President Hamid Karzai has again accused the West of colluding with the Taleban to keep foreign troops in the country. What made him lash out during the first visit of the new US Secretary of defence
President Hamid Karzai has again accused the West of colluding with the Taleban to keep foreign troops in the country. What made him lash out during the first visit of the new US Secretary of defence. A close look by Esmatullah Mayar.In 2008 when Barack Obama became president of the US, a new and rocky chapter was opened in relations between Kabul and the international community.
The first major hitch was over the 2009 election results- the West accused Karzai of rigging the election and the president accused them of interfering in domestic matters, and sending weapons to the Taleban in northern Afghanistan. However this charge was never substantiated.
Now a year before another presidential election, relations are again volatile. The Afghan president has accused the US and Taleban of secretly collaborating to up the violence so foreign troops have an excuse to stay in Afghanistan.
During a visit to Lashkargah on Mar 12, and before that at a function to mark International Women’s Day, the president said the US does not call the “Taleban its enemy”. “The Taleban talk every day with the West,” he said.
Karzai may be piqued with Washington’s efforts to get the Taleban to talk peace through its political office in Qatar.
Days before the event in Kabul on Mar 10 to observe International Women’s Day (Mar 8), suicide bombers had killed 18 people in two attacks in the capital and in Khost province. In Lashkargah, Karzai told a press conference that the Taleban were serving the interests of the “Americans”. The president was in the capital of Helmand province with some of his ministers and members of the National assembly.
He not only repeated that the Taleban “talk every day with Americans” but “they explode the bombs in Khost and in Kabul.” He said the attacks were not to show off their power to the US but “rather for the service of America”. He said, “the explosions were services to (the) foreigners … (in order to) prolong the presence of foreigners.” His speech was more addressed an attack on Taleban that the U.S, however.
Suspended talks
US officials here and in Washington sought to downplay the president’s caustic comments. “I don’t know what caused him to say that today,” Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., commander of the US-led military coalition in Afghanistan has been quoted saying in the media. “It’s false. We have no reason to be colluding with the Taleban.”
In Washington the White House spokesperson Jay Carney said, “All the statements about compromise between Taleban and USA are baseless.” According to him, the US has spent a “lot of money and given sacrifices to ensure the security in Afghanistan … We do not support any type of violence specifically when civilians are hurt.”
The Taleban confirmed talks were suspended one year back in Qatar and they have not tried to restart the process.
Fazl Rahman Oria, spokesman of the opposition National Coalition led by Dr Abdullah Abdullah, dismissed Karzai’s comments as the “efforts to remain in power”.
Ghulam Jailani Zwak, head of the Afghan Analytical and Advisory Centre, said Karzai has said nothing new. In his opinion, “America wants the crisis in Afghanistan to stay … to maintain its interest. The Taleban have created the crisis. As long as there is war with Taleban, the Americans would stay.”
He said there was evidence the US was arming the Taleban. He claimed he had received the information from a representative of Nuristan in national assembly, but he chose not to identify the person. “One container was landed … the Taleban took the weapons,” he insisted without providing any proof to substantiate his controversial opinion.
