Afghanistan urges Pakistan to help revitalise talks
28 June, 2012
KABUL: Afghanistan's top peace negotiator urged Pakistan on Wednesday to free Taliban prisoners and push militant leaders into peace negotiations, saying Islamabad must do more to help bring an end to the 10-year Afghan war. Afghanistan's envoy Salahuddin Rabbani, in his first Western media interview since taking his job in April, said he hoped to revive a process, many Afghan and Western officials see as the best chance of restoring calm before a 2014 pullout of foreign combat troops. Rabbani was chosen to replace his father, Burhanuddin, the revered former president and anti-Soviet fighter killed last year by a suicide bomber that some Afghan officials believe was dispatched from Pakistan. Islamabad denies any involvement. Rabbani, a soft-spoken, former diplomat who may struggle to command the same veneration his father enjoyed, spoke ahead of visits to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, where he will discuss Afghan government efforts to jumpstart talks offering an alternative to a persistent insurgency. "Pakistan can do a lot in bringing the Taliban leadership to the negotiating table," Rabbani said, speaking in the same heavily guarded, pastel-coloured home where his father was killed last year. "They have influence," the head of Afghanistan's High Peace Council said. "Pakistan is the key to the whole process." The Obama administration's hopes of establishing peace talks between the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Taliban this year faded after the militants' reclusive leadership, believed to be based in Pakistan, suspended participation in preliminary discussions run by US diplomats. That setback has focused attention on nascent efforts by the Afghan government to open its own channels with insurgent intermediaries, despite the fact the Taliban say they will not talk to what they deem an illegitimate "puppet" regime. Pakistan, Rabbani said, must finally take action in areas where it has the potential to catalyse a process that has moved so slowly that critics suggest it is doomed. He said Pakistan should free Taliban prisoners such as Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the movement who is described as No 2 to its one-eyed leader, Mullah Omar. "By releasing them or giving them to Afghan custody, that would help the process," Rabbani said, suggesting he would redouble previous Afghan pleas to release Baradar and other Taliban who have supported peace talks with Kabul. Afghan officials believe Baradar, a respected Pashtun tribal elder, could play an important role in convincing the Taliban to enter talks on Afghanistan's future. In 2009, he was reported to have taken steps toward opening peace talks without the consent of a Pakistani government that has a long history of seeking to secure influence over Afghan leaders. Baradar was arrested in Karachi in early 2010. Pakistan says it supports a peace agreement, and points out that it allowed some Taliban to travel to the Gulf this year. But it says wider support is required among Afghans before real peace talks can take place, while both the US and Taliban positions are plagued by ambiguity. A conference in Paris this month also brought former Taliban together with Afghan politicians. "We have received indications through intermediaries. They have been sending message that they are ready to talk," Rabbani said. End.
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