Karzai Closing in on Taliban Reconciliation Plan

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By ROD NORDLAND and ALISSA J. RUBIN
Published: January 17, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Afghan government will soon unveil a major new plan offering jobs, security, education and other social benefits to Taliban followers who defect, according to the spokesman for President Hamid Karzai.

The plan, in the final stages of preparation, will go beyond the government’s previous offers to the Taliban, Waheed Omer, the spokesman, said at a news conference on Sunday. “The mistakes we have committed before have been considered in developing this new plan,” he said. “We have not done enough.”

The reconciliation and reintegration plan is aimed at luring large numbers of the Taliban’s followers, estimated by NATO officials at 25 to 30,000 active fighters, to change sides, and has qualified support from American officials. Afghan officials are hoping to finance the plan through pledges from the international community to be made at a London conference on Afghanistan planned for Jan. 28.

Even if such a plan wins international support, serious questions remain about Afghanistan’s ability to carry it out, especially without a functioning national government, a prospect that remained distant on Sunday.

Parliament turned down more than half of Mr. Karzai’s second list of nominees for cabinet ministers on Saturday. On Sunday, Mr. Omer said it was unlikely that President Karzai would be able to complete his cabinet before the London conference, leaving important ministries leaderless..

Richard Holbrooke, the American special envoy to Afghanistan, said he had discussed the plan with Mr. Karzai and said it was better than previous efforts, adding, “Can’t be worse.”

Mr. Karzai has previously promised amnesty to Taliban fighters willing to lay down their weapons and offered repeatedly to talk directly with the Taliban leader Mullah Omar but with little effect.

A relatively small number of Taliban have defected; some 170 came over to the government in late 2009, according to the United Nations. .

Chief among the new measures, Mr. Omer said, were strong security guarantees to defecting Taliban that they would be protected from arrest or retaliation. He did not detail what those measures would be, but many defecting Taliban in the past have asked to be integrated into local police forces.

Mr. Omer also indirectly confirmed that the Afghan government might ask that Mullah Omar be removed from the United Nation’s terrorist blacklist, which freezes the bank accounts of those listed and bans them from international travel.

A private Afghan TV channel, Tolo TV, quoted Mr. Omer as saying that Mullah Omar’s name would “probably” be considered for removal from the blacklist. But on Sunday, Mr. Omer said it was premature to talk about such details and the blacklist would not be discussed in London.

American officials have been skeptical about engaging with Taliban leaders who may have close associations with Al Qaeda, and Mr. Holbrooke directly ruled out removing Mullah Omar’s name from the blacklist. “I can’t imagine what would justify such an action,” he said at a press gathering on Sunday.

Although the full details of the government’s plan are not yet clear, some experts have put the cost of implementing it at $1 billion, mainly for jobs and education programs aimed at reintegrating ex-guerrillas. A top adviser to President Karzai, Mohammed Masoom Stanekzai, who has been active in drafting the plan, suggested that number was on target. “If we can spend billions of dollars on military operations and security,” he said in a telephone interview on Sunday, “I think it is worth spending a billion dollars to build peace. That sort of effort is a worthy investment.”

He cautioned that any plan would have to take into account joblessness among Afghans who had not joined the Taliban, so they would not feel that insurgents were unfairly rewarded while their own loyalty was not.

Mr. Stanekzai did not rule out the possibility of talking with Mr. Omar. “What we need is a top-down and bottom-up approach,” he said. The presence of some Taliban leaders on the United Nations blacklist was a negative “psychological force” preventing reconciliation talks, he said.

“The people in Afghanistan are tired of fighting and war, and there is a new political will in the region and also in the international community to reconcile with those who are not linked with Al Qaeda,” he said. He said that Mr. Karzai would announce details of the plan in “a couple more days.”

Mr. Holbrooke said he was encouraged by what he called “unambiguous national support for reintegration” of the Taliban’s followers. “This is not going to end by killing everyone who fights with the Taliban,” Mr. Holbrooke said. What has been lacking previously, he said, “is a vehicle for them to come in from the cold. Otherwise, you give people no choice but to kill or be killed.”

“Stanekzai has a good plan, ISAF command has a good plan,” Mr. Holbrooke said, referring to the name for the American-led NATO force in Afghanistan, the International Security Assistance Force.

The NATO force’s s top spokesman, Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith of the United States Navy, did not lay out the details of a separate plan but said Saturday that “We are working closely with the government of Afghanistan as they develop their program.”

“We see this as one of the means to resolve the ongoing insurgency,” he added.

He said coalition troops would not be involved in reconciliation efforts such as talks with Taliban leaders, “although we would support the government of Afghanistan’s efforts in this area.”

Mr. Omer’s remarks suggested the government had a softer line than the Americans on talking to Taliban leaders. “We are ready to negotiate with anyone,” he said. “Whoever comes over is welcome.”

A spokesman for the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, ruled out any possibility of negotiations with Mr. Karzai’s government. “We are united and we will remain united against them,” Mr. Ahmadi said in a telephone interview. “There is no differentiation between Taliban moderates and extremists. We are fighting under one name, Taliban, under one leadership.”

In other Afghan news, a district governor and five policemen were killed in an ambush by insurgents in Herat Province on Sunday, according to Col. Raouf Ahmadi, police spokesman for western Afghanistan. The governor, Abdul Qodus of Chesti-e-Sharif district, and his police escorts were surrounded by insurgents who opened fire on their convoy about five miles from the center of his district, the spokesman said.

The NATO-led coalition reported Sunday that an American soldier died of wounds from an engagement with insurgents the day before in eastern Afghanistan.

Abdul Wahid Wafa in Kabul and Taimoor Shah in Kandahar contributed reporting.

Source : Karzai Closing in on Taliban Reconciliation Plan - NYTimes.com