As Afghan government and international community are making every attempt to reconcile with Taliban and persuade them to stop violence, break links with international terrorist networks and accept Afghan constitution, lack of transparency in the process and continued and unabated reconciliatory messages from the president and some international officials are giving rise to distrust among those politicians and people who have been the victims of Taliban's atrocities over the last 15 years.
Recently, the US Vice President Joe Biden in an interview with the Newsweek magazine stated, "Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy. That's critical," adding that "There is not a single statement that the (US) President has ever made in any of our policy assertions that the Taliban is our enemy because it threatens US interests.
If, in fact, the Taliban is able to collapse the existing government, which is cooperating with us in keeping the bad guys from being able to do damage to us, then that becomes a problem for us. So there's a dual track here."
The remarks prompted negative reactions in Afghanistan, requiring the US ambassador in Kabul to provide explanations. On Saturday, December 31, the last day of 2011, which has been a deadly year for international forces and Afghan government and which saw the assassination of peace chief negotiator, professor Burhan ud din Rabbani, president Karzai praised the statement made by the US vice president.
He said, "We are very happy that the US government has announced that Taliban are not their enemy. We are very happy with this news in that the pretext for annoying, killing Afghan people will disappear." In the meanwhile, the ongoing efforts by the US administration to settle some former Taliban officials in Qatar to advance peace talks with the militants are viewed by Afghans to be a compromise on democracy and the achievements of last ten years.
On Saturday December 31, 2011, the head of National Front of Afghanistan, Ahmad Zia Massoud told a gathering in Kapisa, "The government is somehow supporting the Taliban and is trying to merge the group in the political structure of the government.
The government is working against the interests of all Afghans, but considers every tiny interest of the Taliban." If negotiation efforts by Afghan government and international community are not made transparent, public distrust will continue to grow and spread in the country.
If this distrust is not dispelled, any bid for political settlement will not produce any long-term results. Attempts to provide for and accommodate Taliban's interests at the cost of ignoring those who have supported a democratic system over the last ten years will lead to new political fragmentation with dire consequences in the country.
Efforts must be made to reintegrate Taliban and other insurgents into the fold and power structures provided that they accept the current democratic process but this must not result in exclusion of others. With this being said, it can be mentioned that the current political setting is one filled with unprecedented skepticism and distrust in the last ten years due to lack of clarity and transparency in the policies pursued by Afghan government and international community.
This is extremely detrimental to the future course of peace and democratic political stability in the country given the fact that relations among political actors are yet to turn civil after years of infighting.