Taliban Look to US for Prisoner Release After Calling Off Talks With Kabul

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Sohail Shaheen

By Ayesha Tanzeem
VOA News
April 7, 2020

ISLAMABAD – The Afghan Taliban said Tuesday they will now approach the Americans to resolve the prisoner release issue, after telling its technical team in Kabul to stop participating in what they called “fruitless meetings” with representatives of Afghan government.

The release of up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners was among the promises in the landmark agreement signed between the U.S. and the Taliban in February.

“We will talk to the Americans and remind them that they made a promise that they need to fulfill. If they fulfill it, this process (of starting negotiations with other Afghans) will move forward. If they don’t, the process will not move forward,” Suhail Shaheen, the spokesman for Taliban’s Doha-based political team told VOA.

He announced the decision to call off talks with the Afghan government early Tuesday morning in a series of tweets.

Shaheen said President Ashraf Ghani’s administration was violating a promise it made in a video conference last month which was also attended by representatives of the United States and International Committee of the Red Cross.

“We all agreed the prisoners will be released on March 31. We were asked to send a technical team to Kabul to identify and verify our prisoners. When we sent our team, the Kabul administration did not fulfill its promise. Instead, it is using delaying tactics,” Shaheen said.

The Afghan government, on the other hand, blamed the delay on the Taliban. Matin Bek, the head of the Independent Directorate of Local Governance, told journalists Monday in Kabul that the Afghan government was ready to release 400 Taliban prisoners instantly, but the Taliban wanted the release of 15 senior commanders who had been involved in major attacks and were believed to be a serious security risk.

If those commanders returned to the battlefield, he said, it might lead to some of the provinces falling into the Taliban hands.

He added that the government wanted to start the process with lower level Taliban fighters and then release the rest in phases in return for a reduction in violence as well as a guarantee that the released prisoners would not return to the battlefield.

Shaheen denied that the 15 were senior commanders.

“These 15 were selected from the list of 5,000 prisoners because they can help in identification and verification of other Taliban prisoners,” he said.

He added that the Taliban have already guaranteed, as part of the agreement with the United States, that its prisoners would not return to the battlefield.

The agreement between the U.S. and Taliban, signed in Doha Feb. 29, said up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners, and up to 1,000 prisoners from the other side, would be released by March 10, 2020, a date that has long passed.

The release was supposed to jump start the second phase of the agreement, a formal negotiation process between the Taliban and other Afghans, called intra-Afghan negotiations.

The Ghani administration has announced a 21-member team to negotiate with the Taliban that seems to have received widespread acceptance.

The Taliban originally issued a statement rejecting the team as non-representative but Shaheen said they might reconsider.

“We received a complaint from them (various Afghan factions) that it was a government team. If everyone says it’s a representative team then we will reconsider our stance,” he said.

Shaheen said the Taliban were still committed to the agreement they signed but accused the other side of violating its terms by attacking its forces not engaged in a battle. The agreement, he said, allowed for self-defense but not initiating attacks.

A spokesman for the U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Colonel Sonny Leggett called these accusations “baseless.”

“USFOR-A has upheld, and continues to uphold, the military terms of the U.S.-TB agreement,” he tweeted but added that they would defend their Afghan partners if attacked.

The U.S.-Taliban agreement said a permanent and comprehensive cease-fire would be an item on the agenda of the intra-Afghan negotiations.

HRW Urges War Crimes Charges For Jailed IS-Linked Group’s Head

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Orakzai

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
April 7, 2020

Human Rights Watch (HRW) is urging the Afghan government to bring war crimes charges against the captured leader of the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP), an affiliate of the extremist group Islamic State (IS).

In a statement late on April 6, HRW said Afghanistan must afford a fair trial in accordance with international human rights standards for Aslam Farooqi, who was arrested two days earlier in Kandahar Province.

Farooqi, whose real name is Abdullah Orakzai, became the ISKP leader in July 2019. The group has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks across Afghanistan that have killed scores of civilians.

HRW said Farooqi’s capture is an opportunity for the authorities in Afghanistan to show that they are capable of securing fair justice for victims of war crimes and other atrocities.

Afghanistan has “a poor record in bringing individuals implicated in human rights abuses and war crimes to justice,” HRW said.

Farooqi’s arrest is “an opportunity for the Afghan authorities to show that they are capable of securing fair justice for victims of war crimes and other atrocities,” added Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at the New York-based human rights watchdog.

Ensuring that victims of ISKP attacks can testify at the trial is “key” in ensuring that “justice is not only done, but seen to be done by those most affected by Farooqi’s crimes,” Gossman said.

From 2016 to 2018, ISKP militants targeted dozens of Shi’ite mosques and other facilities in Kabul and other Afghan cities, killing and injuring thousands of civilians.

The group claimed responsibility for a March 25 assault on a Sikh temple in Kabul that left at least 25 worshipers dead.

Afghanistan is holding thousands of suspects behind bars under “overly broad terrorism laws” but has not charged any with war crimes or crimes against humanity, which are included in the country’s 2017 Penal Code, according to HRW.

The group said that trials of terrorism suspects “are held in secret and often rely on confessions coerced under torture,” and the authorities have made “no efforts to solicit victims’ participation” in the trials.

“Afghanistan owes it to the victims to carry out a credible prosecution and fair trial of Aslam Farooqi and others accused of serious crimes,” Gossman said. “The pursuit of justice is essential if Afghanistan is to bring an end to such violence.”

Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Donors Frustrated by ‘Personal Agendas’ in Afghanistan: US

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Alice Wells

Tolo News: Pressure by the United States continues because of the unsolved political “impasse” in Afghanistan between President Ashraf Ghani and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, which deepened after the announcement of the Afghan election results in February. “As the world gets slammed by COVID-19, with devastating economic consequences for all, donors are frustrated and fed up by personal agendas being advanced ahead of the welfare of the Afghan people,” US State Department’s Alice G. Wells tweeted on Monday, referring to the unsolved political tension in Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).

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Pakistan warns of humanitarian crisis among Afghan refugees

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1TV: Pakistan on Sunday warned the international community over the developing “humanitarian crisis” among Afghan refugees amid coronavirus lockdown. Pakistan’s Minister for States and Frontier Regions Shehryar Khan Afridi told reporters that Pakistan was rolling out a special relief package for Afghan refugees “despite financial difficulties faced by the country”. Click here to read more (external link).

Coronavirus Forces Afghans to Leave Iran

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VOA News
April 6, 2020

An Associated Press report says at least 200,000 Afghans living in Iran have been returning home in recent weeks because of Iran’s COVID-19 outbreak.

The account says the Afghan nationals in Iran are exiting “a country that is one of the world’s biggest epicenters of the pandemic to an impoverished homeland that is woefully unprepared to deal with it.”

The returning Afghans are going back home without being tested for the virus, AP says and will likely “create a greater outbreak in Afghanistan that could overwhelm its health infrastructure.”

Afghan officials say they fear Iran could possibly force as many as a million Afghans out of Iran.

The Intenational Organization of Migration says more than 145,000 Afghans returned home from Iran in March as the virus outbreak surged.

Iran has more than 58,000 coronavirus cases, while Afghanistan has 367, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

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Coronavirus: Mosques in Afghanistan urged to change call to prayer

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1TV: Mosques in Afghanistan have been urged to change a line in the azan – the daily Muslim call to prayer broadcast five times a day – and people have been reminded not to join congregational prayers due to the outbreak of coronavirus. In a fatwa, the high commission of clerics for fight against coronavirus urged mosques to say “sallo fi rihalikum” or “pray in your homes” in azan. Click here to read more (external link).

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US Links International Aid to Fixing Afghan Political Dispute

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
April 5, 2020

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – The United States has linked international aid for Afghanistan to the settlement of a protracted political crisis, which has seen the war-shattered country politically paralyzed and threatens to derail a nascent peace-building deal with the Taliban insurgency.

Separately, an American military spokesman has rejected insurgent allegations it was violating terms of the U.S.-Taliban deal signed on February 29.

The political stalemate between President Ashraf Ghani and his chief rival, Abdullah Abdullah, stems from the disputed September 28 Afghan election.

The national election commission declared Ghani as the winner but Abdullah, the runner-up, rejected the outcome as fraudulent. Both men held rival presidential inaugurations early last month.

“It can’t be business as usual for international donors in Afghanistan,” Alice Wells, the top American diplomat for South and Central Asian affairs, warned in a tweet Sunday.

“International aid requires partnership with an inclusive government and we all must hold Afghan leaders accountable to agree on a governing arrangement,” wrote Wells, the principal deputy assistant secretary.

On March 23, U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo visited Kabul to mediate between the two Afghan rivals but failed in his mission. Pompeo immediately announced a $1 billion reduction in aid to Afghanistan this year, and potentially another $1 billion in 2021 unless the political feud is settled and an inclusive government is formed in Kabul.

US-Taliban Deal under Scrutiny

On Sunday, the Taliban accused Washington of not upholding commitments under the agreement the two adversaries signed in Doha, Qatar.

The insurgent group asserted and alleged that while it is respecting the deal and reducing battlefield violence, American and coalition forces in recent days have carried out airstrikes against non-combat targets in Taliban-held areas.

The Taliban statement listed a number of other alleged violations, including the delay in releasing 5,000 Taliban prisoners under a prisoner swap with the Afghan government, a move it said outlined in the accord.

“If such a breach continued, it would create an atmosphere of mistrust that will not only damage the agreements; but also force Mujahideen (insurgents) to similar response and will increase the level of fighting,” warned the Taliban.

But the U.S. military spokesman swiftly rejected the insurgent allegations and assertions.

“U.S. Forces-Afghanistan has upheld, and continues to uphold, the military terms of the U.S.-TB (Taliban) agreement; any assertion otherwise is baseless,” tweeted Col Sonny Leggett. He stressed that in compliance with the agreement, the U.S. military will defend Afghan security forces if attacked.

Leggett was apparently referring to recent Taliban attacks against government positions that killed dozens of Afghan forces and overran territory.

“The TB (Taliban) must reduce violence. A reduction in violence is the will of the Afghan people & necessary to allow the political process to work toward a settlement suitable for all Afghans,” stressed the military spokesman.

The U.S.-Taliban deal requires the insurgents to engage in negotiations with Afghan political and civil society representatives to negotiate a sustainable peace and power sharing.

But the Taliban insists it is committed to engage in intra-Afghan talks only after the release of all 5,000 insurgent prisoners. The prisoner exchange requires the Taliban to free 1,000 detainees, mostly Afghan forces.

Looming COVID-19 threat

The Ghani-Abdullah feud and growing fears of increase in hostilities in spring come as the threat of pandemic coronavirus looms over Afghanistan.

The country has confirmed the number of COVID-19 infections stood at nearly 350 as of Saturday, including four foreign troops. At least seven Afghans have died from the virus and officials say the number of infections are likely to increase, citing capacity issues.

“We once again call on all parties to focus their efforts on the global pandemic of COVID-19,” said Col Leggett.

The U.S.-Taliban agreement binds the Islamist group to prevent terrorists from using Afghanistan as a base for international attacks.

In return, American and coalition partners are committed to withdraw all their forces from Afghanistan in 14 months and the “conditions-based” drawdown has already.

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