It was the civilians of Musa Qala who made the first bid for
peace, Mr. Daud explained.
³They made a council of elders and came to us saying, ŒWe
want to make the Taliban leave Musa Qala,¹ ² he said in a
telephone interview from the provincial capital, Lashkar
Gah. ³At first we did not accept their request, and we
waited to see how strong the elders were.²
But the governor and the British forces soon demanded a
cease-fire, and when it held for more than a month, they
negotiated a withdrawal of British troops from the district,
as well as the Afghan police who had been fighting alongside
them. The Taliban then also withdrew.
--------------------------------------------------------
Original source URL:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/02/world/asia/02afghan.html
December 2, 2006
Taliban Truce in District of Afghanistan Sets Off Debate
By CARLOTTA GALL and ABDUL WAHEED WAFA
KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 29 ‹ After a series of bruising battles between British
troops and Taliban fighters, the Afghan government struck a peace deal with
tribal elders in Helmand Province, arranging for a cease-fire and the withdrawal
of both sides from one southern district. A month later, the ripples are still
being felt in the capital and beyond.
The accord, reached with virtually no public consultation and mediated by the
local governor, has brought some welcome peace for residents of the district,
Musa Qala, and a reprieve for British troops, who had been under siege by the
Taliban in a compound there for three months.
But it has sharply divided former government officials, legislators and ordinary
Afghans.
Some say the agreement points the way forward in bringing peace to war-torn
parts of the country. Others warn that it sets a dangerous precedent and
represents a capitulation to the Taliban and a potential reversal of five years
of American policy to build a strong central government. They say the accord
gives up too much power to local leaders, who initiated it and are helping to
enforce it.
³The Musa Qala project has sent two messages: one, recognition for the enemy,
and two, military defeat,² said Mustafa Qazemi, a member of Afghanistan¹s
Parliament and a former resistance fighter with the Northern Alliance, which
fought the Taliban for seven years.
³This is a model for the destruction of the country,² he said, ³and it is just a
defeat for NATO, just a defeat.²
As part of the deal, the district has been allowed to choose its own officials
and police officers, something one member of Parliament warned would open a
Pandora¹s box as more districts clamored for the right to do the same.
Some compare the deal to agreements that Pakistan has struck with leaders in its
tribal areas along the Afghan border, which have given those territories more
autonomy and, critics say, empowered the Taliban who have taken sanctuary there
and allowed them to regroup.
³It is the calm before the storm,² one senior Afghan military officer said of
the accord.
Even President Hamid Karzai, who sanctioned the deal, has admitted to mixed
feelings. ³There are some suspicions in society about this,² he said in a recent
radio interview with Radio Free Europe.
³I trust everything these elders say,² Mr. Karzai said, but he added that two
recent episodes in the area ‹ of killing and intimidation ‹ gave pause and
needed investigation.
For their part, foreign military officials and diplomats expressed cautious
optimism, saying the accord had at least opened a debate over the virtues of
such deals and time is needed to see if it will work. ³If it works, and so far
it appears to work, it could be a pointer to similar understandings elsewhere,²
said one diplomat, who would speak on the topic only if not identified.
The governor of Helmand, Mohammad Daud, brokered the deal and defended it
strongly as a vital exercise to unite the Pashtun tribes in the area and
strengthen their leaders so they could reject the Taliban militants.
Appointed at the beginning of the year, Mr. Daud has struggled to win over the
people and control the lawlessness of his province, which is the largest
opium-producing region as well as a Taliban stronghold.
Some 5,000 British soldiers deployed in the province this year as part of an
expanding NATO presence have come under repeated attack. Civilians have suffered
scores of casualties across the south as NATO troops have often resorted to
airstrikes, even on residential areas, to defeat the insurgents.
It was the civilians of Musa Qala who made the first bid for peace, Mr. Daud
explained.
³They made a council of elders and came to us saying, ŒWe want to make the
Taliban leave Musa Qala,¹ ² he said in a telephone interview from the provincial
capital, Lashkar Gah. ³At first we did not accept their request, and we waited
to see how strong the elders were.²
But the governor and the British forces soon demanded a cease-fire, and when it
held for more than a month, they negotiated a withdrawal of British troops from
the district, as well as the Afghan police who had been fighting alongside them.
The Taliban then also withdrew.
Eventually the governor agreed on a 15-point accord with the elders, who pledged
to support the government and the Afghan flag, keep schools open, allow
development and reconstruction, and work to ensure the security and stability of
the region. That included trying to limit the arming of people who do not belong
to the government, namely the Taliban insurgents.
They drew up a list of local candidates for the posts of district chief and
police chief, from which the governor appointed the new officials. They also
chose 60 local people to serve as police officers in the district, sending the
first 20 to the provincial capital for 20 days of basic training, according to
provincial officials.
One energetic supporter of the deal is Abdul Ali Seraj, a nephew of King
Amanullah, who ruled in the 1920s, and leader of the Coalition for National
Dialogue With the Tribes of Afghanistan, which is working to bring peace through
the tribal structures.
³Musa Qala is the way to do it,² Mr. Seraj said. ³Sixty days since the
agreement, and there has not been a shot fired.²
The agreement has been welcomed by residents of Musa Qala, who said in
interviews by telephone or in neighboring Kandahar Province that people were
rebuilding their houses and shops and planting winter crops, including the
ubiquitous poppy, the source of opium.
The onset of the lucrative poppy planting season may have been one of the
incentives behind their desire for peace, diplomats and government officials
admitted.
Elders and residents of the area say the accord has brought calm, at least for
now. ³There is no Taliban authority there,² said Haji Shah Agha, 55, who led 50
members of the Musa Qala elders¹ council to Kabul recently to counter criticism
that the district was in the hands of the Taliban.
³The Taliban stopped fighting because we convinced them that fighting would not
be to our benefit,² he said. ³We told the Taliban, ŒFighting will kill our women
and children, and they are your women and children as well.¹ ²
What the Taliban gained was the withdrawal of the British forces without having
to risk further fighting. Meantime, the Taliban presence remains strong in the
province, so much so that road travel to Musa Qala for a foreign journalist is
not advised by United Nations security officials. While residents are happy with
the peace, they do not deny that the militants who were fighting British forces
all summer have neither disbanded nor been disarmed.
According to a local shopkeeper, Haji Bismillah, 40, who owns a pharmacy in the
center of Musa Qala, the Taliban have pulled back to their villages and often
come into town, but without their weapons.
³The Taliban are not allowed to enter the bazaar with their weapons,² he said in
a telephone interview. ³If they resist with guns, the tribal elders will disarm
them,² he said.
He said the elders had temporarily given the Taliban ³some kind of permission to
arrest thieves and drug addicts and put them in their own prison,² since the
elders did not yet have a police force of their own.
The district¹s newly appointed police chief, Haji Malang, said the Taliban and
the police had agreed not to encroach on each other¹s territory. ³They have
their place which we cannot enter, and we have our place and they must not come
in,² he said in a telephone interview this week.
Some residents said the deal would benefit the Taliban. ³This is a very good
chance for the Taliban,² said Abdul Bari, 33, a farmer who accompanied a sick
relative to a hospital in neighboring Kandahar province.
³The people now view the Taliban as a force, since without the Taliban, the
government could not bring peace in the regions.² he said. ³It is not sure how
this agreement will work, but maybe the Taliban will get more strength and then
move against the elders.²
Opponents of the agreement warned that the elders were merely doing the bidding
of the Taliban and would never be strong enough to face down Taliban commanders.
³The Taliban reappeared by the power of the gun, and the only way to defeat them
is fighting, not dealing,² said Haji Aadil Khan, 47, a former police chief from
Gereshk, another district of Helmand.
One event that has alarmed all sides was the killing and beheading of Haji Ahmad
Shah, the former chief of a neighboring district, who returned to his home after
the agreement was signed. Beheading is a tactic favored by some Taliban groups,
and his friends say it is a clear sign that the Taliban are in control of the
area. Elders of Musa Qala said that Mr. Shah had personal enemies and that they
were behind the killing.
The governor, Mr. Daud, and the elders said a number of the opponents to the
agreement were former militia leaders who did not want peace. ³The people of
Musa Qala took a step for peace with this agreement,² said the chief elder, Haji
Shah Agha. ³The Taliban are sitting calmly in their houses.²
Another elder, Amini, who uses only one name, said: ³For four months we had
fighting in Musa Qala and now we have peace. What is wrong with it, if we have
peace?²
David Rohde contributed reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Taimoor Shah from
Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
--
--------------------------------------------------------
Escaping the Matrix website http://escapingthematrix.org/
cyberjournal website http://cyberjournal.org
subscribe cyberjournal list mailto:•••@••.•••
Posting archives http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/
Blogs:
cyberjournal forum http://cyberjournal-rkm.blogspot.com/
Achieving real democracy http://harmonization.blogspot.com/
for readers of ETM http://matrixreaders.blogspot.com/
Community Empowerment http://empowermentinitiatives.blogspot.com/
Blogger made easy http://quaylargo.com/help/ezblogger.html
