Afghanistan, US working on amnesty scheme for Taleban

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2004/April/subcontinent_April532.xml§ion=subcontinent&col=

(AFP)

19 April 2004


KABUL - Afghanistan and the United States are working on an amnesty scheme for Taleban members and followers of wanted terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a Kabul-based diplomat said on Monday.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s cabinet, and US army officers the diplomat said, are drawing up the plan, which envisions allowing Afghanistan’s former rulers and Hekmatyar supporters to return to the political scene, jointly.

However, such a plan is likely to evoke fierce opposition from the current Afghan administration, which is dominated by commanders of anti-Taleban forces who ousted the hardliners with US help in late 2001, and from ethnic minorities who were persecuted by the ethnic-Pashtun-dominated Taleban.

Under the scheme, members of Afghanistan’s deposed hardline Taleban and followers of Hekmatyar’s radical Hezb-i Islami organisation would be divided into three categories, ranging from those who would never be offered an amnesty to those who would receive it unconditionally.

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[RafterMan]

1. It's about time

Between this and the Baathist thing, it sounds like there has been a significant shift in thinking at a pretty high level in the administration. Were there any recent hirings/firings that I missed? It's hard to imagine any of that crew changing their minds about anything.

[Solly Mack]

2. So typically American

making deals with the one-time bad guy to gain the illusion of a democratic victory while maintaining the tyrannical control.

Baathists back in charge in Iraq..and the Taliban back in charge in Afghanistan...


remind me again, Shrub, on why you sent soldiers to their deaths and murdered thousands of civilians?

[July]

3. But no flip-flops here.

We tried and sent to prison some Americans for training with the Taliban.

Now we're going to give amnesty to actual Taliban members?

Is this "reckless flexibility"?

[NNN0LHI]

4. Why didn't Bush try this first if he could not beat them?

Just who in the hell do we have in cages in Gitmo?

Don