World backs Taliban's peace role
Kabul meet: Afghan govt aims to take charge of security by 2014
India and the US on Tuesday joined the global community in backing Afghan government’s efforts to involve Taliban elements in the peace process but made it clear that amnesty should only be offered to those who had no links with al-Qaeda and other terror groups.
“The Afghan government’s Peace and Reintegration Programme is open to all Afghan members of the armed opposition and their communities, who renounce violence, have no link to international terrorist organisations, respect the Constitution and are willing to join in building a peaceful Afghanistan,” said a draft communique at the International Conference on Afghanistan.
Renewing his call to Taliban to lay down arms and join the peace process, Afghan President Hamid Karzai outlined his commitment to taking charge of the nation’s security by 2014.
Speaking at the conference on Afghanistan’s future held here amidst a total lockdown of the capital city, Karzai said his government remained determined to take up the responsibility for all military and law enforcement operations by 2014.
As fears grow over the course of the nine-year-old war against terrorism in the wake of the Obama administration’s plan to begin withdrawing US forces by 2011, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised that America and allies would continue to stand by Afghanistan.
New phase
Hillary said that the planned withdrawal of the troops was not a sign of flagging commitment. “The July 2011 transition process is too important to push off indefinitely. But this date is a start of a new phase, not the end of our involvement,” she told the conference attended by a galaxy of leaders, including UN chief Ban Ki-moon, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
Qureshi said the transition process in Afghanistan should be gradual based on ground realities and not on calendar and deadlines. “Afghanistan’s immediate neighbours have a special responsibility towards this country,” he said.
The day-long conference comes at a crucial juncture as US and Nato forces are poised to launch major offensives in Afghanistan against Taliban.
No selective approach to terror, says Krishna
India on Tuesday said there cannot be any selective approach in fighting terrorism and sought an end to sustenance and sanctuaries for terrorists from outside Afghanistan, a veiled reference to terror camps in Pakistan.
New Delhi also said that any new process to stabilise the war-torn Afghanistan must be fully “Afghan-led and Afghan-owned” where violence is given up and all links with terrorism—whether ‘jehadi’ or state-sponsored—cut off.
The international community should ensure that there is no selectivity in dealing with terrorism, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said in a statement at the international conference on Afghanistan. He supported the Afghan peace process which, he said, should be “inclusive and transparent.”
“Terrorism cannot be compartmentalised. Today, one cannot distinguish between al-Qaeda and plethora of terrorist organisations which have imbibed the goals and techniques of al-Qaeda.
“It is therefore, essential to ensure that support, sustenance and sanctuaries for terrorist organisations from outside Afghanistan are ended forthwith,” he told the delegates, including his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was also present at the meet attended by 70 countries.
Krishna said the new process to stabilise the war-torn country must carry all sections of the nation’s population.
