afgan talks
Posted: Sat 19 Aug, 2006 4:27 pm
an -- High-stakes talks involving Canadian and other NATO officials were under way yesterday in a bid to get insurgents to put down their weapons in a key Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan.
The clandestine negotiations, led by Afghan authorities but involving NATO intermediaries, were being held as hundreds of Taliban fighters amassed within 2 km of a Canadian outpost west of Kandahar, preparing for battle.
The unprecedented talks are so sensitive that, officially, NATO insisted it was not in direct contact with Taliban leaders.
'NO OFFICIAL' LINK
"ISAF hasn't been approached by any faction of the Taliban," said Canadian Forces Maj. Scott Lundy, a NATO spokesman. "At this point, no official involvement."
However, intermediaries quietly got involved after Taliban leaders insisted on talks with NATO's International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, or other international facilitators, rather than with the Afghan government, The Canadian Press has learned.
"In fact, they are scared of the government," an Afghan official said of the Taliban leadership.
'A DIALOGUE'
"Their requirements are to talk with (ISAF) or with the (UN). ... They trust these two organizations more than anyone else."
Lundy acknowledged NATO was at least aware that talks were going on. "There is a dialogue under way already with some Taliban in Kandahar province," he said.
Sources said as many as 1,500 Taliban fighters had converged by yesterday in three villages in Panjwaii, where Canadian soldiers have faced their biggest battles since February.
Four Canadian soldiers were killed and 10 others injured in Panjwaii on Aug. 3.
The clandestine negotiations, led by Afghan authorities but involving NATO intermediaries, were being held as hundreds of Taliban fighters amassed within 2 km of a Canadian outpost west of Kandahar, preparing for battle.
The unprecedented talks are so sensitive that, officially, NATO insisted it was not in direct contact with Taliban leaders.
'NO OFFICIAL' LINK
"ISAF hasn't been approached by any faction of the Taliban," said Canadian Forces Maj. Scott Lundy, a NATO spokesman. "At this point, no official involvement."
However, intermediaries quietly got involved after Taliban leaders insisted on talks with NATO's International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, or other international facilitators, rather than with the Afghan government, The Canadian Press has learned.
"In fact, they are scared of the government," an Afghan official said of the Taliban leadership.
'A DIALOGUE'
"Their requirements are to talk with (ISAF) or with the (UN). ... They trust these two organizations more than anyone else."
Lundy acknowledged NATO was at least aware that talks were going on. "There is a dialogue under way already with some Taliban in Kandahar province," he said.
Sources said as many as 1,500 Taliban fighters had converged by yesterday in three villages in Panjwaii, where Canadian soldiers have faced their biggest battles since February.
Four Canadian soldiers were killed and 10 others injured in Panjwaii on Aug. 3.
Its about time those talks took place,and where is blair,having a good time on his hols,whilst our guy's are on a very dangerous deployment. the number of killed is 10. 
have one one me. yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :smilecolros:
