Karzai seeks anexception

Tag cloud: Afghanistan, Politics, Taliban, Commentary, World

Boris Pavlishchev

14.07.2010, 17:33

The President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai wants the UN to lift restrictions on some moderate members of Taliban so as to permit the holding of peace talks with them. The US special envoy to Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke is reportedly holding talks with officials of the UN mission in Kabul on the issue.

Exonerating some Taliban members may occur before the international conference on a possible settlement in Afghanistan, slated for July 20th. The authorities in Kabul are praying for that. In 1999, the UN imposed sanctions against the then ruling Taliban, for bluntly refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden, regarded by the US as terrorist number one, and in 2001, more than 100 names of members of Taliban and Al-Qaeda were added to the black list which now contains 137 names.

Those on the list are banned from overseas travel and their accounts in foreign banks are frozen. Mr. Karzai believes that a lifting of the sanctions against those people will enable peace talks between Taliban and the Kabul government to begin in a third country, hoping that the ordinary fighters will thus be encouraged to return to a peaceful way of life. Taliban members who stand to benefit from the lifting of the UN sanctions must shun violence, recognize and respect the Afghan Constitution and severe contact with all international terrorist groups. The UN Commission, which has the black list has reacted cautiously to the Karzai’s initiative. Thomas Mair-Harting, head of the Commission says he will not amend the list because Kabul has not provided details and credible argument for such an amendment.

The UN will not undertake a radical reexamination of the names of people affected by the sanctions, said Vladimir Sotnikov, an Oriental expert and a regular contributor to VOR.

"The UN has no evidence suggesting that Taliban leaders, especially the odious Mulla Omar, are ready to make concessions to the Karzai government, including taking part in peace talks," said Sotnikov.

"The US wants the sanctions against the Taliban to be lifted as quickly as possible because the American Afghan strategy envisions an expeditious peace dialogue. On the other hand, lifting of sanctions and the holding of a dialogue apply only to moderate militants. However, the lifting of sanctions will not bring significant stability to Afghanistan, which this year has been the bloodiest for the coalition forces in 9 years of fighting," said Mr. Sotnikov.

"The Taliban does not want to hold peace talks with president Karzai, preferring another person from among the Afghan authorities, who could talk about a possible inclusion of Taliban in a future national government. President Karzai will not cherish sharing power with the Taliban, meaning that the stalemate will persist," Sotnikov believes.

Coalition forces have been unable to dominate the situation in Afghanistan and the armed insurgents appear to have the upper hand- a reason why Taliban would not like to be dragged into holding peace talks. Experts believe that contact will not bring a genuine reconciliation but will only prolong the agony of long suffering Afghanistan.

Moscow is opposed to peace talks with extremists and the exclusion of some of them from UN sanctions, believing that the return of Taliban to the helm in Afghanistan is fraught with the danger of rekindling the attempts to turn neighbouring republics into Islamic ones.

source: Moscow Time