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Afghanistan

Afghanistan still in need of international support

2006-01-30

The Afghan authorities and the international community should reach out to the Taliban if they want to keep the political process on track, according to one of the chief architects of the troubled Islamic republics transition.

And now, the shakedown...

In an interview with the Financial Times, Lakhdar Brahimi, who retired from the United Nations late last year, described recent violence as a wake-up call and warned: The job is not done yet. His comments reflect concern that while the transition to a fully representative form of government, as laid down at the Bonn conference in late 2001, has run its course, there is no clear follow-up to keep the momentum going.

I think the international community has got to have a serious second plan, Mr Brahimi said. You need to recommit yourself for a number of years.

Underlying the difficulties was the fact that the Taliban, which ran the country before being dislodged by the US invasion in 2001, was not included in the Bonn process. That should change. They need to be brought in, he said. Mr Brahimi said somemembers of the Taliban were open to ~~bribery~~ dialogue and had cut ties to al-Qaeda. However, the government needed to address concerns that were winning the Taliban support.

Are the Talibs asking for hudna now that we wacked them inside Pak territory?

When things are going wrong you need to look also at yourself and whether some of the things you are doing are responsible. There is too much corruption, too much injustice, too much neglect, he said. This plays into the hands of the Taliban.

The Afghan government has approved a blueprint to build peace over the next five years, which will be presented to donors at the two-day conference this week in London. Abdullah Abdullah, the foreign minister, said the Afghanistan compact would lay out the framework for continued ~~baksheesh~~ international engagement with Afghanistan over the next five years.

Last week seven Taliban prisoners escaped from Afghanistans main jail. President Hamid Karzai also warned that the drugs trade was financing terrorism in the country. With that money, the enemies of Afghanistan make bombs . . . train suicide attackers . . . [and] carry out attacks on you, he said in Kabul. We should eliminate drugs from our country. If we dont, they will eliminate us.

Posted by:Dan Darling

#2 "...reach out to the Taliban... wake-up call and warned: The job is not done yet.
I agree we need to continue reaching out with a 7.62NATO wake-up call.

Posted by: raptor 2006-01-30 07:04

#1 Taliban may have cut off links to al-Qaeda, but the doctrinal ties are unbreakable. I smell al-Taqiyah.

Posted by: Shans Grinetle6721 2006-01-30 05:23

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