LONDON, Dec.12: Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday outlined Britain’s new Afghan strategy with emphasis on dialogue but still making it conditional to Taliban renouncing violence and accepting democracy.
The proposed dialogue with Taliban would be conducted indirectly through the Afghan government.
The move is being viewed here as one more attempt by Mr. Brown to distance himself from the military legacy of the Blair era and the hard-line instincts of President George Bush.
The Cabinet on Tuesday approved a three-pronged plan for security to be provided by Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) and the Afghan national army, followed by economic and political development in Afghanistan.
As part of Afghan efforts to peel away support from the Taliban, the government in Kabul will create a new agency dedicated to drawing their fighters away from the militant leadership.
Britain may help fund that agency through a new aid package that will be worth £450 million in the three years after 2009.
A range of economic development projects will be launched in the hope of weaning the Afghan economy off the opium trade.
In some cases, poppy farmers will be directly paid to cultivate other crops like maize.
The shift of strategy will place the onus to deliver on Hamid Karzai, the Afghan President, who will take the lead in opening discussions with Taliban leaders through provincial governors.
“Musa Qala was a good example of what we are planning – once the town was stabilised, people were ready to appoint judges, local police chiefs, start laying on services and putting in power lines,” a No. 10 source was quoted as saying by media here. “But the Afghan government has got to demonstrate they can deliver an alternative strategy.”
The Prime Minister told Parliament that Britain will support efforts by the Afghan government to negotiate with tribal fighters now supporting the Taliban - but only if they renounce violence and accept democracy.
Six years after British troops were first deployed to oust the Taliban regime, the Prime Minister believes the time has come to open a dialogue in the hope of moving from military action to consensus-building among the tribal leaders.
Since Jan 1, more than 6,200 people have been killed in violence related to the insurgency, including 40 British soldiers. In total, 86 British troops have died. The latest casualty was Sergeant Lee Johnson, whose vehicle hit a mine before the fall of Taliban-held town of Musa Qala.
Senior government officials said it was an error to see the Taliban as a unified organisation rather than as a disparate group of Afghan tribesmen, often farmers recruited at the end of the gun, infiltrated by foreign fighters. The aim is to divide the Taliban’s local support from al-Qa’ida and militants from Pakistan.
British officials believe that there are around 5,000 fighters allied to the Taliban in Afghanistan, the vast majority of them tribal gunmen who are paid to fight.
Only a handful of senior leaders, mostly based around the Pakistani city of Quetta, are “core Taliban”, survivors of the regime that ran Afghanistan until 2001.
The Prime Minister said the British military force in Afghanistan will remain at 7,800 as part of a “long-term commitment”.
The long-term British aim is to increase the Afghan army from 50,000 to 70,000 troops with the assistance of 340 British military trainers and mentors, part of an overall Nato training force of 6,000.
In the meantime, British forces will continue to bear a heavy military burden, and Mr Brown said they will soon be receiving 150 additional protected patrol vehicles as well as extra Sea King helicopters.
