http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/20/international/asia/20afghan.html
March 20, 2005 Taliban Trek Rocky Road Back to Afghanistan By CARLOTTA GALL KHOST, Afghanistan, March 15 - Two men sat in the governor's garden recently, in this unruly province bordering Pakistan, smiling and nodding as they chatted with him. The men are former members of the Taliban who have taken advantage of offers of amnesty in exchange for returning from exile in Pakistan. "The Taliban are also part of the Afghan population," said the urbane governor of Khost Province, Merajuddin Pathan, explaining why he had welcomed these former Taliban officials. "We want to bring them back for the future of our country and stability. It is very simple. If they accept our laws and our national interest, they can come home." Yet the government's program of national reconciliation, promised last year by President Hamid Karzai, has not proved so simple. The government has yet to announce the program formally, apparently because of resistance in the cabinet and among ethnic groups that suffered particularly under the Taliban, whose militant Islamic government was ousted with American military help in 2001. The United States military enthusiastically supports such a program as a strategy to undermine the Taliban-led insurgency in southern and eastern Afghanistan that has cost up to 1,000 Afghan lives in the last 18 months and killed 30 American soldiers in the last year. Frustrated by the delays, the Americans have started a parallel Allegiance Program. Working closely with provincial officials, the Americans already have accepted 30 fighters with links to the Taliban into the program, requiring them to take an oath of allegiance to the Afghan government and giving them an identification card to guarantee their safety. Although many senior officials in the frontline provinces were initially skeptical last year when Mr. Karzai spoke of an amnesty for all except the Taliban senior leadership, many of them now voice support for the policy. In the absence of the federal program, some provincial and even national law enforcement officials around the country have been welcoming the former Taliban officials and fighters home if they promise to eschew violence and support the government. Afghan soldiers in Kandahar in the south who have fought the Taliban for the last three years said recently that reconciliation was the only way to end the insurgency and bring peace. In Khost, villagers and local officials said it was necessary and humane to allow Taliban supporters to return, except for the 30 to 50 senior Taliban members who, the Americans and top Afghan officials agree, should face trial. In Khost, Mr. Pathan said he had been approached by people representing "more than dozens" of families who want to return home. "We are talking about ordinary people," he said. "They have seen the successful elections, and they want to come home and take part." He said the Taliban, "are losing the war because the people are not on their side." Yet the reconciliation process has been slow and halting. The two former Taliban members in Mr. Pathan's garden declined to give their names, saying that their position was still dangerous. They did not fear reprisals from their communities or the Afghan public at large, but from Taliban supporters and "spies" in Pakistan who were opposed to reconciliation. The men said they had not yet brought their families back from Pakistan. They were also trying to persuade friends and relatives to return but it would take time, they said. "We have to persuade the people sitting out there so they feel comfortable," said one of the men, who said he had worked in a regional political office under the Taliban. "They are hearing that if you go to Afghanistan you will be beaten and put in prison." "One reason that a lot of people have not joined the process is because, as they say, their friends and relatives are still in Bagram and Guant�namo prisons and they fear they will be arrested and put in jail, too," said the other man of prisons in Afghanistan and Cuba where Afghan prisoners are being held. He said he had been a Taliban recruiter. The insurgency was not being fought by Afghan Taliban anymore, the first man contended, but by hired mercenaries who were "taking instructions from others," an apparent reference to Al Qaeda. Mubarak Khan, 20, who also recently returned, said he came back to clear his name and spare his family harassment. He was studying in a religious school in Pakistan last year when American and Afghan forces raided his village near the city of Khost, he said. His cousin Abdul Manan and several other men were arrested, and papers, weapons and other belongings were confiscated. Mr. Khan's name was on a United States military list of wanted men. Afghan intelligence officials said he was suspected of several attacks in the region, and of killing an intelligence officer. His family urged him to return and take advantage of the amnesty offer, and he now carries a laminated card from the intelligence service that says he has been through the national reconciliation process, is known to the intelligence service and should be accorded cooperation at checkpoints. Back home for two months, he helps on the farm and in the family's pharmacy. "I understood that if I came back without going through the government, they would arrest me," he said. "I am just a student, I am not a criminal. But they were disturbing my family, and I did not want that." The American military, recognizing that there is some risk involved, has released a few former Taliban with the assurances of tribal elders that they will vouch for the men's good intentions. Two of those freed have been appointed district police chiefs in the border provinces most prone to Taliban-led incursions. A third man had been accused of involvement in an explosion in Paktika Province last October that killed five people, including a local doctor who was a senior election official. "We had every reason to keep him detained, but a lot of elders came and promised to keep him restrained," said Col. Gary Cheek, the American commander of eastern Afghanistan. He acknowledged mixed feelings about the release, but he said he was following the local governor's advice. Four or five former Taliban members completed the allegiance program in his region in recent months, and more would come if the government pushed the program, Colonel Cheek said. "We are not sure that the government is ready to make a commitment yet," he said. "There are pretty deep wounds," he added, saying that some groups in the ethnic mix were opposed to allowing the Taliban to return "with a free rein." He said he understood the national government's hesitation, especially if it felt the Taliban insurgency was fading on its own. "President Karzai is building a nation, and so why bring in something that can destroy that unity," he said. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Give underprivileged students the materials they need to learn. 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