Paying off the Taliban - Incentive or Bribe? (News Feature)

By Anna Tomforde Jan 28, 2010, 16:00 GMT

London - The Peace and Reintegration Trust Fund established at the London conference on Afghanistan is being hailed as an 'economic alternative' by its creators and condemned as 'paying off the Taliban' by its critics.

There can be little doubt, however, that the idea of the fund, aimed at inciting 'moderate' elements of the Taliban to lay down their arms, is as much part of a new strategy on Afghanistan as proof of the realization that the conflict cannot be solved by military means alone.

The fund, if operated well by the Afghan government, was a vital element in securing long-term peace and stability in the country, European Union foreign policy director Catherine Ashton said.

'In any conflict anywhere in the world, people get caught up in it who need to go home. They need to go back to their communities at some point and pick up their lives and be part of that community and you need to help them do it,' Ashton told German Press Agency dpa.

'It has to be done well, has to be Afghan-led, has to be within the sensitivities of the population, but needs to happen if we're going to see a peaceful and secure Afghanistan in the long term,' she said.

However for Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has emerged weakened from last autumn's elections, the commitment to reconciliation appears something that is crucial to his survival.

'We must reach out to all of our countrymen, especially our disenchanted brothers who are not part of al-Qaeda or other terrorist networks,' he told the conference.

Karzai said he would establish a National Council for Peace and Reconciliation and convene a peace jirga - an assembly of elders - a move that has caused some disquiet in the West where it is feared that such fora could be hijacked by hardline insurgent leaders.

His government would ask all its neighbours to support the plan but hoped that, especially, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia would 'play a prominent role to guide and assess the peace progress,' said Karzai.

For British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the conference host, the idea of the fund was a bit harder to sell. The Afghan conflict, increasingly unpopular in Britain, has so far cost 251 British lives and its human and economic impact is playing into an election year.

It costs the British government almost 4 billion pounds (6.5 billion dollars) a year to keep some 9,500 soldiers in Afghanistan.

'Today we are establishing an international trust fund to provide an economic alternative for those who have none, ... but for those insurgents who will not renounce violence, we have no alternative but to pursue them militarily,' Brown said.

'There is no reconciliation with the al-Qaeda element who believe that the murder of people is the expression of a perverted view of Islam,' warned Brown.

In his view, it would be possible to approach Taliban supporters 'who are easily divided because most of them have got different reasons for joining this insurgency.'

Brown said the proposals should offer incentives to low-and middle-ranking Taliban fighters to abandon their armed struggle against British and other NATO troops.

Under the scheme, jobs in security forces and agriculture or education would be offered in a bid to attract insurgents who were not ideologically committed but joined the fight because of poverty - which it is thought could amount to up to 80 per cent of their number.

If successful, it is hoped that it would eventually attract more senior members, although officials acknowledge that there are many 'irreconcilables' who will have to be fought militarily.

However, Taliban leaders have dismissed the incentive system as a 'trick' that would not work, a criticism repeated by Afghan civil activist groups on the fringes of the conference.

They urged the international community to oppose the funding of 'any programme that offers further support of terrorism and the Taliban,' a statement distributed at the conference said.

No country or organization had the right to appoint 'criminals' or those who violated women's and men's rights to governing bodies, it said in a reference to the plans to offer moderate ex-fighters a role in a future government.

'We cannot support such a plan, destined to fail, which will bring about insecurity in Afghanistan,' it added.

'Now everyone will become a Taliban,' said one woman representative about the plan.