High-profile Afghan politicians and civil society activists during the two-day Intra-Afghan peace talks being held in Doha yesterday.
Around 50 leading Afghan politicians and civil society activists met in Doha yesterday with a team of the Taliban in two-day Intra-Afghan Conference for Peace being hosted jointly by Qatar and Germany.
The participants of the hours-long intra-Afghan dialogue discussed a host of issues from killing of innocent civilians in Afghanistan to protection of rights of women and minorities.
In his address at the opening of the talks, German envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Markus Potzel, expressed gratitude to all Afghan factions involved in the intra-Afghan dialogue, which he said was in the interest of efforts to reduce the sufferings being faced by the Afghan people.
He stated that Germany and Qatar had taken the initiative to conduct such a dialogue because they wished to do their part to open the way for peace in Afghanistan. “The ongoing talks between the United States and the Taliban provided a historic opportunity for the intra-Afghan dialogue, which is hoped to turn into constructive negotiations,” Potzel said, adding that the future of Afghanistan could not be imposed from outside but could only be achieved by the Afghans themselves.
The German envoy pointed out that the dialogue would provide the opportunity to build a common understanding by identifying the issues to be resolved and would open the way to engage in joint Afghan negotiations.
The German envoy pointed out that the intra-Afghan dialogue table had brought together the brightest minds that represented a large proportion of the Afghan people. He stressed the right of the Afghan people to establish peace that should protect the rights of all of its groups especially women and children, and also achieve more stability in the world, noting that Germany was one of the largest donors to Afghanistan and had strong ties with Kabul.
Talking to The Peninsula on the sidelines of the talks, Dr Ghairat Baheer, Senator from Hizb e Islami (Gulbuddin) said that intra-Afghan dialogue was complimentary to the US-Taliban dialogue expressing hopes that the activity would be fruitful.
“We had discussions in very frank atmosphere where all participants displayed tolerance. I think the talks will be constructive and we will soon reach a consensus on many burning issues of Afghanistan including ceasefire to end war,” Dr Ghairat Baheer from Hizb e Islami (Gulbuddin) added.
Talking to media, US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, said that Qatar’s hosting for the Intra-Afghan peace talks pushed the peace process forward. “It is a good step and a positive step which is in favor of advancing the peace process in Afghanistan.”
Khalilzad said the hosting the talks was one of the steps being taken in the process of peace in Afghanistan, indicating that the next step was to begin official negotiation. He added there must be a series of dialogues and discussions before entering negotiations and the Intra-Afghan dialogue had come within the framework of reaching an agreement on the terms of peace among the Afghan factions.
He highlighted the participation of women in the Intra-Afghan dialogue, stressing the importance of women presence in these forums as it highlighted the healthy environment for dialogue.
Asila Wardak, member of Afghanistan High Peace Council told The Peninsula that discussions between the Taliban and Afghan politicians, civil society activists were very good in which the Taliban side presented their policy and strategy on civil rights, economy etc.
“We discussed many issues like civilian killings, drugs, women and minorities rights among many others.” She said that the participants emphasized on ceasefire particularly killings of innocent civilians. “We also proposed forming a special committee for reduction of civilian killings before permanent ceasefire is announced,” she said, adding that everybody wanted peace and they wanted to put an end to ongoing war.
Talking to The Peninsula, Haji Deen Muhammad, former Governor of Nangarhar province and member of Afghanistan High Peace Council said that the purpose of the dialogue was the understand each other. “We have to understand and admit ground realities as well like the presence and power of the Taliban, the existence of Afghan government and the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan are ground realities.”
He said that the masses of Afghanistan were tired of decades-old war and their sufferings must end now.
Before the begging of peace talks, Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman of the Taliban told media that all participants of the dialogue would share their views on how peace could be achieved in Afghanistan but the Taliban’s stance would be expressed in the Intra-Afghan summit by the Taliban representative Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai.
