President Hamid Karzai repeatedly expresses worries about the future of peace and reconciliation program – an initiative by his administration to end the conflict in Afghanistan through peaceful means. In recent article to BBC Pashtu which has also been translated into Dari, he pronounces the USSR invasion of Afghanistan as the starting point of sufferings of the Afghan people. He also talks how the USSR-backed governments, Mujahidin rule and Taliban regime rose and fell but did not result in peace and stability in Afghanistan.
At the vital juncture where Afghanistan is standing today, the USSR invasion and withdrawal serves as an important experience both for the Afghan government and the United States. Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. To make sure, Afghanistan does not fall into chaos once again after NATO troops’ withdrawal, now is the time for drawing up better plans for resolving the Afghan conflict and preventing the Taliban form ruling Afghan once more. If such a plan is the Afghan government’s peace and reconciliation process, then it is never a bad plan until it is ‘well administered,’ people are kept in loop and current gains are not sacrificed.
The most important section of Mr. Karzai’s article is when he emphasizes on proper management of peace process and says that foreign interference could harm this process. He says, “The collapse of the last communist government and entry of Mujahidin in Kabul did not result in real peace and freedom of the people, in the same way if the current peace process is not administered properly, it can make us weaker and can create new problems for us.”
Why is Mr. Karzai worried about the future of peace process? Is it because he thinks that too many cooks spoil the broth? The astonishing point is that still the High Peace Council (HPC) has not gained any ‘big achievement,’ the Taliban have shown no true intention for peace talks and the violence continues across the country but President Karzai has already started expressing concerns in the media over the fragility of the peace process.
President Karzai talks about foreign meddling in the peace process and says certain countries are trying to distract it. It is quite necessary that he should speak more clearly on the issue as many countries involved in the Afghan conflict, support and fund the peace process and deem it an important way to end the conflict in Afghanistan.