KABUL, Jan 11: Afghanistan's defence minister said on Tuesday his government had contacts with the Taliban to try to persuade them to lay down their arms and return to normal life
, but vowed no letup in the military campaign against them.
Three years after US-led forces toppled the Taliban, the 18,000 US troops in Afghanistan and the new Afghan army are still trying to quash Taliban remnants and hunt down Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. But Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government hopes to talk the remaining militants down from the mountains, leaving the leadership out in the cold, isolated and without support.
"The Taliban have shown some sort of willingness, some of their elements, that they would like to go back to their homes and restart their normal lives," newly appointed Defence Minister Rahim Wardak said in an interview.
"The Afghan government is thinking about it, to come up with a proper procedure to implement this ... there are contacts but they still need to be further developed," he said. "But the contacts have not affected the military campaign at all."
Taliban fighters still carry out regular attacks on US and Afghan forces, mainly in the south and east of the country close to the border with Pakistan, planting roadside bombs, attacking patrols and sometimes setting up roadblocks and robbing traffic.
Osama is still as elusive as ever, Wardak said, somewhere on the rugged mountain border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. "If anyone knew for sure where he was, they would go after him," he said. "He has been moving close to the border, but most of the time on the other side of the border, not on our side."
Washington and its Nato allies hope that by backing Afghan democracy, aiding reconstruction and helping with security they can build a state capable of withstanding the Taliban threat. The high turnout in October's presidential election, which returned Washington's favoured candidate Karzai, showed Afghans backed the new system of government.
"So it will be very difficult for any subversive and terrorist element in the future to operate in an environment in which they cannot have local support," said Wardak, a former general who quit the Afghan army before the 1979 Soviet invasion.
He said he was working with Washington to build up the new Afghan army so it did not have to rely so heavily on US support. But a permanent US military presence in the turbulent country, at the crossroads of Asia, could not be ruled out.
"It is our earnest desire to reach some sort of strategic partnership with the coalition and Nato countries," he said. "Definitely in the present environment there is more need to have partnerships with different countries, especially with the leading nation of the coalition which is the United States."
Wardak said the disarmament of militias loyal to regional warlords was going faster than planned and there should be no need to send in the army to forcibly take away their guns. But, he added: "I think we have to be ready for unpredictable eventualities. We are ready to deploy anywhere in the country." The army would also be used more to combat drugs, Wardak said. Afghan police currently lead the fight against sometimes heavily armed drugs traffickers. -Reuters
