Pakistan deal may offer Afghans hope, Britain says
Alertnet
A peace deal between Pakistan and pro-Taliban militants could serve as a model for neighbouring Afghanistan where the government and foreign forces are battling a resurgent Taliban, a British minister said.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's government signed the deal on Tuesday in which militants in the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border agreed to stop launching attacks on Pakistani forces, and over the border in Afghanistan.
In exchange, militant prisoners were released, weapons were returned, and the army withdrew to barracks.
Critics fear the treaty could create a refuge for the Taliban and al Qaeda militants. Some analysts saw the deal as ceding control of the region to the militants.
But British Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Kim Howells said on Saturday the deal, under which tribal elders would take responsibility for security, could hold out some hope.
"We'll have to see how it turns out. It's very much an experiment ... but it's got some interesting prospects," Howells told a news conference in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
Howells said the pact was not made with the Taliban but with tribal elders. According to a copy of the document obtained by Reuters, it was struck with elders as well as "local mujahideen and Taliban". Mujahideen are Islamic holy warriors.
"One wonders if it could be applied to the other side of the Afghan border," Howells said.
[...] "It's certainly worth looking at. There has to be consent among the local population if there is to be any progress made. There can't be only a military victory, it's impossible." Link
db: There won't be a 'military victory', period. The recognition of this fact ideally comes before hundreds of troops and thousands more civilians meet their death. It's difficult to see though how serious engagement with armed groups in Afghanistan can take place whilst the Bush/Blair binary narrative of 'good' [the 'civilised world'] versus 'evil' [misc. 'Islamofascists'] continues to dominate.
A peace deal between Pakistan and pro-Taliban militants could serve as a model for neighbouring Afghanistan where the government and foreign forces are battling a resurgent Taliban, a British minister said.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's government signed the deal on Tuesday in which militants in the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border agreed to stop launching attacks on Pakistani forces, and over the border in Afghanistan.
In exchange, militant prisoners were released, weapons were returned, and the army withdrew to barracks.
Critics fear the treaty could create a refuge for the Taliban and al Qaeda militants. Some analysts saw the deal as ceding control of the region to the militants.
But British Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Kim Howells said on Saturday the deal, under which tribal elders would take responsibility for security, could hold out some hope.
"We'll have to see how it turns out. It's very much an experiment ... but it's got some interesting prospects," Howells told a news conference in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
Howells said the pact was not made with the Taliban but with tribal elders. According to a copy of the document obtained by Reuters, it was struck with elders as well as "local mujahideen and Taliban". Mujahideen are Islamic holy warriors.
"One wonders if it could be applied to the other side of the Afghan border," Howells said.
[...] "It's certainly worth looking at. There has to be consent among the local population if there is to be any progress made. There can't be only a military victory, it's impossible." Link
db: There won't be a 'military victory', period. The recognition of this fact ideally comes before hundreds of troops and thousands more civilians meet their death. It's difficult to see though how serious engagement with armed groups in Afghanistan can take place whilst the Bush/Blair binary narrative of 'good' [the 'civilised world'] versus 'evil' [misc. 'Islamofascists'] continues to dominate.
posted by exoplanet at 5:43 PM
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