Afghan government must talk to insurgents, says peace jirga Three-day gathering involving 1,600 delegates ends with flurry of recommendations that carry no legal weightDelegates at Afghanistan's peace jirga brought the three-day gathering to a close today with calls for ceasefires and prisoner releases, and for the Afghan government and insurgents to start talking to each other.Other suggestions, made by 26 working groups representing 1,600 delegates from around the country, included a ban on "un-Islamic" television programmes, the removal of senior insurgents from "blacklists" kept by the US and the United Nations, and the demand that the Taliban cut ties with al-Qaida.But with the recommendations carrying no legal weight, Hamid Karzai's government will be able to decide which ones will be enacted. The final resolution merely said that the government would "establish a framework for negotiations with those who are dissatisfied with the government".Despite the wide range of suggestions, Karzai told delegates that there was now a clear direction |
Abdullah rules out Karzai coalition Main election challenger says Afghanistan president was returned to power illegally and has no credibilityAbdullah Abdullah – Hamid Karzai's main challenger in Afghanistan's disputed presidential election – has ruled himself out of the incoming government.Afghanistan's former foreign minister, who refused to take part in a runoff election, said he had no interest in joining Karzai's cabinet and questioned the president's ability to deliver promised reform. "That government cannot bring legitimacy, cannot fight corruption," Abdullah said in his first comments since Afghanistan's election authority, the Independent Election Commission, declared Karzai the winner after Abdullah pulled out."A government which is derived from such an illegal decision will not be able to deliver ... [It] cannot deal with all the challenges, especially the threat of terrorism, security problems, poverty, unemployment and many others."The run-off was triggered by widespread fraud in the August first round. |
Letters: The best elections money can buy There is a short-sightedness in this article (Afghans will pay the price for a man hellbent on victory, 3 November) that seems to think the story started with this election and fails to respond to the larger patterns at play. Hamid Karzai was implanted initially by the US in the lead-up to the formation of a new government in 2001. He was meant to raise an enthusiastic resistance to the Taliban and march on Kabul. He could not, and had to be airlifted by the US to safety, to be implanted later. He was widely regarded as a stooge. Many friends of mine joined his government, recognising his position as the best of a series of less attractive options. But as time passed, Karzai's position became politically untenable with the Afghan people. US atrocities undermined his ability to be free-standing, and gradually he started to become less obedient. He began to get some local support for his stands against the foreign forces and political actors, and consolidated a local affection that he hi |
Afghan opposition leader Abdullah Abdullah vows to boycott 'peace jirga' Conference hailed by west as first step to peace in Afghanistan dismissed as 'PR exercise'A three-day meeting of Afghanistan's tribal leaders hailed by western leaders as a critical first step to peace was dismissed today as a "PR exercise" by the leader of the country's opposition, who said he would not attend the event.The decision by Abdullah Abdullah – who won millions of votes and came second in last year's presidential elections – is a setback for the so-called "peace jirga" which begins tomorrow with the intention of forging a national consensus on the ground rules for negotiations with the Taliban.Abdullah said the way delegates had been selected by government officials meant they did not represent all Afghan opinion: "Had it been a national jirga and a national effort we would have supported that effort."He said the event "seemed like a PR exercise to show that we are making an effort to reach peace in this country".Huge amounts of effort has gone into organising the thre |