KABUL – The Taliban demanded a new constitution for Afghanistan andpromised an “inclusive Islamic system” to govern the war-torn country at arare gathering with senior Afghan politicians in Russia Tuesday thatexcluded the Kabul government.
The insurgents’ manifesto, outlined in Moscow before some of Afghanistan’smost influential leaders, comes a week after the Taliban held unprecedentedsix-day talks with US negotiators in Doha about ending the 17-year war.
The Doha and Moscow discussions, though entirely separate, both excludedthe government in Kabul, where President Ashraf Ghani is seen asincreasingly sidelined from key negotiations for peace in his country.
The Moscow meeting — the Taliban’s most significant with Afghan politiciansin recent memory — saw the insurgents praying together with sworn enemiesincluding former president Hamid Karzai as they discussed their vision forthe future.
“The Kabul government constitution is invalid. It has been imported fromthe West and is an obstacle to peace,” Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, whoheaded the Taliban delegation, told attendees at a central Moscow hotel.
“It is conflicted. We want an Islamic constitution,” he said, adding thatthe new charter would be drafted by Islamic scholars.
No representatives from the Kabul government were invited to Moscow butsome of Ghani’s chief rivals — including Karzai as well as opponents in anelection slated for July — were in attendance.
Ghani’s allies in Washington insist Afghans should lead the peace process,and the months-long push by the US to engage the Taliban has ostensiblybeen aimed at convincing them to negotiate with the government in Kabul.
Those efforts culminated in six days of talks between the US and theTaliban in January where both sides touted “progress” — stoking Afghanfears that America could cut a deal to withdraw its troops before a lastingpeace with Kabul is reached.
Ghani has repeatedly said that all Afghans should agree on the need to endhostilities and an eventual withdrawal of foreign forces, but that he wouldnot “surrender to a temporary peace deal”.
– ‘Inclusive Islamic system’ –
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The Taliban consider Ghani and his administration to be US puppets, andhave refused offers to talk a truce.
Stanikzai said the insurgents, who ruled Afghanistan under a ruthlessinterpretation of Sharia law between 1996 and 2001, did not want a“monopoly of power” but “an inclusive Islamic system”.
They also promised to stamp out Afghanistan’s poppy cultivation and takesteps to prevent civilian casualties in a conflict that has killed andwounded hundreds of thousands.
Two women attended the roundtable conference. The Taliban closed girls’schools and banned women from working under their regime, but haveindicated they could loosen some guidelines in line with Sharia law.
“I think all sides are ready for a compromise. It is a good start,” saidMuhammad Ghulam Jalal, the head of an Afghan diaspora group who hosted themeeting.
But images of Karzai and other powerful leaders attending prayer lead by aTaliban figure and dining with the militants invoked anger in Afghanistan.
“If you guys can eat together, laugh and pray together, hug each other whyyou are still killing innocent Afghans?” one Facebook user posted.
The Taliban are scheduled to hold another round of peace talks with the USin Doha on February 25. – APP/AFP
