It is important to see how the new Afghan government is going to handle the so-called peace negotiations with Taliban. The previous government tried a lot but was not able to attract Taliban towards the negotiations. Now, the new government has started inviting Taliban to negotiation table; however, it would be imperative to see how the new government would approach towards the peace talks with Taliban as mere invitations would not solve the issue. The new government would require a comprehensive strategy in this regard.
As a starting point, President Ashraf Ghani on Friday, October 31 invited the Taliban to participate in the government-led reconciliation process in the interest of lasting peace in the war-torn country.
Speaking during the 4th foreign ministerial conference of the Istanbul Process on Afghanistan in Beijing, the President warned that violence would not be tolerated under any circumstances. He billed peace as the highest priority for his administration, saying: “We invite the political opposition, particularly the Taliban, to join an inter-Afghan dialogue and ask all our international partners to support the process.” He further added, “We must not and will not permit the organisations pursuing grand illusions to use Afghanistan as the battleground or launching pad against an international system.”
It is interesting to see how Taliban are going to respond to this invitation; nevertheless, it is difficult to expect that they will be easily ready to accept such an invitation. At the same time, President Ashraf Ghani has to make sure that it does not repeat the mistakes that were committed by the previous government regarding peace process and reconciliation and must pursue it with full commitment and betterment of Afghan nation.
History shows that from the very inception of peace process with Taliban there were doubts and concerns and they got on multiplying with each passing day. In fact, the previous Afghan government was not able to gain the confidence of Taliban and neither of the Western allies regarding the process.
The Taliban, on various occasions neglected the peace process just because they claimed that the government was a 'puppet government' and did not have the capacity to make decisions on its own. There were efforts by US to start a process with Taliban in Qatar and in the very beginning of the process the Afghan government was not involved in the way it had to be involved in it. Though afterwards, the Afghan government was involved, the process could not proceed and faced a deadlock as Taliban could not agree the set conditions. The efforts showed that US and NATO were interested in starting negotiations led by them.
The reconciliation process launched by previous government or HPC was not all inclusive and participatory, which made many stakeholders worry about the process. The opposition political parties and coalitions from the very inception of the process highlighted their concerns and started calling the process secret and unable to deal with the challenges of time. They demanded that the peace process should be made more transparent and should involve the parties that were anti-Taliban and deserved to be a party in the process.
They even claimed that as Mr. Karzai had called Taliban as 'brothers', they did not need to have negotiations with them as they had no conflict; instead the process should have been carried out with participation of the opposition political parties and coalitions that had ideological conflicts with Taliban.
Though there were certain conditions set for Taliban to accept before talks could be started with them, they never showed interest in accepting those conditions. The conditions involved the basic demands that Taliban must respect the constitution of Afghanistan; they must give up violence and respect the human rights, most importantly the rights of women.
However, Taliban never showed eagerness to accept those conditions. Moreover, the growing distrust among the parties on the other side of the process made Taliban take advantage of the situation and they started dictating their own conditions. Taliban had even said that they would not pursue the condition of ceasefire unless all the Taliban prisoners were released from Guantanamo and Western forces left the country.
The peace process reached nowhere but it was interesting to note that Afghan authorities had drawn optimistic conclusions. In fact, they kept on giving the indications that Taliban were ready to talk even when they had kept their aggressive policies continue in various forms. In fact, the US and Afghan authorities wanted to give an impression that they were reaching to concrete conclusions in the war against terrorism and wanted to display some examples that they are pursuing the reconciliation process to establish lasting peace in the country.
However, such efforts only proved to be an eye wish, while the real conflicts kept on haunting the Afghan socio-political scenario with conflicts and differences and the same can pave the way for another civil war in the country.
Therefore, for the present government it is necessary to keep all the important aspects in considerations before pursuing the peace process and the need of time is to make honest and dedicated efforts to solve the issues. Only, a true and determined effort that is aimed at making the process participatory, clear and accountable and people-friendly can solve the basic issues in Afghanistan and can guarantee a lasting peace in the country.