Mazar-I-Sharif: Afghanistan's hard-line
vice president expressed hope on Sunday that an upcoming national
conference will lay the foundation for peace with insurgents
as a dozen civilians died in separate bombings in front-line
provinces.
During celebrations in Mazar-I-Sharif marking the
Afghan New Year, Vice President Mohammad Qasim Fahim, who
fought the Soviets and commanded forces that overthrow the
Taliban in 2001, said a "peace jirga" planned for late April
or early May would try to chart a way to reconcile with
government opponents.
"The government will try to find a peaceful life for
those Afghans who are unhappy," Fahim said without mentioning
the Taliban by name. "God willing, by the help of the people,
we will have a successful, historic jirga. ... My dear
countrymen, my hope is that this year will be the year of
peaceful stability."
Fahim's support would be crucial to efforts by
President Hamid Karzai to reach a political settlement with
Taliban leaders to end the war, now in its ninth year.
Fahim, who has been critical in the past of any deals
with the Taliban, is an ethnic Tajik and former defense
minister, while Karzai and the Taliban leadership are ethnic
Pashtuns.
The jirga, an Afghan institution where community
leaders meet to take decisions by consensus, is expected to
formulate a national strategy for reconciliation talks with
the Taliban and their allies.
Talking with the Taliban is gaining support in
Afghanistan as thousands of US and NATO reinforcements are
streaming in to reverse the Taliban's momentum. That has
prompted Pakistan, Iran and others to stake out positions on
possible reconciliation negotiations that could mean an
endgame to the war.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, March 21, 2010, 19:30