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Afghan Taliban reject talks, again, violence soars

15 November 2010 18:03 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. The Taliban in Afghanistan remain utterly opposed to peace talks despite slow progress toward reconciliation, their leader said Monday after NATO forces suffered their worst losses in months in a spike in violence, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
Mullah Mohammad Omar, the secretive, one-eyed leader of the Afghan Taliban, issued a statement just four days before NATO leaders will gather for a summit in Lisbon where Afghanistan will be the top of the agenda.
Violence across Afghanistan was already at its worst since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001, but a dramatic increase in attacks over the past four days will be a sobering message for NATO leaders.
Military and civilian casualties are at record levels and, while both sides have been talking up recent success on the battlefield, there is growing acceptance of the need for a negotiated settlement to the conflict.
Omar reiterated that would never be possible until all foreign troops -- now at about 150,000 -- left Afghanistan, labeling talk of negotiations "mere propaganda."
"The cunning enemy which has occupied our country is trying, on the one hand, to expand its military operations ... and, on the other hand, wants to throw dust in the eyes of the people by spreading the rumors of negotiation," Omar said in a statement.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has included eventual talks with the Taliban as part of a wider reconciliation plan, but Afghan and U.S. officials have played down confused and unconfirmed reports about talks with high-level insurgents, saying any contacts so far have only been preliminary.
Karzai’s peace plan will also be addressed in Lisbon, with Afghanistan setting the ambitious target of 2014 for its forces to take over complete security responsibility.
U.S. President Barack Obama plans to begin a gradual drawdown of U.S. forces from July 2011. The chance of talks and the recent surge in violence will also play on his mind when he reviews his Afghanistan war strategy next month.
Many European NATO leaders are under pressure from an increasingly skeptical public to justify their continued support for the costly and drawn-out conflict.
In a weekend interview with The Washington Post newspaper, Karzai left little doubt that he thought it was time for foreign troops to begin cutting back on operations and reducing their visibility.
The interview also underscored his often uneasy relationship with Washington, which Karzai described as "grudging," although his office tried to smooth over the appearance of division.
"The relationship is maturing, the room for substantive reflection on both sides is widening, and this is something that is going to take us to another level of partnership," Karzai’s spokesman, Waheed Omer, told reporters.
Karzai is also thought to have an uneasy relationship with U.S. General David Petraeus, the overall commander of foreign troops in Afghanistan and author of the counterinsurgency strategy. Omer said Karzai was not a critic of the overall strategy but had expressed his views on how it could be improved.
CORRUPTION, BRIBES
Endemic corruption in Afghanistan has badly damaged Karzai’s relationship with his Western backers, leaving them to question whether they are dealing with a credible partner, another issue that will be considered in Lisbon.
Karzai won a fraud-marred presidential election last year and there are still no final results from September 18 parliamentary elections after thousands of complaints were lodged.
The U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) said it had finished verifying 2,495 complaints that could affect the outcome and would forward its findings to election officials so final results could be announced as soon as possible.
Scores of candidates have alleged bribe-taking or fraud by election officials and called for a new poll.
Afghan officials have called the election a success despite almost a quarter of the votes cast being thrown out as tainted.
International observers have been more cautious, saying it was remarkable the poll was conducted at a time of war but also noting there had been "considerable fraud."
With no new parliament on the immediate horizon, Karzai’s government still has a shaky look and some ministries are still being run by caretakers.
At the same time, there seems little hope of any immediate end to the violence. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said Monday five of its troops had been killed in a clash with insurgents in the east Sunday, its worst loss in a single incident in six months.
A total of at least 645 have been killed so far in 2010, by far the deadliest year of the war.
Also Monday, the Taliban said it had fired rockets at an ISAF base in eastern Kunar province, setting ablaze a huge fuel container. In the north, nine police and militia and eight insurgents were killed in a pitched gunbattle in Kunduz.