[The statement,which came less than 24 hours after the Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton met with Pakistan’s foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, in London, is potentially significant because the Taliban leadership — and many of its
fighters — are believed to be sheltering on Pakistani soil. ]
By Declan Walsh and Eric Schmitt
ISLAMABAD,
Pakistan — Pakistan called for the first time on the Afghan Taliban to start talks with the
Kabul government on Friday, lending diplomatic momentum to an
American-sponsored peace process that is anchored in the Persian Gulf state of
Qatar, but which experts say is still advancing at a perilously slow pace.
After a phone discussion with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, on Tuesday, the Pakistani prime
minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, issued a statement calling on
the Taliban and “all other Afghan groups, including Hizb-e-Islami,” a
pro-Taliban militant group with historical ties to Pakistan, to participate in
what is referred to as a reconciliation process.
The statement, which came less than 24 hours after the
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with Pakistan’s foreign minister,
Hina Rabbani Khar, in London, is potentially significant because the Taliban
leadership — and many of its fighters — are believed to be sheltering on
Pakistani soil.
In January, Pakistan facilitated the fledgling process in
Qatar, where the United States wants the Taliban to set up a liaison office for
the purpose of conducting negotiations, by allowing Taliban representatives to
travel to the Persian Gulf state.
Mr. Gilani’s diplomatic overture appeared to be a further
admission of his country’s influence over the insurgents — although the nature
of that influence is hotly debated.
While Afghan officials assert that Pakistan can deliver
the militant leadership to the negotiating table, Pakistanis say otherwise.
“The Taliban are not going to wait for a statement from
the Pakistani leadership to begin talks,” said Rustam Shah Mohmand, a retired
Pakistani diplomat.
Less clear, still, is the Taliban stance. Mr. Mohmand, a
former ambassador to Kabul, said that a “sizable segment” of the Taliban viewed
the talks as “an American gimmick intended to cause a split in their ranks.”
Pakistan’s stance on
the Taliban is also a function of its volatile relationship with Washington,
which has been effectively on hold since November, when American warplanes
killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in a confused cross-border strike.
American plans to move past that case, and reboot
diplomatic relations, were stymied this week by riots in Afghanistan after
Korans were burned at the country’s large NATO base on Monday night.
Under a carefully coordinated plan, the military had
planned for Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to
make a formal apology for the American strike via telephone to Pakistan’s army
chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, on Thursday, according to a Defense
Department official.
Mrs. Clinton was to have amplified on that apology in her
meeting with Ms. Khar, the official added.
But the plan was upset by the violent rioting in
Afghanistan.
Obama administration officials quickly calculated that too
many regrets at once would hand ammunition to Republican presidential
candidates, the official added.
A senior Pakistani official said his government also
wanted the American apology to be delayed until at least mid-March, when the
Pakistani Parliament is scheduled to debate the country’s policy toward
America.
Michael Semple, a Afghanistan expert and former adviser to
the European Union Mission in Kabul, said Mr. Gilani’s statement on Friday was
more about politics than talks. “This is about Pakistan, Afghanistan and
America — not the Taliban,” he said.
But, he added, rhetoric alone was not sufficient to
jump-start the talks, and in the meantime all players were running out of time
to make peace.
“There’s all sorts of things the Pakistanis can do to move
towards reconciliation, but a statement won’t convince anyone it is actually
happening,” he said. “Reconciliation is doable, but the time to do it is in
2012. And I don’t think the current trajectory will get us there.”
Declan
Walsh reported from Islamabad, and Eric Schmitt from Washington.
2 AMERICANS KILLEDAS AFGHAN UNREST ENTERS FIFTH DAY
[The killings, which
happened within one of the most tightly secured areas of the ministry, add to
the drumbeat of concern about a deepening animosity between civilians and
militaries on both sides that had led to American and coalition forces being
killed in increasing numbers even before the Koran burning ignited
nationwide rioting. And the pullout from the Afghan ministries suddenly called
into question the coalition’s entire strategy of joint operations with Afghan
forces across the country, although General Allen said NATO was still committed
to fighting the war in Afghanistan.]
By Graham Bowley ANDAlissa J. Rubin
KABUL,
Afghanistan — Two American officers were shot dead inside the Interior
Ministry building here on Saturday, and NATO
responded by immediately pulling all advisers out of Afghan ministries, in a
deepening of the crisis over the American military’s burning of Korans at a
NATO army base.
The order by the NATO commander, Gen. John R. Allen, came
on the fifth day of virulent anti-American demonstrations across the country,
and it was a clear sign of concern that the fury had reached deeply into even
the Afghan security forces and ministries working most closely with the
coalition.
Although there was no official statement that the shooter
was an Afghan, in an e-mail sent to Western officials here from NATO
headquarters the incident was described as “green on blue,” which is the
military term used here when Afghan security forces turn their weapons on their
Western military allies.
The killings, which happened within one of the most
tightly secured areas of the ministry, add to the drumbeat of concern about a
deepening animosity between civilians and militaries on both sides that had led
to American and coalition forces being killed in increasing numbers even before
the Koran burning ignited
nationwide rioting. And the pullout from the Afghan ministries suddenly called
into question the coalition’s entire strategy of joint operations with Afghan
forces across the country, although General Allen said NATO was still committed
to fighting the war in Afghanistan.
"I condemn today’s attack at the Afghan Ministry of
Interior that killed two of our coalition officers,” General Allen said in a
statement. “The perpetrator of this attack is a coward whose actions will not
go unanswered. We are committed to our partnership with the government of
Afghanistan to reach our common goal of a peaceful, stable and secure
Afghanistan in the near future."
The deaths on Saturday are only the latest events,
including the killing by Afghan soldiers of French troops in eastern
Afghanistan and a video, showing four United States Marines
urinating on bodies said to be those of Taliban
fighters, that have inflamed emotions here. On Thursday, two American soldiers
were shot to death by a member of the Afghan Army at a base in eastern
Afghanistan, as protests about the Koran burning were raging outside the base.
The intensifying enmity toward the American presence in
Afghanistan a decade into the war is casting into doubt a central plank of the
Obama administration’s strategy to end the United States’ involvement in the
war: a close working relationship between Afghan forces and advisers and
trainers who are trying to make the Afghans ready to defend and police the
country on their own. But it is also likely to have an immediate bearing on
several critical negotiations with Afghan officials.
An American official in Washington said the unrest and
shootings of American personnel by their Afghan counterparts would have a
“huge” impact on a slew of discussions planned for the coming weeks among
officials from the White House, the State Department, the Pentagon and
other agencies. On the agenda of the various inter-agency meetings is the
future of the main American prison in Afghanistan, the Detention Facility in
Parwan, which President Hamid Karzai wants handed to Afghan control in less
than a month; how to proceed with stalled negotiations over the Strategic
Partnership Document that is intended to map out relations between Washington
and Kabul after 2014; and the how large a pullout President Obama will announce
at a NATO summit planned for May in Chicago.
The official cautioned that no one was
"panicking," but that the initial reaction to the growing hostility
from Afghans was to convince more officials that the pace of the American
drawdown needed to be hastened, and that sooner the mission was transitioned to
one of training and counter-terrorism, the better.
“You look at this as clearly and objectively as you can,
what you see is that we’re in a weaker position than we were maybe two or three
or four weeks ago,” said the official, who asked not to be identified because
he was discussing internal deliberations. “I’m not sure anyone knows the clear
way forward. It’s gotten more and more complicated. It’s fraught.”
The shootings came on another violent day, as thousands of
Afghans incensed by the American military’s burning of Korans once again took
to the streets in running clashes with the police that claimed the lives of
another five Afghan protesters, officials said, while many more were wounded.
Chanting anti-American slogans calling for an end to
NATO’s presence, the protesters also vented broader fury, storming offices of
the Afghan government and the United Nations, leading to violent standoffs.
Officials said that five protesters were killed on
Saturday, including four who were shot by Afghan police after a large crowd of
about 5,000 attacked the United Nations headquarters in Kunduz Province in the
north, wrecking public buildings and stores. Those shootings left another 51
wounded, hospital officials said.
In the east, 2,000 protesters, mainly young students from
one of the main high schools, marched on the governor’s residence in Laghman
Province, and 21 Afghans were wounded when the police opened fire, at least two
critically. Laghman Province, a normally peaceful region, had seen earlier
protests since the Koran burning and was the scene of NATO air attacks on
insurgents on Thursday, when NATO seized heavy machine-guns and other firearms.
The shooting of the two American officers took place in
the Interior Ministry’s command and control center, a highly restricted area
within the ministry where officials monitor the entire country, according to an
Afghan official in the ministry who spoke off the record because he was not
authorized to speak publicly.
General Allen’s order to withdraw military advisers
includes both those service members operating under the NATO flag, Americans
and members of the coalition of 49 countries here, as well as specialized
military advisers from Special Operations forces who are separate from the NATO
chain of command. There are at least several hundred advisers embedded in
almost every department of the security ministries, but a NATO spokesman would
not give a number. They work on everything from logistics and weapons
training to strategic planning for top level officials.
Most military advisors are in the Ministries
of Defense, Interior, National Directorate of Security (Intelligence), and a
few are scattered in other ministries.
American diplomats had already been withdrawn from
work inside Afghan ministries because of travel restrictions imposed since Feb.
21, when the Koran burning became public, said Gavin Sundwall, the spokesman
for American Embassy here.
The Taliban was quick to claim responsibility for the
shooting, saying one of its members had infiltrated the ministry. But the
Taliban regularly claims responsibility for deaths of NATO forces. A Taliban
spokesman also claimed the shooter was carrying a suicide vest, but that detail
did not agree with any other reports.
Saturday’s deaths added on to 24 Afghans people already
reported killed since Tuesday, when reports first emerged about the Korans.
An
apology by President Obama on Thursday has failed to keep thousands off the
streets in Kabul and around the country, and the continuation of the
demonstrations into their fifth day suggests that the outrage over the Koran
burnings may not be about to end soon. The attacks on broader international
targets and the provincial Afghan government offices as well as American
military installations point to a broader frustration among Afghans.
Altogether there were protests in about six provinces,
although not all were violent.
Further north in Sar-e-Pol, a crowd of about 4,000
congregated at a main mosque to hear mullahs preaching, according to Asadullah
Khuram, deputy head of the provincial council, but the demonstration concluded
peacefully.
There seemed to be a tension across the country where some
leaders called for non-violent protest against the Koran burnings but elsewhere
crowds were riled by provocateurs.
In Kunduz, for example, Ghulam Mohammad Farhad, the deputy
police chief, said believes “there were some people who tried to sabotage the
demonstration and turn it to violence.”
NATO is still investigating what led to the decision to
burn Korans and other religious texts, and the findings of that investigation
will prove highly sensitive.
Early reports said that the books had inflammatory
messages written in them from detained Taliban
suspects. Most of the Korans that were rescued from the flames are still at Bagram
Air Base in a locked container. They are viewed as evidence. A few of the
Korans were taken out of the base by Afghan employees.
Jawad
Sukhanyar contributed reporting from Kabul, and Matthew Rosenberg from
Washington.
