Afghans Protest Against Karzai's Taliban Offer

Reuters ^ | Sun May 11, 2003 10:09 AM ET

[IoCaster]

Afghans Protest Against Karzai's Taliban Offer

Sun May 11, 2003 10:09 AM ET

KABUL (Reuters) - Several hundred Afghans staged a demonstration in Kabul on Sunday against President Hamid Karzai's offer of amnesty to some members of the ousted Taliban regime.

The protesters called the offer, made during a meeting with the clergy last month, a "national betrayal."

Karzai said at the time it was aimed at uniting Afghanistan after 23 years of conflict and extended "only to those Taliban members whose hands are not stained with Afghans' blood." Those covered include a former foreign minister, Mullah Mohammad Ghau.

A spokesman for the governor of the western province of Herat said more than 60 Taliban suspects had been freed on Saturday, held captive since the fundamentalist regime fell in late 2001.

Herat Governor Ismail Khan ordered their release "as a goodwill gesture and to consolidate national unity," spokesman Ghulam Mohammad Masoon told Reuters.

Karzai told provincial governors last month they should not go after rank and file Taliban members who had not committed crimes, but concentrate on hunting down former leaders.

At a ceremony to mark their release, former President Burhannudin Rabbani told the men to return to their villages and take part in the national reconstruction and not to be "deceived by traitors."

Masoon said all the men were former members of the Taliban but had no accusations of criminal activity against them.

However, one old man said some of the men had been unfairly locked up. "More than 40 percent of these people were not Taliban," Nazar Mohammad said. "They had family relations or were forced to come and fight."

The demonstration in the center of Kabul ended peacefully. It was the third in less than a week against Karzai.

Many of the protesters were residents of the Shomali Plain area to the north of Kabul, scene of bitter battles until 2001 between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance, now the dominant faction in Karzai's government.

The protesters echoed complaints already leveled against Karzai by some members of the Alliance.

"The Taliban were and still are the enemies of Afghanistan," said one young protester. "Karzai's decision calls into question his role as president."

Another protester said the amnesty would damage, not help Karzai's efforts to unify Afghanistan's various ethnic groups.

Karzai is a Pashtun, like most members of the Taliban. The Northern Alliance is made up of ethnic minorities.

In recent months, Taliban remnants have stepped up attacks on government targets and those of the U.S.-led coalition in southern parts of the country bordering Pakistan.

[discostu]

Wait I thought the Afghani people were getting ready to welcome back the Taliban with open arms. I wish our critics would pick a message and stick to it.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

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