Afghan president gives frank assessment of failings on tenth anniversary of launch of US-led war

Published on Saturday 8 October 2011 14:01

Afghan president Hamid Karzai has said the Taleban are entirely reliant on Pakistan, claiming the militants cannot lift a finger without the Pakistanis.

As the war in Afghanistan reached its tenth anniversary, he told the BBC the war will only end when something is done to rout insurgents from their sanctuaries across the border in Pakistan.

The invasion by the US and its allies was aimed at toppling the hard-line Taleban regime and punishing it for giving safe harbour to al-Qaeda, which orchestrated the 11 September attacks on the United States.

Over the years, the US-led coalition became mired in a battle against insurgents who continue to plant bombs and stage suicide attacks and assassinations of top Afghan figures.

“Definitely, the Taleban will not be able to move a finger without Pakistani support,” Mr Karzai said. “The fact is the Taleban were and are stationed, in terms of their political headquarters and operational headquarters, in Pakistan. We all know that. The Pakistanis know that. We know that.”

Militant sanctuaries in Pakistan will not go away unless the government of Pakistan co-operates with Afghanistan and the international community finds an effective way to remove the hide-outs, he said.

“We’re not saying this in a manner of accusation and reprimand,” he added, anxious not to inflame already strained relations between the two nations. “We are saying this in a manner of a statement intended towards a solution of the problem.”

Pakistan maintains that it cut ties to the Taleban and other militants following the US invasion of Afghanistan, but Washington and Kabul say otherwise.

US president Barack Obama said on Thursday that Pakistan was “hedging its bets” by maintaining ties to militant groups trying to undermine the Afghan government. Mr Obama also acknowledged that the US has not been able to persuade Pakistan that the US goals of a stable Afghanistan pose no threat to Pakistan.

Recently retired Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen went further, recently calling the Taleban- affiliated Haqqani insurgent network a “veritable arm” of the Pakistani intelligence agency. Adml Mullen also alleged that Pakistani intelligence supported militants who mounted a recent 20-hour rocket attack on the US embassy and Nato headquarters in the capital, Kabul.

In the wide-ranging interview, Mr Karzai candidly said the Afghan government and international allies had failed to provide security for the Afghan people. He also said that his government wanted to talk to the Taleban, but did not know where to contact legitimate representatives of the insurgency.

Former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was leading the government’s US-backed effort to talk peace with the Taleban, was killed on 20 September by an assassin who claimed to be an emissary from the Taleban. Upon meeting Mr Rabbani, the killer detonated explosives he had tucked into his turban – dealing a major setback to efforts to find a political resolution to the war.

The Afghan government with support from its international allies has been making peace overtures to the Taleban for years. But after Mr Rabbani’s death, Mr Karzai shifted his policy, saying he was giving up trying to talk to alleged Taleban envoys. He said Pakistan holds the only key to making peace with insurgents and must do more to support reconciliation.

Asked what needs to be improved in Afghanistan, Mr Karzai acknowledged: “We’ve done terribly badly in providing security to the Afghan people and this is the greatest shortcoming of our government and of our international partners.

“What we should do is provide better and a more predictable environment of security to the Afghan citizens and in that, the international community and the Afghan government definitely have failed.”

Violence continued yesterday with attacks on at least three coalition posts in Paktika province near the Pakistan border.

A suicide bomber detonated a vehicle packed with explosives near the entrance to Combat Outpost Margah, which had also been hit with 22 rockets, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.

Combat Forward Operating Base Tillman was hit with a half-dozen rockets and Forward Operating Base Boris was struck with two.

No deaths were reported among Nato service members.

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