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| Afghanistan |
| Rockets Disrupt Peace Assembly in Afghanistan |
| 2010-06-02 |
| Hamid Karzai opened a peace assembly on Wednesday morning to the sound of rockets exploding nearby. The Afghan president calmly asked attendees to remain seated when the Taliban launched a series of suicide attacks and gunfire intended to stop the meeting, which has the goal of winning support for Karzai's plan to persuade the Taliban to stop fighting. "Our main purpose is to disrupt the peace jirga," Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman said, acknowleding that he had sent four suicide bombers to Kabul. "It was a quick response by our security forces," said a presidential spokesman, Waheed Omer, according to the New York Times. " 'All three suicide attackers were killed.' He maintained they did not get close enough to pose a threat to the jirga." With gunfire in the background, Karzai addressed the Taliban directly in his opening remarks, asking them to join the talks. After breaking for an hour and a half, the group resumed its meeting and elected Burhanudin Rabbani, a member of the coalition of opposition presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah, as its chairman. The conclusions of the jirga are nonbinding, and watchers wonder how seriously they will be taken by Afghans, but convening the group was one of Karzai's campaign promises last year. "The outcome is largely preordained, as the government has handpicked the delegates and broadly set the parameters of the discussion," the New York Times reported. "But the event is not wholly without risk. It is already being criticized as being more symbolic than practical, and even as a show of national unity intended to wring money from international donors." Despite some cynical response, Karzai's followers believe the only way to end the war is to open talks with the Taliban leadership and with insurgent-backing Pakistani officials. "I will tell you in two words how to bring peace," said one member of parliament who served as a governor during the Taliban's rule. "First, talk to the Taliban leadership and second, convince Pakistan." |
| Posted by:tipper |