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Revealed: UN in Secret Peace Talks with Taliban
Kabul envoy met top commanders in Dubai this month to discuss terms
Taliban commanders held secret exploratory talks with a United Nations special envoy this month to discuss peace terms, it emerged tonight.
Taliban fighters in a Madrassa compound near the northern city of Kundoz in Afghanistan. Regional
commanders on the Taliban's leadership council, the Quetta Shura,
sought a meeting with the UN special representative in Afghanistan,
Kai Eide, and it took place in Dubai on 8 January. "They requested a
meeting to talk about talks. They want protection, to be able to come
out in public. They don't want to vanish into places like Bagram," the
Reuters news agency quoted a UN official as saying, referring to the
Bagram detention centre at a US military base outside Kabul.
The Dubai meeting was confirmed to the Guardian by officials with knowledge of the encounter, but they said they could provide no further details.
It was the first such meeting between the UN and senior members of the Taliban. The fact that it took place suggests that peace talks have revived since exploratory contacts between emissaries of the Kabul government and the Taliban in Saudi Arabia last year broke down.
It also suggests that some Taliban members might be prepared for the first time to put faith in an international organisation to broker a deal to end the nine-year war.
News of the Dubai meeting surfaced at the end of a day-long conference in London intended to map out a transition over five years from a Nato-led military campaign to Afghan-led effort involving more political, social and economic measures to end the fighting.
As part of the transition, Afghan forces are due to take lead responsibility for security in a handful of provinces by the end of this year, assume the lead in the most violent regions within three years, and take overall responsibility for security across the country in five years. If successful, the transition would pave the way for the withdrawal of foreign forces.
An official statement from the Taliban leadership in response to today's conference warned that "attempts by the enemy to bribe the mujahideen, offering them money and employment to abandon jihad, are futile". However, it added what appeared to be a conciliatory note, saying that it was waging a jihad only to "liberate" Afghan territory and posed "no threat to neighbouring countries or anyone else".
Although an important development, it was unclear how significant a faction Eide had met in Dubai or how serious they were. A western official confirmed that there were indications of splits in the Taliban over the prospect of a settlement.
"We believe there are mid-level commanders tired of fighting and who have realised neither side is going to win," the official said. "There is a younger generation of Taliban commanders who believe it was a colossal mistake to side with the Arabs [in al-Qaida]. In fact the vote at the shura [meeting] in Kandahar in 2001 was only narrowly in favour of sticking with the Arabs."
The western official said: "This 'new Taliban' is not that much more extreme than some of the people in government. They could be willing to compromise on some issues, like women's rights, girls education, even watching telly perhaps."
At today's London conference, President Hamid Karzai declared: "We must reach out to all of our countrymen, especially our disenchanted brothers, who are not part of al-Qaida, or other terrorist networks, who accept the Afghan constitution."
The Afghan government pledged to hold a peace council, loya jirga, in the next few weeks, to which village elders from across the country, including some known to have Taliban ties, would be invited.
Speaking at the end of the conference, the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, signalled that the US was ready to accept talks. "The starting premise is you don't make peace with your friends. You have to be able to engage with your enemies," Clinton said.
- Posted in
14 Comments so far
Show AllWhat a load of crap, why dont we go to arlington and make peace with their masters the CIA?
I think its a great idea...but I am not sure that the Taliban will actually be able to support all 300,000,000 of you AND bail out your economy....that would take more than half of their opium profits for the year
And don't forget that the CIA is making huge profits to run its secret wars by selling and transporting the opium and heroin to Russian and Iran.
I know. This above statement sounds very odd and crazy. But, do a little research. Very credible investigative journalist have written on this and other illegal CIA conduct for years.
The CIA and government are more corrupt than we can imagine.
The reporter who broke that story was the late Gary Webb. He wrote "Dark Alliance", an expose that gave us the Iran-Contra hearings during the Reagan administration. There are plenty of links to his work that earned Mr Webb the Pulitzer Prize and the wrath of necons and the corrupt Bush family.
http://www.counterpunch.org/webb0906.html
"What a load of crap"
"I think its a great idea"
Hmmm, first two comments sort of wrap up the whole debate in a nushell.
Peace , I believe, is a great idea, a much better, and ultimately more profitable one than war in fact.
The facts are that, when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, many, many of the citizens of that beleaguered nation were not at all in support of that government. Thus, suing for a peaceful end to the terrorism committed by both sides is another such "great idea" and making the Taliban just one faction in a government inclusive of all Afghans is a win win situation...except of course for our own military industrial complex.
doubledee
Thanks for the intelligent comment.
A hopeful sign. Let the Taliban have a seat at the political table. Schools for girls and freedom for women should be part of a deal. However we have no right to try to turn the Taliban into being just like us.
Render to Busobomber the things that are Busobomber's and render to God the things that are God's.
Also render to Iraq the things that are Iraqi, Afghanistan the things that are Afghan, etc., etc.
Thou shalt not steal-MOST OF THE MALES ON THE SCOTUS THINK THIS IS THE 7TH COMMANDMENT--ACTUALLY IT'S NOT--at least according to the Hebrew translation--the Romans altered it like they did to many other aspects of Christianity. Come out of her God said to them of Babylon, meaning the state of confusion.
Anything that stops the fighting, anything that removes our forces from Afghanistan, anything that returns control of their own country to the citizens of Afghanistan is a good thing. And if the UN envoy can start the process, great!
Anyone that would object to this has a screw loose.
Yeah, at least it's a step in recognizing humans as human. And because Afghanistan will be much more difficult, if not impossible, to partition, as is the case in Iraq, hopefully in a year or two after the Afghan Surge Buyout phase is over, and buyout money flow stopped, there won't be so many retaliatory bombings like those going on in Iraq.
So the question seems to be not whether the US is the world's Sheriff Joe, with close to 1,000 military bases world wide that seems to be a forgone conclusion, thus the question of the day seems to be does Sheriff Joe continue to use Assassination, and deputize others through the School of Americas to use Assassination ("to make a statement", Sen. Ted Stevens, 2005) as done at El Moetz, or does the US start to use the Human Force like much of that related to Haiti, still, at the moment, for, in the Afghan case, the "equitable distribution", for the "betterment of humanity", of Middle East Oil and Gas?
Puck..Twain
Sheriff Joe needs to retire. We certainly don't nered to be in Iraq or Afghanistan (talk about a no brainer) We have no need to extend our military protection to countries that should be doing it themselves. We could easily close 70-80% of those bases and be better off.
Time for America to take care of America. And we don't need middle east oil, we use it by choice so we don't use ours, so if some of the people like the Kennedy's would stop refusing to allow wind turbines and others refusing to allow drilling, or new dam's we'd be further along to a green economy.
Yeah...but Sheriff Joe's mission could be changed from war and occupation for the likes of the oil barons to the uplift of earthquake, tornado, tsunami, flooding, and hurricane response for greater humanity...then beneficial humanitarian results could be had without the total dismantling and relocation of all the deputies.
The US never agreed to talk to the Viet Nam National Liberation Front (Viet Cong). I dont think the US will talk to the Taliban until we see the last US chopper evacuating from Kabul at the same time the people of Afghanistan are hanging ex-president Harmid Karzi.
"Oil and Natural Gas Resources Assessment. A nationwide oil and gas resources assessment was initiated by USGS in Spring 2003 with funding from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (TDA). This 24-month activity should be completed in early 2005, and will dovetail with two projects that are being funded by the World Bank. These World Bank projects are for engineering assessments of the oil and gas reserves in existing fields and for an assessment of the fertilizer, sulfur, and power plants associated with natural gas production in the northern oil and gas basins of Afghanistan. The completion of these projects should be near the end of 2004. The USGS project calls for a Quantitative assessment of the northern basins and a Qualitative assessment of the southern basins (Katawaz and Helmand)."
Helmland is where Marja is, check your USGS site and read more.
"Petroleum Law. The writing and discussion of a modern Afghanistan Petroleum law have been ongoing for more than two years. This law, when enacted, will serve to level the playing field for all interested foreign investors in the oil and gas sector and will provide for transparency in the management of this critical energy sector of the country. Basically, it will lay out the Afghanistan Government's leasing process for foreign investors. The World Bank is funding this activity; government approval of the new law is expected by the end of calendar year 2004. USGS serves a consulting role in this activity." And as with all government projects, it takes much longer than previously outlined, so we are still there doing what we intend to do, use their resources for our corporate/aka WB benefits.
Emeralds!!! Wow.
If you have any interest in finding out more...
C. J. Wandrey
Project Chief, Oil and Gas Resource Assessment of Afghanistan
MS 939, DFC
Denver, CO 80225
Voice: (303) 236-5341
Email: cwandrey@usgs.gov
or
http://afghanistan.cr.usgs.gov/oil.php
and so much more.....