West aims to pay off Taleban with millions

LONDON - Britain and the United States are backing a new strategy to buy off "soft" supporters of the Taleban in a radical attempt to end nine years of war in Afghanistan.

The plan, to be approved at a 60-nation conference in London today, comes amid unexpected signs of growing political support for the equally high-risk idea of talks leading to a political settlement with the Taleban leadership.

In a telling move, the United Nations security council yesterday bowed to pressure from the Afghan President Hamid Karzai to lift, for the first time, sanctions imposed on former officials who served in the Taleban Government driven from power by the US-led invasion of 2001.

The multimillion-dollar "peace and reintegration" fund would seek to lure low-ranking Taleban fighters, who join out of poverty, rather than ideology, by giving them jobs, schooling or land for farming.

An effective amnesty for these men, now believed to comprise 75 per cent of the insurgency's ranks, means that even those who took part in attacks involving the deaths of British or US soldiers would be rehabilitated.

The UN sanctions had been imposed under a resolution aimed at punishing the Taleban for their support of Osama Bin Laden's network. More than 100 Taleban names, including that of Mullah Omar, the hardline Taleban spiritual leader, remain on the list.

But the move to rehabilitate five former senior Taleban officials, greeted with deep suspicion by human rights groups, could be a pathway to direct negotiations with senior figures in the movement. While they remain on the UN blacklist, they cannot appear in public or attend talks.

The decision was warmly welcomed yesterday by Richard Holbrooke, the US special representative for Afghanistan, who said it was "a long overdue step".

Karzai, who has said he would be prepared to give Omar "safe passage" if he agreed to lay down his arms, is using the London conference to push for more names to be taken off the list.

General Stanley McChrystal, the US Nato commander, said earlier this week that he could envisage some former Taleban members being brought into the Kabul Government.

Kai Eide, the UN chief in Kabul called for the lifting of sanctions as a prelude to the opening of direct negotiations. "If you want relevant results then you have to talk to the relevant person in authority. I think the time has come to do it," he said in an interview this week.

Offering the Taleban leadership an olive branch is politically more sensitive than reaching out to low-ranking fighters, because of what any "grand bargain" may entail.

In 2007, two Western diplomats were expelled from Afghanistan for engaging in contacts with the extremists. There are intense concerns that the movement's leaders could seek to water down the Afghan constitution for example, before agreeing to end the fighting.

Some US officials are concerned that talk of engagement will be interpreted as a sign of weakness which the Taleban will exploit.

Another risk is they could signal a willingness to talk simply as a diversion.

Holbrooke and Joe Biden, the Vice-President, are said to be privately interested in exploring the possibilities.

In London yesterday, Holbrooke played down any early movement towards reconciliation with the "core" Taleban but said the question of "whether there is some basis between them and the Government for common ground" was "very interesting".

Asked what should be done by the Kabul Government to promote reconciliation with the Taleban leadership, he said: "I will leave that to President Karzai", but added that removing the five officials, including the former Taleban Foreign Minister Mullah Mutawakil, from the UN sanctions watch list, was a "noteworthy step".

He stressed that the US had clear "red lines" which could not be crossed. There would have to be a complete repudiation of ties to al Qaeda, a commitment to laying down arms and to participating in a peaceful political approach.

British officials insist that the plan does not involve "bribing the Taleban with cash handouts" or Britain talking directly to them.

The Afghan Government will take the lead in bringing the Taleban back into the fold, they say, persuading them to renounce violence and terrorism in return for aid for their areas and an eventual amnesty.

Mark Sedwill, the British Ambassador to Afghanistan who was this week appointed to head the civilian wing of the Nato mission, said that luring should be the focus before any talk of a political negotiation with the "core" Taleban.

"We can't be hypocrites, we need to look at it in a similar way to Northern Ireland. So some pretty unsavoury characters have to be brought into the system. If you don't do that you risk the system breaking apart."

- INDEPENDENT, AP