A very interesting piece in today's Wall Street Journal by Ahmed Rashid on Taliban based attempts to overthrow the Afghanistan government and the desire of the Afghan government to enlist the Pakistan government in their defense.
COMMENTARY
The Other Front (Cont.)
By AHMED RASHID
online.wsj.com
LAHORE, Pakistan -- As one war erupts another is still smoldering. Yesterday, a critical meeting in Islamabad between Gen. Pervez Musharraf and the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, was called off due to events in Iraq. It was to have determined how far Pakistan is prepared to go in curbing the activities of the Taliban on its soil. It's a summit for which the U.S. made intense behind-the-scenes preparations, for at stake is the future of peace and security in Afghanistan, the stability of the Karzai government, and the question of whether Islamic extremism will make a comeback in Afghanistan.
As Gen. Musharraf and his Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) continue to give the U.S.-led antiterrorism alliance the closest support in catching elements of al Qaeda in Pakistan, there is far less cooperation in apprehending the Taliban, whom Afghan and U.S. military officials say are regrouping for a possible spring offensive against their forces in Afghanistan. The head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Daniel McNeill, has remarked recently that it is "curious" that few Taliban leaders had been arrested in Pakistan, and that "it is a concern to me."
That is an understatement. In fact Gen. McNeill, who has been visiting Islamabad every few weeks, has raised this issue repeatedly with the Pakistanis for the past six months. Now, after new leads on Osama bin Laden's possible whereabouts were provided by the captured al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Gen. McNeill is trying to get greater Pakistani cooperation to coordinate military operations on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
President Karzai and his government are convinced that the ISI is aiding and abetting the Taliban, even as the ISI clamps down on al Qaeda. Pakistan denies such charges and says this is propaganda by the Indians and leaders of the former Northern Alliance who control the security ministries in Kabul and have fought a verbal war with the ISI since the 1980s. Pakistan has always supported the majority Pashtun ethnic group in Afghanistan, while the former Northern Alliance comprises largely of Tajiks and others. ISI analysts believe Mr. Karzai, who is a Pashtun, is a tool of the Northern Alliance.
In a major confidence-building measure arranged by the CIA in mid-February, the ISI chief, Lt. Gen. Ehsan-ul-Haq, secretly met in Rome with Mohammed Arif, head of Afghanistan's National Security Directorate. The aim: to iron out differences between the two sides. Western and Pakistani officials say the meeting was frank, with both sides spelling out their grievances in a blunt manner. Both men are now expected to work out a timetable for a visit to Islamabad by Mohammed Fahim, the Afghan defense minister, which will be a major attempt to try and bury the hatchet between Pakistan and the former Northern Alliance.
Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N. Special Representative to Afghanistan, was also in Islamabad earlier this month urging Gen. Musharraf to reciprocate Mr. Karzai's attempts to bring peace to Afghanistan by curbing the activities of the Taliban on Pakistani soil. Western diplomats say that Mr. Brahimi delivered a tough message to Islamabad, as did other U.S. and EU officials.
In another major gesture to ease tensions and generate goodwill, Mr. Karzai recently ordered the freeing of all Pakistani prisoners held in Afghan jails since November 2001, when they were captured while fighting for the Taliban. The prisoner issue was a major bone of contention between the two governments and for Pakistani human rights groups. Pakistan and the Red Cross are now making arrangements to repatriate at least 950 Pakistanis, the majority of whom are being held by the warlord Rashid Dostum in northern Afghanistan.
In return, Mr. Karzai is looking for the arrest or repatriation of Taliban leaders who are living openly with their families in Pakistan and have been given security guarantees and freedom of movement by the ISI. He will also be looking for real efforts by Pakistan to curb the activities of the renegade commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who has been touring Pakistan's tribal belt, drumming up recruits for his jihad to oust Mr. Karzai and U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Mr. Karzai would do well to reiterate an amnesty he issued last year -- for all Taliban not involved in gross human rights abuses to return to their homeland where there would be given guarantees of protection. He would have to insist that Mr. Fahim publicly honors such a deal and that the Northern Alliance does not involve itself in retribution. Many Taliban in Pakistan are literally sitting on the fence, unwilling to become a tool of al Qaeda, Hekmatyar or their former leaders, but too scared to return home.
Gen. Musharraf should heed such an amnesty and force the Taliban to leave. He will also be looking for a commitment from Mr. Karzai that India's role in Afghanistan be limited. The Pakistani military has been irked by the fact that Mr. Karzai has allowed the Indians to open up consulates in cities along the Pakistan border and that Afghanistan may accept Indian and Russian help in creating its national army. The U.S., which is rebuilding the Afghan army, has a role to play in keeping such Indian and Russian help out.
Much depended on yesterday's summit and Washington will have been dismayed by its cancellation. Gen. Musharraf and Mr. Karzai must reconvene their meeting, not least because the first American experiment in regime change post-Sept. 11 hinges on it.
Mr. Rashid, a contributing writer at the Journal, is the author of "Taliban" (Yale, 2000) and, most recently, of "Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia" (Yale, 2002). |
