The UN Security Council has made it easier for blacklisted Afghans to get an exemption to travel outside the country for peace and reconciliation talks.
The UN Security Council has made it easier for blacklisted Afghans to get an exemption to travel outside the country for peace and reconciliation talks. There are 132 individuals and four entities on the UN Security Council’s sanctions list.The Security Council, which voted to renew its Taleban sanctions on Dec 17, decided in support of the travel ban exemption, which the international media hopes will help nudge forward attempts to open talks with the Taleban.
Mustafa Elham, writer and journalist, wonders if it will. “Bans and sanctions are counted as pressure tactics by international institutions. But it has not been successful in pushing forward the peace talks,” he says. “The removal of the travel ban on Taleban and other armed opponents (of the government) exposes the groups: if they are interested in talks they cannot hide behind the ban, they will have to come forward.”
Sayed Jawad Husaini, leader of the Right and Justice Party of Afghanistan, doubts the Taleban are likely to cooperate. They will only make use of the exemption, he thinks.
There’s concern also on the streets of Kabul. Farida Roshna, a student in Kabul University, fears the “democratic achievements and civil rights” may be compromised. She says: “If the lifting of the ban on travel compels the Taleban to negotiations this would be a positive result. But if the Taleban use the privilege to strike political bargains, there is a fear that the (peace) deal that takes place will be against democratic achievements and civil rights.”
Safeguard achievements
Civil society organisations have sounded caution. AIHRC’s executive director, Musa Mahmoodi, says the peace process should safeguard the achievements in justice and human rights won over the last decade. “The AIHRC has said the achievements and values of the last 10 years must be the pivotal in the peace process, which should be transparent and acceptable to all strata of people including survivors of war,” he said. “The process should be based on partnership.”
With western troops preparing to pull out of combat duties by the end of next year, there are multiple efforts to get the Taleban to the negotiating table.
The summit in Paris, where High Peace Council officials met Taleban members, was described as an “informal event” by the government.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai said ahead of the Paris meeting that no Afghan government official will be attending, while the Taleban confirmed that “a number of Taleban officials” will attend. The Paris meeting on the future of Afghanistan was spread over two days, starting on Dec 19.
On the eve of the meeting, Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani told the French newspaper Le Monde that any negotiations for peace in Afghanistan should be held in Kabul and not on “foreign soil”.
In the National Assembly, speaker Fazal Hadi Muslimyar, was not optimistic. “This session would again bring disaster and not peace to Afghanistan,” he said bluntly. “For other countries the summit is a platform for interference.”
Many tracks
Senator Hedayatullah Rehayee, senator from Bamiyan, wants to know how come the government does not have a single policy regarding the peace in which it has a direct role.
Sardar Mohammad Rahimi, a spokesman for the National Front of Afghanistan, confirmed the party was sending representatives to Paris but said they did not expect any “immediate results”.
The parallel peace negotiations are confusing, say ordinary people.
Murtaza Mahdawi, a student at the private Ibn-e-Sina Higher Education University, in Kabul, (a private university) compares the numerous players in the peace parleys to a game of Buzkashi. “It’s like so many countries from the region and the world are in the game trying to wrest the prize: a deal in the Afghanistan peace process,” he said.
Under these circumstances the Afghan government should have had a well thought out, decisive plan to advance the peace talks in order that all the strands of opinion would have coalesced under one umbrella for fruitful results in the negotiations.
Qatar talks
The Afghan government is trying to provide a draft plan for the peace talks in Qatar through its National Security Council chaired by the president.
Last week Karzai agreed to prepare a proposal for the reopening of the office for the Taleban in order to restart the peace process.
The draft would be provided through consultations between the Peace High Council and National Security Council and would be handed over to the government of Qatar by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Meanwhile, the president’s office announced that a 5-point security agreement between Kabul and Washington was discussed in the National Security Council meeting.
The Taleban said they were not consulted, and have called for direct negotiations with some preconditions. Both the Pakistan and Afghan governments have said the agreement could be effective in bringing peace.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman of Taleban, told Killid Radio in a phone interview that the Taleban were aware of the details of the 5-point security pact.
The most important gain for ordinary Afghans is Pakistan’s decision to stop rocket attacks along the Afghan frontier in 2013.
Dr Zaker Husain Ershad, political expert,observes: “The actions of Pakistan regarding Afghanistan have been negative. The required trust for positive relations has not been seen.”
