Plan to ‘buy off’ Taliban at core of international conference

KABUL - Afghan President Hamid Karzai is set to present a plan aimed at persuading up to 36,000 insurgent fighters to lay down their arms by 2015 at the Kabul conference to be held Tuesday.

Nearly $784 million are needed to fund the five-year programme, according to government papers seen by DPA ahead of the conference.

The plan “is designed to reintegrate up to 36,000 ex-combatants and will reach 4,000 communities in 220 districts of 22 provinces in Afghanistan,” the document said.

The Afghanistan Peace and Reintegration Programme, if endorsed by more than 70 international representatives including nearly 40 foreign ministers, would be implemented by two boards simultaneously, it said.

On tactical and operational level, a “High Peace Council” to be formed by Karzai would buy off “reconcilable” militants, as strategic efforts would focus on Taliban leaders, the 48-page text said.

The Taliban, which has waged an insurgency against the Afghan government and NATO-led troops for nearly nine years, has repeatedly rejected overtures by Karzai for peace talks.

Taliban leaders have said they would not come to any negotiating table unless and until the US and NATO withdraw all of their more than 140,000 troops from the country.

The new Afghan government initiative aims to address “the problem of sanctuaries, measures for outreach and removal from the UN sanction list… and ensuring accommodation or potential exile in a third country” provided that the Taliban leaders sever ties with the Al Qaeda network.

The US government, which has around 100,000 forces in Afghanistan, is expected to endorse the reintegration programme, which could allow it to meet the mid-2011 target to begin withdrawing troops set by President Barack Obama.

Several of the NATO countries looking to pull out of the nine-year conflict are also expected to endorse the plan at the conference to be co-chaired by Karzai and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, scheduled to attend the conference, said in Pakistan that “we have made it clear that we will stand by Afghanistan as they pursue a peaceful path”.

“We would strongly advise our friends in Afghanistan to deal with those who are committed to a peaceful future,” she said. “There are those who will never be reconciled and we hope that they can be defeated.”

The Afghan government is also expected to ask for more than $8 billion of nearly $13 billion pledged for reconstruction to be aligned with its “15 socio-economic development national priority programmes”.

The ninth international conference on Afghanistan and first to be held inside the country has been touted by Afghan and Western officials as a chance for the government to win popular support for its pledges to rebuild the country and economy.

Although officials insisted it was not “a pledging conference”, the US and British representatives are expected to add billions of dollars on top of their existing commitments.

On Monday, main roads were closed in Kabul, including the one linking city’s international airport to the conference venue. The government also declared Monday and Tuesday public holidays in Kabul.

Thousands of security personnel have been deployed around the city. A Taliban suicide bomber managed to detonate his explosives near the airport road Sunday, killing three civilians and injuring 45 others.