Taliban arrests halted secret peace talks
Source: Agencies |
March 20, 2010, Saturday
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THE arrests of top Taliban figures in Pakistan abruptly halted secret United Nations contacts with the insurgency at a time when the efforts were gathering momentum, the UN's former envoy to Afghanistan said yesterday.
Kai Eide, a Norwegian diplomat who just stepped down from the UN post in the Afghan capital, said the talks that he and others from the UN had with senior Taliban members began in spring 2009 and included face-to-face talks in Dubai and elsewhere.
He criticized Pakistan for arresting the Taliban's No. 2 and other members of the insurgency, saying authorities surely knew the roles they played in efforts to find a resolution to the 8-year-old war. Pakistan denies the arrests were linked to reconciliation talks.
"There was an increase in intensity of contacts, but this process came to a halt following the arrests that took place in Pakistan," Eide told The Associated Press.
Last month's detention of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar -- second in the Taliban only to Mullah Mohammed Omar -- infuriated Afghan President Hamid Karzai, one of Karzai's advisers told the AP. Besides the ongoing talks, the advisor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Baradar had "given a green light" to participating in a three-day peace conference that Karzai is hosting next month.
However, General Athar Abbas, a spokesman for the Pakistani military, said yesterday that Baradar's arrest, which he said was a joint operation with the United States, was not connected to any peace talks. "Reconciliation or talks have nothing to do with the arrest of Baradar," he said. "It has nothing to do with the talks. Serious arrests are being made continuously."
Eide said there was a lull in contacts between the UN and the insurgents around last year's Afghan presidential election, but then they intensified.
"It's quite clear that the level of contact was increasing over the last few months to one point and that's when you had the number of arrests in Pakistan," he said.
Kai Eide, a Norwegian diplomat who just stepped down from the UN post in the Afghan capital, said the talks that he and others from the UN had with senior Taliban members began in spring 2009 and included face-to-face talks in Dubai and elsewhere.
He criticized Pakistan for arresting the Taliban's No. 2 and other members of the insurgency, saying authorities surely knew the roles they played in efforts to find a resolution to the 8-year-old war. Pakistan denies the arrests were linked to reconciliation talks.
"There was an increase in intensity of contacts, but this process came to a halt following the arrests that took place in Pakistan," Eide told The Associated Press.
Last month's detention of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar -- second in the Taliban only to Mullah Mohammed Omar -- infuriated Afghan President Hamid Karzai, one of Karzai's advisers told the AP. Besides the ongoing talks, the advisor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Baradar had "given a green light" to participating in a three-day peace conference that Karzai is hosting next month.
However, General Athar Abbas, a spokesman for the Pakistani military, said yesterday that Baradar's arrest, which he said was a joint operation with the United States, was not connected to any peace talks. "Reconciliation or talks have nothing to do with the arrest of Baradar," he said. "It has nothing to do with the talks. Serious arrests are being made continuously."
Eide said there was a lull in contacts between the UN and the insurgents around last year's Afghan presidential election, but then they intensified.
"It's quite clear that the level of contact was increasing over the last few months to one point and that's when you had the number of arrests in Pakistan," he said.
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