US working on Taliban amnesty

2004-04-19 12:19

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

The plan, which envisions allowing Afghanistan's former rulers and Hekmatyar supporters to return to the political scene, is being drawn up jointly by US army officers and Afghan President Hamid Karzai's cabinet, the diplomat said.

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

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

"First is a blacklist of criminals and terrorists, around 100 to 150 ... who could not in any case benefit from amnesty," the diplomat said.

Among them are the Taliban's spiritual leader Mullah Omar, who has never been captured, and Hekmatyar, who is on the US list of wanted terrorists.

A second list of some 200 people "could be forgiven under condition, after being jailed or sentenced," the diplomat said.

A third category lists fighters, militants and soldiers who had not been involved in a criminal case or terrorist activity who would receive an unconditional amnesty.

The programme would tie in with a nationwide United Nations-backed campaign to disarm millions of unofficial soldiers known as the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programme.

The militants would have to surrender their weapons in exchange for a small sum of money, the diplomat said.

The plan has yet to be made public, and a spokesperson for Karzai said he knew nothing of it.

"I have no information on such a project," spokesperson Jawed Ludin said.

Karzai and US army officials have several times in recent months called on Taliban and Hezb-i Islamic fighters to lay down their arms and support efforts to bring peace to Afghanistan.

A spokesperson for the 13 500 US troops in Afghanistan said in February: "There's apparently no more than 50 people who are associated with terrorism and violence. Many Taliban were not criminals ... and we invite them today to join the peace process."

Since the collapse of the five-year Taliban regime in late 2001, several extremists have been reintegrated into the ranks of local administrations.

- AFP