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| Afghanistan |
| Jirga Endorsed BSA, Called On Karzai To Sign It |
| 2013-11-25 |
| [Tolo News] Afghan tribal elites concluded a four-day Loya Jirga on Sunday, endorsing the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) with the United States, which allows a residual U.S. troops to remain in Afghanistan beyond 2014. A unanimous majority of the 2,500-member Jirga called on President Hamid Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... to sign the document by the end of this year. But the Afghan president has laid out three pre-conditions to the U.S. before he will sig the security pact: transparent elections in April, no raids on Afghan homes and a breakthrough in talks with the Taliban. Washington has said that it's "neither practical nor possible" to delay the signing. President Karzai in his speech on Thursday in the opening of the Jirga said that the BSA would be signed after the April elections. "If there is one more raid on Afghan homes by U.S. forces, there is no BSA. The U.S. can't go into our homes from this moment onward," President Karzai said in his closing remarks at the Jirga on Sunday. The issue of U.S. unilateral operations was the final point of contention between Kabul and Washington last week, but was put to rest at the Jirga as participants voted in favor of the agreement that allowed for America to launch its own missions under certain circumstances. The Afghan president said he believed peace in Afghanistan is "first in the hands of the U.S. and secondly in the hands of Pakistain." He said now that the Jirga has endorsed the document, he will continue bargaining with officials in Washington over his three pre-conditions. The U.S.' residual forced post-2014 would be stationed in nine military bases in Afghanistan, according to the BSA, but representatives of central Bamyan province in the Loya Jirga requested an additional base in their province as well. The U.S. is expected to keep roughly 10-15,000 troops in-country if the pact is finalized. The Jirga has accepted that U.S. soldiers should be prosecuted under American criminal jurisdiction, while also still suggesting that an Afghan government representative should be present during any trial. Article 13 of the accord, which addressed criminal jurisdiction over troops, was considered the most controversial element of the agreement. The same provision proved a deal-breaker in Iraq in 2011 when the U.S. was negotiating a similar pact with Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... The Jirga outcome also includes that the U.S. cannot have any prisons in Afghanistan and it must handover all Afghan detainees to the government of Afghanistan. This would likely lead to a continuation of the Kabul strategy of releasing bully boy prisoners in hopes of building good-will with the insurgency ahead of possible peace talks. The U.S. insists the deal, which has taken months to negotiate, must be signed before the end of this year in order to secure plans for how many troops will remain in Afghanistan beyond 2014. The U.S. government's special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistain James Dobbins on Friday said that the security pact between the countries ought to be signed in the next few weeks. "We feel strongly that the agreement ought to be signed as soon as it's approved by the Jirga and then it ought to be sent to the parliament and approved and this ought to occur at some time in the next few weeks," Ambassador Dobbins told TOLOnews. "The Afghan people are anxious whether the United States and the international community remain committed to their security and wellbeing and frankly the American people and the international community are uncertain about whether the Afghan people really want us," he added. |
| Posted by:Fred |