Disarming Conflict

The international community, he said, is best equipped to address, and should be paying a lot more attention to, the international context – it should focus on fixing the international dynamics in the region. That means assuring Pakistan that a stable and successful Afghanistan will not work against the interests of Pakistan. The international community should insist that India and Pakistan not to use Afghanistan to prosecute their conflict, and more generally should promote harmony and security cooperation within the region.

Fixing Afghanistan’s governance problem must become the priority of the Government of Afghanistan. It must be seen to serious about combating corruption and the international community must be seen to be not only supporting but insisting on such efforts. In fact, the anti-corruption drive must be especially strong in Kabul and then spread from there. Another important governance initiative would be to make more effective headway in eliminating security companies linked to communal and political groupings.

Together, the international community and the government of Afghanistan must find a way to engage the main opposition movements – i.e. Hezb-i Islami (Islamic Party rooted in the Pashtun community) and the Taliban. He encouraged direct talks with the respective leaders of both,Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Mullah Omar, and for the west to stop regarding them as fugitives with a price on their heads. He spoke of both Hezb-i Islami and the Taliban as political parties in opposition to the government that have the right and duty to participate politically in the life of Afghanistan. They want inclusive elections, he said, and a government that is fair and not just a vehicle for dividing the spoils of victory. NATO should promote and support dialogue and negotiations.

When asked who should take the initiative in reaching out to the opposition groups, he didn’t have a clear answer, except to say that the UN could not do it, but that independent states from outside the region, like the Nordics, could be helpful.

He said that in the context of political outreach to the enemies of the current government, the National Army and the National police must both become genuinely national, with recruits from all parts of the country and standardized training. Training by the international community, he said, is especially important at the command level – at the fighting level it can be done by Afghans. “Afghan soldiers know how to fight. What is needed is a command structure that is fair and trusted.”

“We can’t continue to fight as we are now,” he said. “If armed forces, national and international, could solve the problem they would have done so by now.” He said ISAF needs to stay because without it the Northern Alliance would take over, others would resist, and the result would be escalating violence.

Of the fighting in the south, though he reflected sympathy for the Taliban and the Hezb-i Islami, he insisted that ISAF forces should not retreat back to major centres in the south and abandon the rest of the south to the Taliban and other insurgents. That would end up producing two parallel Governments: Kabul and the Taliban in their areas. “There is a need for foreign forces mandated and legitimized by the UN,” he said. “The American forces, however, are an occupying force.” He said the Americans “are here advancing their own interests. They cannot articulate a plan for Afghanistan, they only have plans for themselves and those are not clarified for others.”

He said Bin Laden and al Qaeda remain a problem, but they are “part of a global problem.” Osama Bin Laden is not key in Afghanistan, he said. “If the Afghan Taliban and Hezb-i Islami are brought into the political process there will still be al Qaeda and some foreign fighters, but these can be handled by a united country – they will be increasingly marginalized spoilers.”

Contrary to what one might have expected, he was not sharply critical of President Hamid Karzai. Rather, he said President has some legitimate power and he should have the courage to use it for the good of all Afghans.