Differences remain at Afghan peace conference

[June 03, 2010]  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Hundreds of Afghan leaders held hours of talks Thursday on ways to end the insurgency wracking their country, but remained divided over whether to reach out to Taliban leaders and a host of other issues.

Discussions meant to guide President Hamid Karzai's next steps toward ending nearly nine years of war ranged from strengthening Islamic law to the role of the United Nations and the tens of thousands of NATO forces in the country, delegates told The Associated Press.

Ethnic and political fissures opened up in committee sessions held Thursday, the second day of the peace conference, or jirga, which is to end Friday.

Some 1,500 religious, tribal, provincial and other leaders invited by the government are to issue a joint statement Friday. It is sure to endorse peace in general terms, but any other details were unclear late Thursday.

Some delegates said the jirga appeared doomed to achieve little.

There was general support for Karzai's desire to offer rank-and-file members of the insurgency amnesty and other incentives to lay down their arms, but delegates were split over the thornier issue of whether the government should negotiate directly with Taliban leaders.

The Taliban have dismissed the jirga as a "phony reconciliation process" stacked with Karzai's supporters. They insist they will not negotiate until all foreign troops leave the country.

The militants underscored their opposition by launching a rocket and suicide bomb attack on the meeting as it opened Wednesday. Two militants were killed and three civilians injured, but no delegates were harmed and the jirga went ahead.

Karzai met with leaders of a Taliban-allied group, Hizb-i-Islami, last March and has repeatedly said Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar should be invited for talks if he accepts the Afghan constitution and renounces al-Qaida.

Kabul lawmaker Syed Hassain Alumi Balkhi was among jirga delegates who agreed, saying, "We have to have direct talks with the leaders or there will be no peace."

Lal Mohammed, a delegate representing about 1.2 million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan, said all Taliban prisoners should be freed "to create an atmosphere for talks." "Unless we can offer them some guarantees, they won't talk peace," he said.

But Gul Agha Pirzada, a delegate from northern Takhar province, wanted no mention of talks with Taliban leaders in the final statement.

"We want peace, but these leaders have killed innocent people and they are with al-Qaida," he said.

Also discussed was whether militant leaders should be removed from a U.N. blacklist -- which includes 137 people associated with the Taliban and 258 with al-Qaida -- that freezes assets and bars overseas travel. Some delegates want Washington to withdraw rewards it has offered for the capture of senior Taliban leaders. Omar has a $5 million price on his head.

The Obama administration supports overtures to lower-rung insurgents but is skeptical of a major political initiative with Taliban leaders until militant forces are weakened on the battlefield. NATO troops are preparing a big offensive this summer in the Taliban heartland of Kandahar province.

Delegates broke up into groups of 50-60 people Thursday that were to report back at Friday's plenary.

Mohammad Taqi Mubaraz, a delegate from Wardak province south of Kabul, said he told his group that the ethnic Hazara minority to which he belongs was under-represented at the jirga, and that little could be achieved on such a tight schedule.

"Three days is not enough," he said.

Maulvi Khodai Nazir, representing Helmand clerics, said everyone is his group agreed the jirga's final statement should include strong backing for Shariah, or Islamic, law.

Haji Shomali, a delegate from eastern Nangahar province, said the key to peace is getting Pakistan and Iran -- Afghanistan's eastern and western neighbors -- to stop fomenting the insurgency.

"This fight will not be solved by the jirga," said Shomali, whose province borders Pakistan. "If the U.S. and NATO want their fight to stop then they should work on Pakistan and Iran to stop interfering."

[Associated Press; By KATHY GANNON and AMIR SHAH]

Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez contributed to this report.

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