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KABUL: Foreign forces in Afghanistan are still ignoring Afghan culture and traditions, such as informal local justice systems, leading to friction between the two sides, leaders at a gathering of tribal elders have said.
Dozens of tribal chiefs from Afghanistan’s southern provinces, kingmakers in the heartland of the growing Taliban-led insurgency, gathered in Kabul from Monday for the US-sponsored meeting meant to better coordinate formal Afghan judicial procedures and the strongly independent southern tribes.
But many at the three-day Southern Regional Tribal Elders’ Network meeting took the opportunity to air grievances over governance and the way foreign troops operate.
Mohammad Aman from Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, accused US forces of arresting innocent villagers while hunting for Taliban insurgents and disrupting the privacy of villagers while conducting raids, especially at night.
“They pay no attention to our culture and tradition,” Aman said, adding Nato-led forces sometimes ignored Afghan government requests for the release of what it said were innocent people.
“Then you are not a guest, you are the host,” Aman said.
Nato commanders have tightened engagement rules in the past year in a bid to cut down on civilian casualties, especially those caused by air strikes, a major source of friction between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Western backers.
In March, International Security Assistance Force commanders ordered that raids at night could only be carried out when there are Afghan security forces present.
Some tribal leaders however questioned how closely the rules, and the Afghan constitution, were being followed.
“We have drawn up a constitution in Afghanistan. How much have foreign forces and our own government observed it?” said Haji Mir Agha, a chief from Uruzgan province.
BETTER TREATMENT
Analysts say civilian casualties and night raids are an obstacle to Afghan and Nato-led attempts to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Afghans, and often encourage them instead to join the Taliban-led insurgency.
Aman told the meeting some villagers received better treatment during the Soviet occupation of the 1980s and said foreign troops would never win over Afghan people as long as they ignored local customs and culture.
This included the Afghanistan's informal justice system.
For hundreds of years, tribal elders have settled legal disputes over issues such as land and family matters. This is especially the case in the south, where majority Pashtuns dominate.
A justice ministry official at the meeting praised the tribal leaders for their role and said Kabul was working on a way to strengthen that informal system, while also making sure it did not violate Islamic and international laws.
Kandahar’s Aman however said the group would discuss the often brutal justice dispensed by the Taliban during their rule, which he said many still supported because it was seen as quick and not corrupt.
Some of the tribal chiefs at the three-day meeting asked not to be filmed or quoted for fear of retribution by the Taliban, who still hold sway in many areas of the south and east.
Others had refused to take part at all, Uruzgan’s Agha said.
A small group of women, some tightly covering their faces with head scarves, also took part in the meeting, sponsored by USAID, the US government’s aid arm, in a Kabul hotel. — Reuters
