departure of American troops from Afghanistan remains a precondition for the group's talks offer.

"Our struggle is for the liberation of the country," he said. "It is not a power struggle. How can a liberation struggle be deemed complete without foreign forces pulling out?

"Since it is [only] the US which can decide and implement a decision for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan, that is why direct talks with the US are necessary in the first phase.

"During a second phase, we can sit with the Afghan government and discuss all of the domestic issues."

The Kabul Peace Conference, Our Plea

In an open letter to the US Department of State, Kadir A. Mohmand, former Representative of the Afghan Mujaheddin for North America during the 1980s, called the Feb 28 Peace Conference just a farce.

“The February 28th Peace Conference is just a farce, a continuation of the war and occupation policy. The Afghan villagers (Afghan Freedom Fighters) control more than seventy percent of Afghanistan, have been terrorized by the United States’ war and occupation these past seventeen years, he said adding:

“The Afghan villagers want an end to the U.S. war and occupation that is the only way to peace and justice. The Afghan villagers do not have a voice at any negotiation or conference table. The only voices at the negotiation and conference table have been and will be once again those of the superpowers, regional neighbors of Afghanistan, the selected Afghan administration consisting of war profiteers, war lords, ethnic minority Northern Alliance and communist war criminals.”

The letter also said: “The U.S. selected Afghan puppet administration does not represent the Afghan villagers. Their voices only represent their own interests. The Afghan villagers (Afghan Freedom Fighters) are defending their land, their families and their vast untapped Rare Earth Elements (REEs) from destruction and exploitation. The Afghan villagers want peace, but there cannot be peace without justice, which requires that first there be an end to the U.S. war and occupation of Afghanistan. The U.S. must accept its loss in Afghanistan.”

Kadir A. Mohmand’s letter published by Veteran Today on February 21 went on to say:

“The U.S State Department’s policy under Trump is the main obstacle to true peace in Afghanistan. I believe the U.S. State Department’s policy toward Afghanistan is controlled by the war profiteers and drug traffickers the majority of the selected Afghan administration puppet, who are war profiteers, Afghan communist war criminals and/or war lords. They do not want peace. They want more division and turmoil to justify a continuation of the covert war. The war provides them with enormous personal wealth.

“Therefore, the U.S. State Department’s policy of having Afghan government led negotiations, will be a dead end. As I have stated many times, the U.S. government needs to directly talk with the Afghan Freedom Fighters. The Afghan Freedom Fighters wants to negotiate directly with the U.S. without any foreign countries or war profiteers interfering. They do not want to repeat the mistakes made during the 1980s during the Soviets’ war/ occupation when the negotiations went through Pakistan, who profited enormously from that war. Unfortunately, the public only hears the war profiteers’ perspective.

“What Trump has started since he took office is an escalation of the war and violence. Under his administration more than 4,200 bombs (including the unlawful mother of all bombs) have been dropped on Afghan villagers mainly in Pashtun areas where the vast deposits of Rare Earth Elements (REEs) and other natural resources are located.

“Its all about control over and exploitation of these REEs. To do so, its all about the U.S., NATO and its puppets eliminating the road block by massacring and relocating the Afghan.

“The vast untapped deposits of REEs are located on the Afghan/Pashtun villagers’ land mostly in Helmand Province and other Pashtun areas throughout Afghanistan. The Afghan/Pashtun villagers are fighting to defend their land that is being taken from them for control over the REEs. It is really not about terrorism. It is really about exploiting the Afghan’s REEs!”

As an American Afghan, a U.S. citizen, I want to see peace between my homeland and motherland. I believe to bring peace, there must be justice first for the Afghan villagers. To do so, requires an end to the U.S. war and occupation of Afghanistan. I am willing to serve as the bridge in any true peace negotiations, which must include the Afghan villagers, Mohmad concluded.

Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Chief Editor of the Journal of America.  

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