$550m fund to woo Taliban insurgents
Hamid Karzai asked for Western supporters' help getting the Taliban on side. (REUTERS : Stefan Wermuth)
Afghanistan is planning to lure moderate Taliban insurgents to the side of democracy through multi-million dollar incentives such as education and farming opportunities.
President Hamid Karzai and foreign ministers from 70 countries have held a conference on the future of Afghanistan in London.
Eight years after the US-led invasion drove the Taliban government from power, world leaders are deciding how best to divide the insurgency and restore stable government.
Opening the summit, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said power will be handed back from international forces to Afghan people, and promised to find ways to integrate former Taliban fighters into the political process.
He also announced an international fund, believed to be worth $US500 million ($554 million), to back a reintegration plan to give jobs to Taliban fighters who are prepared to renounce Al Qaeda.
"To weaken the Taliban you divide them and you offer those people who are prepared to renounce violence, who are prepared to join the democratic process, who are prepared to say they will have nothing to do with terrorism, a way out," he said.
Mr Karzai said Western supporters must "reach out to all of our countrymen, especially our disenchanted brothers who are not part of Al Qaeda".
He welcomed the reintegration fund for jobs, schooling and farming land to lure low ranking Taliban fighters who joined out of poverty rather than ideology.
Mr Karzai says he would like Saudi Arabia to play a key role in bringing peace to Afghanistan.
In his public call for Saudi support for reconciliation with the Taliban, Mr Karzai appears to be going further than the British government in engagement with the insurgents.
He said he would establish a national council for peace, reconciliation and reintegration and call a "peace jirga," or traditional Afghan gathering of tribal leaders.
"We ask all neighbours, particularly Pakistan, to support our peace and reconciliation endeavours," he said.
"We are looking forward to the international community supporting this."
Mr Karzai says he wants the government to be in charge of security in all provinces by 2015 and says the fight against corruption will be the key focus of his second term in office.
"We must make sure that we do not stop at merely fighting symptoms of corruption," he said.
"Rather, we must take decisive action against its root causes. We are currently working on further strengthening of the high office of anti-corruption."
abc.net.au |
