Time for Talks with Taliban

Post Information
Print & pdf

Pakistan’s President shrugs off increased militancy in border region, backs talks with Taliban. The General says Pakistan played no role in creating Taliban and that the West should learn from Pakistan.

General Musharraf’s interview with the Canadian Globe and Mail

musharraf2.jpg

President General Pervez Musharraf said in an interview with The Globe and Mail that talks with the Taliban and other opposition may be necessary to bring stability to Afghanistan. “We have to have a multipronged strategy. In Afghanistan it is only the military strategy which is working now,” Gen Musharraf said, adding that peace could not come from the barrel of a gun. “[The] political element is the negotiations between warring factions. Who are the warring factions? Warring factions are the Afghan government and the coalition forces on one side and the militant Taliban and even non-Taliban … so some form of negotiations between these two.”"Maybe, there are groups who want to give up militancy and negotiate … so I can’t lay down whether you negotiate with the Taliban, but [if] they want to go on fighting, you don’t negotiate with them, take a military angle. You negotiate, you develop contacts with people who are not for fighting.”

Gen Musharraf insisted that Pakistan was the only country that had a military, political, developmental and administrative strategy to defeat extremism. “I would tell everyone: Come and learn from us. We are sitting here knowing exactly what is happening on ground,” he said. “You sitting in the West don’t know anything. So, don’t teach me, come and learn from us. Come and understand the environment. And then decide on what has to be done and what doesn’t have to be done. We are doing more than any other country in the world.”

The general also didn’t back down from controversial comments made last year comparing the casualties suffered by Canadians and Pakistani military. “Unfortunately the people in the West think that their lives are more important than our lives … they think the gun fodder should be from these countries like Pakistan and developing countries. If their soldiers, one soldier, dies, there is a problem, but 500 of ours have died. And then, yet they are blaming us. Isn’t 500 important? … And yet Pakistan is blamed for not doing enough.”

He defended the approach of reaching out to local power brokers as a way of breaking the cycle of violence, such as with the peace deal in North Waziristan. “These are the tribal maliks [leaders] and elders. Locate them. Identify them, deal with them, wean them away. That’s the strategy that should have been adopted a long time back, but we left the field open for the Taliban, so every one is now suppressed and they are scared. Either they have joined them or they are lying low.”

He insisted Pakistani intelligence agencies played no role in the creation of the Taliban, although he acknowledged Pakistan gave the extremists legitimacy by being among the only countries to establish diplomatic relations when Taliban mullahs took over the government of Afghanistan. “I know for sure - 200 percent - that they were not a creation of Pakistan. They were a creation of circumstances in Afghanistan,” he said.He admitted he was concerned about the growing domestic opposition to his government. He did not concede that he had mishandled the suspension of the chief justice, and saw himself as a victim of a larger conspiracy.

Source

Recommended Reading: Bring out the Nails by Anwaar Hussain



Comments

One Response to “Time for Talks with Taliban”

  1. robert frobenius on May 25th, 2007 8:23 am

    Sounds like a wise man to me. President GENERAL Pervez Musharraf Always better to talk than fight but only with those willing to negotiate in good faith. Those that won’t its better to fight not talk. I agree the loss of so many pakitani military is grevious and deep. Each loved their country and were willing to risk it for that love. Each is severe blow to the body of pakistan, but a country is only built on the blood of its patriots. Sad to say. The pakistani military is known for its devotion and professionalism worldwide. Who else has stepped up time and time again to fight for freedom. And paid a very dear price. Just one NeoCon Humanoids opinion

Leave a Reply






Anwaar’s articles appear simultaneously here at Truth Spring and at Soul Vibes in The Pakistan Tribune.


US loses its status as economic world power
DAVOS, Switzerland, 2008
.: ARTICLE BLOCKED :.
ON MARCH 2008
Who links to my website?