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Taliban talk about disarming
OTTAWA—In a significant move, Canadian and NATO officials in southern Afghanistan are involved in sensitive negotiations with Taliban fighters after discreet backroom signals from insurgents that they might be willing to lay down arms. The overture for potential peace came when a faction of Taliban insurgents in Panjwai region southwest of Kandahar signalled it wanted to talk to NATO's International Security Assistance Force or the United Nations about disarming. "They didn't want to have a dialogue on disarming or stopping fighting with the Afghan government directly," one source told the Toronto Star.
Some of the Talibunnies finally figuring out that traipsing around the countryside, AK in hand, isn't as glamorous as it looked on the recruiting poster in Peshawar?
For now, though, Afghan authorities are leading the sensitive talks, with NATO and Canadian officials keeping a close eye on the progress. "We have a detailed understanding of how these negotiations are proceeding and would provide support wherever the Afghan government asked," said one military official familiar with the process.

Publicly, though, allied forces are taking a back seat, anxious not to undermine an already shaky Afghan authority.
Shaky authority? Karzai and the government seem pretty settled to me.
Signalling just how discreet the talks are, NATO has denied having direct contact with the Taliban. "ISAF has not been directly approached by any faction of the Taliban," said Canadian Forces Maj. Scott Lundy, a NATO spokesman, by phone from Kandahar yesterday. "We welcome any group that is willing to set down its weapons and begin a dialogue using any number of existing avenues through the Afghan government."

Allied troops have had some success convincing individual Taliban fighters to give up their weapons. Canadians scored a victory in June when Mullah Ibrahim, from a district west of Kandahar, repented for his time as a Taliban leader.

But what makes this latest case different is that a group of insurgents has come forward.
"How big they are, that's anyone's guess," one official said.

In the tangled world of Afghan diplomacy, officials were cautioning against hope of a quick resolution. "Nothing is done in a really direct manner. It's protracted," said one official.

Slowing the pace even further is the real risk of reprisal served up by hardliners against the splinter Taliban group for making an offer of reconciliation. A U.S. expert cautioned talks aren't likely bring long-term improvement to Afghanistan's perilous security situation. "What would matter if this became a cascading effort, if you had larger numbers of Taliban that decided to jump ship," said Seth Jones, a political scientist with Rand Corp., a Washington-based think-tank, who's researched the insurgency.
Posted by: Steve White 2006-08-19
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=163371