(Updated: Originally published December 2, 2006)
At last! A victory in Afghanistan!
"Taliban Truce in District of Afghanistan Sets Off Debate" by CARLOTTA GALL and ABDUL WAHEED WAFA
KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 29 — After a series of bruising battles between British troops and Taliban fighters, the Afghan government struck a peace deal with tribal elders in Helmand Province, arranging for a cease-fire and the withdrawal of both sides from one southern district. A month later, the ripples are still being felt in the capital and beyond.
The accord, reached with virtually no public consultation and mediated by the local governor, has brought some welcome peace for residents of the district, Musa Qala, and a reprieve for British troops, who had been under siege by the Taliban in a compound there for three months.
Aw, the poor Brits!!!
I applaud the "welcome peace for residents of the district, Musa Qala," much more!
Delivered by the Taliban, thank you very much!
The agreement points the way forward in bringing peace to war-torn parts of the country. Others warn that it sets a dangerous precedent and represents a capitulation to the Taliban and a potential reversal of five years of American policy to build a strong central government. They say the accord gives up too much power to local leaders, who initiated it and are helping to enforce it.
“The Musa Qala project has sent two messages: one, recognition for the enemy, and two, military defeat,” said Mustafa Qazemi, a member of Afghanistan’s Parliament and a former resistance fighter with the Northern Alliance, which fought the Taliban for seven years.
“This is a model for the destruction of the country,” he said, “and it is just a defeat for NATO, just a defeat.”
As part of the deal, the district has been allowed to choose its own officials and police officers, something one member of Parliament warned would open a Pandora’s box as more districts clamored for the right to do the same.
Some compare the deal to agreements that Pakistan has struck with leaders in its tribal areas along the Afghan border, which have given those territories more autonomy and, critics say, empowered the Taliban who have taken sanctuary there and allowed them to regroup.
Yes, God help us that the killing would stop and that LOCAL DEMOCRACY might actually be initiated!
Heaven forbid!
For their part, foreign military officials and diplomats expressed cautious optimism, saying the accord had at least opened a debate over the virtues of such deals and time is needed to see if it will work. “If it works, and so far it appears to work, it could be a pointer to similar understandings elsewhere,” said one diplomat, who would speak on the topic only if not identified.
The governor of Helmand, Mohammad Daud, brokered the deal and defended it strongly as a vital exercise to unite the Pashtun tribes in the area and strengthen their leaders so they could reject the Taliban militants.
Appointed at the beginning of the year, Mr. Daud has struggled to win over the people and control the lawlessness of his province, which is the largest opium-producing region as well as a Taliban stronghold.
Some 5,000 British soldiers deployed in the province this year as part of an expanding NATO presence have come under repeated attack. Civilians have suffered scores of casualties across the south as NATO troops have often resorted to airstrikes, even on residential areas, to defeat the insurgents.
I don't give a crap about Afghanis struggling to survive because a) they need to, and b) most of the drug-running is funding off-the-books, black-ops garbage for the CIA and other criminal networks.
I like the governor, and see how quickly they insert the western barbarism --
"Civilians have suffered scores of casualties across the south as NATO troops have often resorted to airstrikes, even on residential areas, to defeat the insurgents."
-- then easily slip away from the topic?
Wash all that blood of your hands yet, Times?
It was the civilians of Musa Qala who made the first bid for peace, Mr. Daud explained.
Say whaaaaaaat?!
“They made a council of elders and came to us saying, ‘We want to make the Taliban leave Musa Qala,’ ” he said in a telephone interview from the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. “At first we did not accept their request, and we waited to see how strong the elders were.”
But the governor and the British forces soon demanded a cease-fire, and when it held for more than a month, they negotiated a withdrawal of British troops from the district, as well as the Afghan police who had been fighting alongside them. The Taliban then also withdrew.
Translation: The Taliban WON!!
The governor agreed on a 15-point accord with the elders, who pledged to support the government and the Afghan flag, keep schools open, allow development and reconstruction, and work to ensure the security and stability of the region. That included trying to limit the arming of people who do not belong to the government, namely the Taliban insurgents.
They drew up a list of local candidates for the posts of district chief and police chief, from which the governor appointed the new officials. They also chose 60 local people to serve as police officers in the district, sending the first 20 to the provincial capital for 20 days of basic training, according to provincial officials.
One energetic supporter of the deal is Abdul Ali Seraj, a nephew of King Amanullah, who ruled in the 1920s, and leader of the Coalition for National Dialogue With the Tribes of Afghanistan, which is working to bring peace through the tribal structures.
“Musa Qala is the way to do it,” Mr. Seraj said. “Sixty days since the agreement, and there has not been a shot fired.”
Yeah, because the damned Western Imperial Forces were FORCED to LEAVE!
The agreement has been welcomed by residents of Musa Qala, who said in interviews by telephone or in neighboring Kandahar Province that people were rebuilding their houses and shops and planting winter crops, including the ubiquitous poppy, the source of opium.
The onset of the lucrative poppy planting season may have been one of the incentives behind their desire for peace, diplomats and government officials admitted.
Elders and residents of the area say the accord has brought calm, at least for now.
Why don't we hear from a whole lot of them, huh, readers?
Haji Shah Agha, 55, the chief elder who led 50 members of the Musa Qala elders’ council to Kabul recently to counter criticism that the district was in the hands of the Taliban:
“There is no Taliban authority there. The Taliban stopped fighting because we convinced them that fighting would not be to our benefit. We told the Taliban, ‘Fighting will kill our women and children, and they are your women and children as well.’ The people of Musa Qala took a step for peace with this agreement. The Taliban are sitting calmly in their houses.”
Haji Bismillah, 40, a local shopkeeper who owns a pharmacy in the center of Musa Qala, in a telephone interview:
“The Taliban are not allowed to enter the bazaar with their weapons. If they resist with guns, the tribal elders will disarm them. [The elders have temporarily given the Taliban] some kind of permission to arrest thieves and drug addicts and put them in their own prison, [since the elders did not yet have a police force of their own]."
Um, it's known as PROVIDING SECURITY!
Haji Malang, the district’s newly appointed police chief, said the Taliban and the police had agreed not to encroach on each other’s territory in a telephone interview this week:
“They have their place which we cannot enter, and we have our place and they must not come in.”
Abdul Bari, 33, a farmer who accompanied a sick relative to a hospital in neighboring Kandahar province, said the deal would benefit the Taliban:
“This is a very good chance for the Taliban. The people now view the Taliban as a force, since without the Taliban, the government could not bring peace in the regions. It is not sure how this agreement will work, but maybe the Taliban will get more strength and then move against the elders.”
Amini, another elder who uses only one name:
“For four months we had fighting in Musa Qala and now we have peace. What is wrong with it, if we have peace?"
Opponents of the agreement warned that the elders were merely doing the bidding of the Taliban and would never be strong enough to face down Taliban commanders. Mr. Daud and the elders said a number of the opponents to the agreement were former militia leaders who did not want peace.
Haji Aadil Khan, 47, a former police chief from Gereshk, another district of Helmand:
“The Taliban reappeared by the power of the gun, and the only way to defeat them is fighting, not dealing.”
Yeah, so keep the violence going by facing them down with MORE fighting!
Not like NATO is powered by guns or anything.
Why are we annihilating innocent and beautiful people, America?
