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December 10, 2004

Taliban contact US on amnesty proposal

Topics: Middle East News and Perspectives

Andrew Sullivan is pointing this morning to a short piece in the Pakistan Daily Times that offers another ray of hope in Afghanistan:

KABUL: The US-led military in Afghanistan said on Wednesday that it had been contacted by Taliban members willing to lay down their weapons following an arms-for-amnesty offer by the US envoy to the country.

US military commanders operating in south and southeastern Afghanistan have been contacted by Taliban members declaring their desire to "join the peaceful political process," the US-led military spokesman, Major Mark McCann, told a news briefing in Kabul.

He said that while they didn't have specific names, there had been reports of individual Taliban members making contact with US-led military commanders in the field, the major said.

He added that there had been "contacts with senior (provincial) government officials and military representatives here in Kabul."

McCann separated the militia into two groups. There were hardline Islamic militants who still "believe in their ideology and fight to the end," and "a vast majority of the Taliban do not share that view and they have a desire to become part of a peaceful process". afp

Interestingly, as reported in Aljazeera, this follows on the heals of a rejection of amnesty offered previously by U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad on Dec 3. Taliban spokesman, Mufti Latifullah Hakimi, had rejected the offer saying that it was just a deception. It seems that President Karzai has previously hinted at including former Taliban moderates in Afghanistan's political process.  Let's hope that some of these reciprocating olive branches take root.

By the way, while you are on the topic of Afghanistan, read about what might be partially behind some of the Taliban's decision to switch sides - although we still have to see how effective these new efforts on the part of both sides are in quieting the remaining hardliner's stances. Afghanistan's new President Karzai is feeling his oats now and is all over the drug trade - a source for much of the Taliban's support. There is not just one article to point to here, it's basically all over the front page of the Afghanistan Times.

Posted by Hyscience at December 10, 2004 8:21 AM

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