Pakistan arrests halt UN contacts with Taliban

• Last Updated: March 19. 2010 2:36PM UAE / March 19. 2010 10:36AM GMT

KABUL // The arrests of top Taliban figures in Pakistan abruptly halted secret United Nation (UN) contacts with the insurgency at a time when the efforts were gathering momentum, the UN’s former envoy to Afghanistan said today.

Kai Eide, a Norwegian diplomat who just stepped down from the UN post in Kabul, said the discussions that he and others from the UN had with senior Taliban members began in the spring of 2009 and included face-to-face conversations in Dubai and elsewhere.

He criticised Pakistan for arresting the Taliban’s Number two and other members of the insurgency, saying the Pakistanis surely knew the roles these figures had in efforts to find a political resolution to the eight-year-old war.

Pakistan denies the arrests were linked to reconciliation talks. “There was an increase in intensity of contacts, but this process came to a halt following the arrests that took place in Pakistan,” Mr Eide said.

Last month’s detention of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar – second in the Taliban only to Mullah Mohammed Omar – infuriated the Afghan president Hamid Karzai, one of Mr Karzai’s advisers said.

Besides the ongoing talks, the adviser said Mr Baradar had “given a green light” to participating in a three-day peace “jirga” or conference that Mr Karzai is hosting next month.

However, Gen Athar Abbas, a spokesman for the Pakistani military, said today that Baradar’s arrest, which he said was a joint operation with the US, was not connected to any peace talks.

“Reconciliation or talks have nothing to do with the arrest of Baradar,” he said. “It has nothing to do with the talks. Serious arrests are being made continuously.”

Mr Eide, whose comments were first reported today by the BBC, said there was a lull in contacts between the UN and the insurgents around last summer’s Afghan presidential election, but then they intensified.

“It’s quite clear that the level of contact was increasing over the last few months to one point and that’s when you had the number of arrests in Pakistan,” he said. Mr Eide said there were many channels of communication with the Taliban, including those involving Mr Karzai’s representative.

Mr Eide said the negotiations must be led by the Afghans, but that contacts have been made by other parties. “I know many have tried,” he said, declining to identify those who have reached out to the Taliban.

Mr Eide said the UN had met senior figures in the Taliban leadership as well as people who have the authority from the Quetta Shura to engage in such discussions. Named after a city in Pakistan, the Quetta Shura is the ruling council of the Taliban.

He said he believed that the talks, which he said were still in the early stages, could not have taken place without the blessing of Omar, the Taliban leader.

“I cannot say with certainty, but I’m pretty sure,” Mr Eide said. “I find it hard to believe that these contacts could take place without his knowledge.”

Mr Eide predicted it would take weeks, months or even longer to establish confidence on both sides. “The reason why I am commenting on this is, of course, that I have always believed that a political process was absolutely required as an integral part of our strategy,” he said.

* AP