Karzai concerned over role in Afghan peace talks

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is concerned over being sidelined in U.S. efforts to bring Taliban insurgents to the negotiating table, a government official said Thursday. “Any peace process without Afghanistan’s government in the lead is meaningless,” a senior official in Karzai’s administration told AFP on the condition of anonymity. “The U.S. officials that we are in contact with say that once the office is set up and talks gets underway the lead will be given to Afghanistan’s government. Without that no talks could succeed,” he added. “But so far, the Afghan government has not been involved.” Meanwhile, the United States has been mulling a decision to release prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay in order to boost negotiations aimed at ending the 10-year war with the Taliban in Afghanistan. But State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. was still undecided on the matter. “With regard to Guantanamo... no decisions have been made with regard to any releases,” The United States has discussed with Taliban representatives the possibility of releasing or transferring some insurgents from Guantanamo in return for Taliban concessions, including its breaking with Al-Qaeda, a U.S. official said. No decisions have been made and the negotiations are still in an early phase, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. The official emphasized the tentative nature of the talks. “We don’t know how this is all going to come out,” the official said. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had called for the release of Taliban prisoners in an emailed statement received by Reuters on Tuesday. “The Islamic Emirate has also asked for the release of the Guantanamo prisoners,” the statement said, using the Afghan Taliban’s own name for its movement. A report in The Express Tribune newspaper in Pakistan on Dec. 31, 2011 said those prisoners likely to be freed include former Taliban interior minister Maulvi Khairullah Khairkhwa, former Taliban commander for northern zone Nurullah Nuri, former Taliban intelligence officials Maulavi Wasiq and Muhammad Nabi Khosti, Haji Wali Muhammad, a trader accused of financing the Taliban regime through illegal money business and Taliban army chief Mullah Fazal. The hardline Islamists announced this week that they planned to open an overseas political office in Qatar, a move seen as a precursor to talks to end the long and bloody war in Afghanistan. A senior official in Karzai’s administration told AFP that the Western-backed leader was unhappy over the process as it had not involved his government. “The U.S. officials that we are in contact with say that once the office is set up and talks gets underway the lead will be given to Afghanistan’s government. Without that no talks could succeed,” he told AFP. “But so far, the Afghan government has not been involved.” On Wednesday Karzai’s office said it “agrees with the negotiations between U.S. and Taliban that will end up in creating an office for Taliban in Qatar.” But the government official said it was essential that the Afghan government played a lead role in any peace talks. Nuland said Washington is “prepared to support” the proposed overseas Taliban office that backs the reconciliation process provided it meets U.S. and Afghan standards. “We have said we agree with talks between Taliban and the United States. We have not said that we support this,” the official said in relation to the idea of U.S.-led peace talks. “We only support a peace process that is led by the Afghan government.” Taliban kill Pakistan troops Meanwhile, the bodies of 16 members of Pakistan’s paramilitary Frontier Constabulary (FC) were found Thursday, almost two weeks after they were kidnapped from a northwestern town, officials said. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the killings. “We have received information that the 16 kidnapped FC men have been killed in Shawa,” a small town in the North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border, senior local FC commander Ali Sher Mehsud told AFP. “We are in touch with authorities in North Waziristan tribal region, who have taken possession of the dead bodies.” All the corpses had bullet wounds, he added. A local intelligence official also confirmed the killings. Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan claimed responsibility for the killings, telling AFP: “We taken revenge for continued operations of security forces against us. They are in fact fighting for Americans.” The FC personnel were kidnapped late last month during a night-time attack on a checkpoint in the northwestern town of Tank.