Leader Says Taliban Will Sit Out 2014 Afghan Election
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Version 0 of 1. KABUL, Afghanistan — Despite efforts to broker a peace deal between the Afghan government and the Taliban, the insurgent group will not participate in the presidential election next year, its leader said in a statement Tuesday. The insurgent leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, struck familiar notes in his annual Id al-Fitr address, which commemorates the end of the holy month of Ramadan. He said his movement would continue to attack foreign forces and would support only a fully Islamic government. He denounced the current government in Kabul as a bunch of “hirelings” and urged Afghans not to work with them. Mullah Omar’s message was one of the first public indications that even as members of the Taliban set up an office in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar to ostensibly start peace talks, the group does not plan to participate in the election in April. “Participation in such elections is only a waste of time, nothing more,” the statement said. The office in Doha, Qatar, was meant to facilitate communication between the Afghan government and the Taliban, but it quickly became a source of international contention when the Taliban erected their flag and put up a sign as if the office were an embassy. An uproar from Afghan leaders at the perceived slight quickly silenced talk of peace. The statement from Mullah Omar, while similar to those in years past, appeared to further the animosity. On the question of politics, the enigmatic Taliban leader, who has not been seen publicly since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001, said his group was not seeking to control the entire country by itself, but instead wanted an “Afghan-inclusive government.” “I reiterate once again that we do not think of monopolizing power,” he said in the statement. “Those who truly love Islam and the country and have commitment to both, whoever they may be or whichever ethnicity or geographical location they hail from, this homeland is theirs.” Over the course of the more than 10-year war, the Taliban have come to embrace some of the trappings of modernity. They are active on Twitter and Facebook, and run a brisk press operation that is quick to spin attacks as victories and denounce statements by President Hamid Karzai as farcical. That is, in part, a recognition that the world has changed and that the insurgency must adapt to remain relevant. In his statement, for instance, Mullah Omar embraced education. “In order to protect ourselves from scarcity and hardships, our young generations should arm themselves with religious and modern educations because modern education is a fundamental need of every society in the present time,” he said in the statement. Mullah Omar also urged his followers to avoid civilian casualties when fighting coalition and Afghan forces. The Taliban have issued the admonition for years, but a United Nations report noted that civilian deaths and injuries increased by more than 20 percent in the first six months of 2013 and that the Taliban were responsible for more than 70 percent of those deaths and injuries across the country. Though he condemned the figures as the biased work of an organization working on behalf of the Americans, Mullah Omar still commanded his followers to halt anyone using the name of the Islamist movement to carry out attacks that kill civilians. A suicide bombing in May on the International Committee of the Red Cross, an aid group that the Taliban have applauded for its work in the country, underscored the Taliban’s frustration with insurgents who do not follow orders. “Those people who harm the commoners by misusing the name of mujahid or kidnap people for ransom or follow personal goals under the name of jihad, they are neither mujahedeen nor belong to the Islamic Emirate,” the statement said. <NYT_AUTHOR_ID> <p>Jawad Sukhanyar contributed reporting. |