Hezb-e-Islami in peace talks with Afghan gov, UN.

[pkd]

Karzai Meets Afghan Insurgent Delegation

KABUL, Afghanistan — A delegation from one of the most important insurgent groups fighting Afghan and NATO forces met for the first time with President Hamid Karzai on Monday for preliminary discussions on a possible peace plan with the government.

Spokesmen for Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of Hezb-i-Islami, and President Karzai confirmed the meeting and said the delegation was also meeting with members of the government and leaders of other political movements.

President Karzai is planning a peace jirga, or assembly, for the end of April and is issuing invitations to a number of insurgent groups as well as to representatives of different factions in Parliament and Afghan civil society.

Not all senior officials in Mr. Karzai’s government have fully endorsed negotiations with such prominent enemies as Mr. Hekmatyar. The first vice president, Marshall Muhammad Qasim Fahim, was cautious in an interview on Monday, saying, “We believe in peace and reconciliation, but step by step.”

He said he had not yet seen the Hezb-i-Islami delegation’s peace proposal, but others who were familiar with it said it included a demand for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops.

Abdul Jabar Sholgar, a member of Parliament representing a moderate offshoot of Hezb-i-Islami, said that the proposal also sought a halt to military operations against Afghans and the establishment of an interim government as soon as foreign troops withdraw, to be followed by new elections.

Among the delegation’s representatives are Mr. Hekmatyar’s son-in-law and Qurab-ul-Rahman Sayyid, an influential former spokesman for Hezb-i-Islami.

American officials have not indicated to what extent they would support talks with high-ranking members of the Taliban or with Mr. Hekmatyar, although in the 1980s, he was a staunch anti-Soviet fighter and received American backing.

Mr. Hekmatyar is widely viewed as one of the most treacherous and brutal of the former resistance leaders. He served as Afghan prime minister before the Taliban takeover in 1996 and led one of four factions that all but destroyed Kabul in the early 1990s.

Unlike some other mujahedeen who formed political movements and sent representatives to Parliament, Mr. Hekmatyar has continued to sponsor fighters in eastern and northern Afghanistan, although he does not live in Afghanistan and is believed to be in Pakistan.


Carlotta Gall contributed reporting.

Karzai Meets Afghan Insurgent Delegation - NYTimes.com

 

[sonicboom]

Al-Qaeda-linked group Hezb-e-Islami sets peace terms for Karzai

From The Times March 23, 2010
Tom Coghlan

The Afghan Government confirmed that it received a peace offer from the al-Qaeda-linked militant organisation Hezb-e-Islami as moves towards a political dialogue with insurgent groups gathered pace.

A spokesman said yesterday that a delegation representing Hezb-e-Islami and its leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a warlord and former Prime Minister, had met President Karzai.

“They brought a peace plan, a proposal, and the President is studying it,” a presidential spokesman said.

A spokesman for Hezb-e-Islami said that a five-man delegation representing Mr Hekmatyar arrived in Kabul ten days ago. It delivered a list of 15 demands. The group’s spokesman, Harun Zarghun, speaking from an undisclosed location, said: “One of them is to set a timeline for the withdrawal of foreign forces and another the formation of an interim administration.”

Hezb-e-Islami was founded as an anti-Soviet militia in the 1980s, when it received US funding. It later turned its guns on other Mujahidin groups in the civil war of the 1990s. After 2001 the organisation split into a legal political entity, which is the largest bloc in parliament, and a militant wing loyal to Mr Hekmatyar, who has been in hiding ever since.

In 2006 Mr Hekmatyar appeared on video to announce that he wanted his fighters to support al-Qaeda operations.

Al-Qaeda-linked group Hezb-e-Islami sets peace terms for Karzai - Times Online

Relations between the Taleban and Hezb-e-Islami fighters have often been close but there were reports of clashes last month in Baghlan province over control of local taxation, which left 50 people dead.

President Karzai is expected to hold a meeting in Kabul next month to establish dialogue with militant groups. A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London said: “We support efforts of the Afghan Government to bring about a peace process.”

 

[ajpirzada]

Karzai holds talks with Hezb-i-Islami

Tuesday, March 23, 2010
First direct contact with a group fighting Afghan government and Nato troops
KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has met a senior delegation from the insurgent group Hezb-i-Islami in Kabul, Karzai’s office said on Monday, an unprecedented step toward peace that may signal divisions within the insurgency.

The meeting with a militant faction that rivals the Taliban amounts to Karzai’s first confirmed direct talks with one of the three main groups fighting his government and Western troops. Although the talks appeared to be preliminary, the public acknowledgment of the meeting was itself a significant milestone after many months of furtive efforts to reach out.

An eventual peace deal could alter the balance of power on the ground in a decisive year, when Karzai is seeking to woo fighters off the battlefield and Washington mounts a “surge” of extra combat troops before planning to start a pullout in 2011.

Karzai’s spokesman, Waheed Omer, confirmed the delegates had met the president and presented a peace plan. Reuters tracked down the delegates — including Ghairat Baheer, son-in-law of the group’s fugitive leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar — at a Kabul hotel, where they were meeting Afghan parliamentarians. They declined to be interviewed.

“As you can see we are here, but we cannot speak to the press,” said Qareeb Rahman Saeed, a senior Hezb-i-Islami official now based in Europe.The delegation’s leader, former prime minister Qutbuddin Helal, was also present.Hezb-i-Islami spokesman Haroun Zarghoun said it was the first time the group had sent senior envoys to Kabul for talks. They brought a 15-point peace plan as the basis for negotiations.

“The main point of the plan is the withdrawal of all foreign forces from July this year, and that this is to be completed within six months,” Zarghoun said on mobile phone. The plan calls for the current government to serve for six months and then stand down for elections to be held next year.

“I felt a very, very positive flexibility and pragmatism in their body language,” said Dawood Sultanzoy, one of the parliamentarians who met them. “It is very, very encouraging.” The US State Department cautiously welcomed the news, though it stressed the US position that any groups involved in talks must renounce violence and support for the in surgency, live in accordance with the Afghan constitution, and sever any ties with Al Qaeda or other extremist organizations.

“Any group that is wiling to accede to those conditions can play a role in Afghanistan’s future,” State Department spokesman PJ Crowley told a news briefing. Meanwhile, the UN Security Council on Monday hailed the Afghan government’s renewed bid to foster dialogue with the Taliban elements who “renounce violence, break ties with terrorists and accept the Afghan constitution.”

The 15-member council unanimously passed a Turkish-drafted resolution that also extended the mandate of the UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), which expires on Tuesday, for another year. The text welcomes Kabul’s renewed efforts, “including through the national Peace Jirga to be held this year, to promote dialogue with those elements in opposition to the government who are ready to renounce violence, break ties with Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organisations, denounce terrorism and accept the Afghan Constitution.” It also lauded Kabul’s commitment to implement an “effective, inclusive, transparent and sustainable” national peace and reintegration programme and urged the world community to help the Afghan government in this regard.

Karzai holds talks with Hezb-i-Islami

 

[pkd]

Foreign forces withdrawal from July 2010: peace plan

KABUL: The foreign forces deployed in Afghanistan will begin withdrawing from the country in July 2010, Geo News reported Tuesday.

Talking to Geo News correspondent, Hizb-e-Islami spokesman Rehman Saeed said formal negotiations were held between the Hizb and Afghan President Hamid Karzai where the draft of 15-point peace plan was presented.

The plan proposed that the foreign forces will start withdrawing from the country in July 2010 and the process will complete in six months.

http://thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=101355
The plan proposed that all the forces should go back to barracks from cities and villages and the responsibility of the security should be handed to the local Afghan forces.

Also, the present government and the Parliament will continue functioning until the next elections.

 

[Spring Onion]

Oh is it? the withdrawl is confirmed by any foreign player ???

 

[freeman]

Meanwhile on the ground the US has been pumping billions into large permanent bases in Afghanistan for years.
I reckon the US is getting majorly pissed at Karzai, I reckon its just a matter of time before he is ousted.
The US at least will in Afghanistan for years to come.

 

[Ahmad]

Foreign forces withdrawal from July 2010: peace plan



KABUL: The foreign forces deployed in Afghanistan will begin withdrawing from the country in July 2010, Geo News reported Tuesday.


.

where did Geo get this news from?

 

[ajpirzada]

its not withdrawal. its going back to barracks where you get doritos. but i really doubt. Hizb e islami is only one of the three groups. mullah omar group is still silent. may be its withdrawal only from hizb e islami territory.
anyways this news is quite speculative so nothing can be said with certainty

 

[ajpirzada]

PESHAWAR: A major Afghan insurgent group has described its talks with President Hamid Karzai as very positive, but said that it was still early to achieve a breakthrough to end the conflict in Afghanistan.

“So far, the talks have been very, very positive,” Haroon Zarghun, a spokesman for Gulbuddin Hikmatyar’s Hezb-i-Islami, told Dawn on telephone from Kabul.

A delegation of the group is in Kabul to discuss with the Karzai administration a 15-point peace plan to end the bloody conflict.

The delegation includes Hikmatyar’s deputy Qutbuddin Hilal, Hezb leader’s son-in-law and Afghanistan’s former ambassador to Pakistan Dr Ghairat Baheer and senior leader Ustad Qareebur Rehman Saeed.

Mr Zarghun said the delegation had a meeting with Mr Karzai on Monday night and would meet him again when he returned from his three-day official visit to China, the first by an Afghan president.

They were also expected to meet American and Nato officials to discuss the peace plan, the spokesman said.

This is a major departure for the insurgent group which had refused to hold talks till the withdrawal of foreign forces in Afghanistan.

In another major shift, the delegation also met its former arch rivals from the Northern Alliance, including Vice-President Marshal Mohammad Qasim Haheem, Speaker of the Afghan parliament Younas Qanuni and leader of Ittehad-i-Islami Prof Abdur Rab Rasul Sayyaf.

The group also had a meeting with former Taliban leaders, now in Kabul, including their former foreign minister Wakeel Ahmad Mutawakkil, Arsala Rehmani and former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Mullah Abdus Salam Zaeef.

Mullah Zaeef, who had been arrested by Pakistan and turned over to the United States, has been vociferously opposing any role for Pakistan in negotiations for the future set-up of Afghanistan.

Mr Zarghun said the 15-point national rescue plan envisaged withdrawal of foreign forces, to begin on July 1, 2010 and to be completed within six months.

President Obama has set July 1, 2011, as the date for a drawdown of US forces. Hezb-i-Islami has brought forward the pullout date by a year.

Mr Zarghun said that Afghan security forces could maintain peace during the transition period, but it was willing to consider peace-keeping forces of Islamic countries, excluding Afghanistan’s neighbours (including Pakistan) and other regional players, to address international concerns.

The plan accepts continuation of the Karzai government and parliament to be watched over by a seven-member national security council. Thereafter, it envisages a neutral interim government for six months to hold elections for the office of the president and a parliament with powers to review the Afghan constitution.

The plan stops short of accepting the Afghan constitution, but is pretty close to meeting some of Washington’s main demands. It also says that there will be no foreign fighter in Afghanistan after the departure of foreign forces, but does not provide any details as to how it will be done. The Taliban have refused to join any peace talks until foreign troops leave Afghanistan, but Hezb-i-Islami leaders are optimistic that the hardline militia could be brought around to accept the plan if it provided a cut-off date for withdrawal of foreign forces.

Hikmatyar’s fighters are mostly concentrated in eastern Afghanistan, mainly in the eastern Kunar province along the Pakistan-Afghan border. He fled to Iran after the Taliban had evicted him from Charasyab, near Kabul, shortly before taking over Kabul, but returned to Afghanistan after they were driven out from power following a US invasion.

DAWN.COM | Front Page | Hezb-i-Islami says talks with Karzai positive

 

[ajpirzada]

Taliban-linked group to meet with UN
By AMIR SHAH and DEB RIECHMANN (AP) – 17 hours ago
KABUL — Representatives of a militant group linked to an infamous Afghan warlord are hoping to convince U.N. officials Thursday that it's the right time for a peace deal with insurgents.
Mohammad Daoud Abedi, a spokesman for the Hizb-i-Islami faction, said Wednesday night that the United Nations asked the delegation for a meeting, which follows talks that the Taliban-linked group had with President Hamid Karzai earlier this week.
He said the group also plans to speak with representatives from the European Union, but an official at the EU office said he had no knowledge of any meeting with the delegation.
Talk about possible reconciliation with insurgent groups, however, has not reduced violence, especially in southern Afghanistan where a major military operation is under way to rout the Taliban from parts of Helmand province. NATO said two service members were killed Wednesday in a bombing, and another died as a result of small-arms attack, in the south.
It is the first time that high-ranking representatives of the insurgent group, led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, have traveled to Kabul to discuss peace. It's uncertain whether the talks with Hekmatyar's group will lead to an end game in the eight-year war, given the group's demand for a quick exit of foreign forces.
Hizb-i-Islami wants international forces to begin withdrawing in July — a year ahead of President Barack Obama's desired deadline to begin a pullout, if conditions allow. But Abedi said the group is flexible on that main point of its 15-point peace offer.
"That is a starting point," Abedi said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "If we start the process, we can be ready by another year or so.
"If President Obama wants the situation to be right for the withdrawal of the foreign forces from Afghanistan, he should start talking and taking some firm, honest steps to make the situation acceptable for that day. That's why we are putting this proposal on the table, to say `If you really mean this, then let's work and get this thing done.'"
U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden has said U.S. officials have no plans to meet with representatives of Hekmatyar's group. Abedi said the delegation hoped European officials would persuade the U.S. government to get involved in the negotiations.
"The ball is in their court." Abedi said. "If the U.S. government would like to leave in honor and leave something behind that the Afghan people and the international community would be proud and grateful for, it is good for them to expedite the peace process, get involved in the negotiations and bring out their concerns so we could answer them and together we could get this all done and bring this ugly war to an end."
Hekmatyar's power has waned over the years and he commands far fewer fighters than the Taliban. Nevertheless, Hizb-i-Islami is very active in at least four provinces of eastern Afghanistan and parts of the north. His defection from the insurgency would be a coup for Karzai and could encourage some Taliban commanders to explore their own peace deals.
Hekmatyar, who is in his 60s, was a major recipient of U.S. military aid during the war against the Soviets in the 1980s but fell out of favor with Washington because of his role in the civil war that followed the Soviet withdrawal. The U.S. government declared Hekmatyar a "global terrorist" in February 2003, saying he participated in and supported terror acts committed by al-Qaida and the Taliban.
The Taliban has publicly denounced Hizb-i-Islami's peace offer, but Abedi said the two groups have a common goal.
"Taliban and Hizb-i-Islami both think that the presence of the foreign forces in Afghanistan is the cause of the war. So if we take away the cause, then what reason would Taliban or anybody else have to continue the war?" Abedi asked.
This month, a Karzai adviser and other Afghans involved in the peace process said the government had been holding secret talks the Taliban's No. 2, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, when he was recently captured in Pakistan.
Maj. Gen. Gordon Messenger, a senior defense adviser for Britain and a former commander in Afghanistan, said he thinks reconciliation will work when the Taliban becomes more desperate.
"I think everyone recognizes that political reconciliation has a part to play in this ... but I also think we can't just sit there and do nothing," Messenger said.
"It's important that when you have reconciliation, you have both the carrot and the stick," Messenger said. "Unless they feel in a weak position, unless they feel this stick hovering over their heads, they are far less likely to reconcile or negotiate."
Associated Press Writer Anne Flaherty in Washington contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hvWEqwq3CrRvaQCmt21MfoYhjZJQD9EL5LHG0

 

[ajpirzada]

UN envoy meets Hezb-i-Islami representatives in Kabul

* First known meeting between group’s representative, Western official * US cautiously backing Afghan government’s efforts to reconcile with insurgents

KABUL: The UN envoy to Afghanistan met delegates from the Hezb-i-Islami, one of the country’s main insurgent groups, in Kabul on Thursday, the first Western diplomat to meet them since they arrived in the capital for peace talks with the government.

Staffan de Mistura, the UN’s new chief representative in Afghanistan, met a delegation from Hezb-i-Islami at a hotel in Kabul, the mission said.

“(De Mistura) listened to their points and indicated that their visit in Kabul and the ongoing discussions with Afghan authorities further underscored the importance of Afghan-led dialogue in order to bring stability to this country,” the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said in a statement.

A spokesman for de Mistura declined to give any further details about what was discussed with the group.

First meet: It is the first known meeting between a Western official and the group since they arrived in Kabul, and comes weeks before President Hamid Karzai plans a peace “jirga” to which the Taliban have been invited.

On Wednesday, Hezb-i-Islami negotiator Muhammad Daoud Abedi told Reuters its leadership was ready to make peace and act as a “bridge” to the Taliban if Washington fulfils plans to start pulling out troops next year. Abedi said the decision to present a peace plan was a

direct response to a speech by U.S. President Barack Obama in December, when Obama announced plans to deploy an extra 30,000 U.S. troops but set a mid-2011 target to begin a withdrawal.

Reaching out to insurgents, in particular the Taliban, which NATO regards as a much bigger threat than Hezb-i-Islami, is one of Karzai’s main priorities and has long had the backing of the UN.

Backing: Washington, while it supports plans to reintegrate low-level fighters back into Afghan society, has cautiously backed Afghan government efforts to reconcile with senior insurgents, provided they lay down their weapons and repudiate al Qaeda.

The UN also urged Afghanistan to repeal a law that offers blanket immunity to those accused of war crimes before 2001. Karzai had refused to sign the law when it was passed by parliament in 2007, but rights groups say they learned just this year that it had been enacted anyway.

The law protects powerful former warlords in Karzai’s government and could shield Hezb-i-Islami’s leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whose forces have been accused of killing thousands in the 1990s. The chief UN human rights officer in Kabul, Norah Niland, said the law “contravenes Afghanistan’s obligations of international law, it green-lights impunity and of course continues human rights violations”.

“This law is likely to undermine efforts to secure genuine reconciliation,” she added.

US embassy spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said, “We seriously take the concerns this law raises,” but did not say it should be repealed. reuters

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

 

[Ahmad]

One of the main insurgent groups fighting the Afghan government and its Nato backers said today that it was ready to make peace and act as a bridge to the Taliban if the US began pulling out troops next year, as planned.

A spokesman for a delegation from the Hezb-i-Islami, which has been holding talks in Kabul this week with President Hamid Karzai, said the group's initiative was prompted by Barack Obama's declaration that American forces would begin to be drawn down.

"There is a formula: 'no enemy is an enemy forever, no friend is a friend forever,' " Mohammad Daoud Abedi told Reuters. "If that's what the international community with the leadership of the United States of America is planning – to leave – we had better make the situation honourable enough for them to leave with honour."

The talks between Karzai and Hezb-i-Islami appear to be at an early stage, and it is unclear how ready the Afghan president is to strike a deal with the group's leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a ferocious warlord who was responsible for reducing much of Kabul to rubble with his artillery in the 1990s.

It is also unclear how much influence Hezb-i-Islami would have on the Taliban. The two groups have had a volatile relationship and clashed this month in northern Afghanistan.

"We have only one common situation with the Taliban, which is the withdrawal of the foreign forces and the freeing of the country from the occupation," Abedi said. "The rest of the things, they have their opinion and we have ours. We believe in free and fair elections, and the Taliban have a different idea."

He added, however, that his group could be "a bridge between [the] two sides".

The Hezb-i-Islami delegation presented a 15-point peace plan to Karzai, which included a demand for foreign forces to begin withdrawing in July this year, but Abedi signalled that the group could be flexible on dates if Washington demonstrated good faith in its intentions.

"First of all, this is not written in stone and it's not the verse of the Qur'an, not to be changed. This is a starting point," Abedi said.

"If we agree on this departure date: OK, the US will leave. Give us a timeframe. They have said 18 months.

"So if we come to an agreement, and preparations are actually taking place ... that is considered a positive step.

"That is considered that the US really means withdrawal. Because right now, there is a problem of trust between both sides."

The peace talks with Hezb-i-Islami will help provide some momentum for Karzai's planned loya jirga – grand peace council – next month, but some observers question the real substance of the talks.

Michael Semple, a former UN and EU representative in Afghanistan, said: "This is really politicking among those people already on board with the process. This has nothing to do with ending the insurgency."

Semple, now at the Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University ,said: "This is a long way from pulling Gulbuddin in. He has had feelers out for quite a while.

"But in reality, Gulbuddin doesn't have much to offer, and there are heavy costs for Karzai to bring him in. He is toxic [politically] and very demanding."

US embassy spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said that American officials had no plans to meet Gulbuddin's group.

 

[Spring Onion]

Himatyar group Hizb-e-Islami is not the active group against NATO and US forces.

Rather his group had stayed low and did not shown much violent resistence against US in Afghanistan.


This would be silly to think that taking only Hikmatyar group on board would create any peace for US.

Karzai is trying to sabotage recent peace talks.

Taliban and its allied groups are more dangerous for US forces hence listening to Himatyar is not going to solve any problem.