February 25, 2012

PAKISTANIS PRESS TALIBAN TO START TALKS WITH AFGHANS

[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.