By: Ehsan Fata
No nation understands and shares the suffering, atrocity and angst caused to Afghans by the half a century long conflict and violence. More than a million innocent Afghans have been forced to immigrate and thousands have been displaced and more than a million innocent Afghan men, women, children and adolescents have been massacred by the savage of the war. The social, political and economic infrastructure of the country has been reduced to rubble.
We proudly admire the great resilience and prowess Afghans have shown and gallantly embraced the challenges and hardship imposed on them by the blight of conflict and war. The sheer ferocity of the Afghan brutal conflict could have been beyond the endurance of any other nation, if experienced. The time has arrived to place definitive ceasefire and perpetual peace at the center of all the struggles, because no war and conflict is more futile than the one not supplemented with perpetual peace and harmony. Afghans would only prosper and thrive as a nation while living in peace and harmony. Stable and long lasting peace can only indemnify the losses of the brutal conflict, heal the painful wound and social fragmentation and provide solace to those who lost their loved ones in the atrocious conflict and violence. Hence, Afghans must express their allegiance to peace process and commit al their efforts on constructive dialogue resulting in permanent cessation of hostility and long lasting peace in Afghanistan.
Every peace process is consisted of at least three stages described succinctly below:
- Peace Agenda: The key to successful inception of peace negotiation is to have an accurate agenda that all the parties have consensus on every point for discussion at the negotiating table. The crucial agenda for peace talk is all parties having unity and unanimity of views to end conflict, cease hostility, eager to integrate to a peaceful social and political life and uniquely willing to eschew resorting to violence in pursuing their political goals. The other agenda unique to the Afghan peace process is international military presence in the country. It is an agenda that ought to be discussed with the Afghan government because as per the provision of the bilateral security agreement, the government has consented to US and allies’ military presence in the country and Taliban ought to dissuade the government to abrogate the agreement. So far, Afghanistan peace process does not encompass any agenda that is shared by all the parties. Afghans are perplexed by the ambiguity of the process and all their pleas for peace sounds hollow.
- Peace Negotiation: Flaws and incapability to reach a settlement is the distinguished features of peace talks. To remedy the flaws and incapability that impede peace talks from making substantial progress, one has to study and scrutinize the previous peace negotiations and agreements inked around the world to learn practical lessons.
The peace agreement between the Government and Hezb-e- Islami of Hekmatar adds to our trove of knowledge and experience to foment the efficacy of the Afghans involvement in peace talks with the Taliban. Measuring the impacts of Hezb-e-Islami peace deal on security condition of the country can enable us to be more focused on concluding a deal that would be conducive to the Afghanistan’s security situation and get the peace efforts with Taliban out of the current impasse.
The other key factor to remove the stalemate of the current peace talks is to have a realistic expectation in terms of having a perfect peace agreement.
Afghans have to admit that every peace talks and agreement is far from being exhaustive and there is no- perfect peace deal, because a perfect peace deal for one side shall be a disaster for the other side of negotiation.
The beauty of the successful peace deals are when all parties placate each other by giving concessions and accommodating each other’s concerns. Such concessions shall be included but not limited to sparing a portion of seats in the houses of parliament, certain positions in the states, financial package, and release of prisoners or even compromise on justice. For any compromise on justice, the state would require to consult and seek the consent of those afflicted by the conflict. For instance, Colombian Peace Agreement encompasses allocation of 5 seats in each house of the parliament for FARC-EP, financial packages and series of reforms of rural area. Without such approach, all the efforts shall be abortive and peace talks would end up without a decisive outcome. Experience shows that peace talks often require posturing and tedious negotiation. The process is both ambiguous and time consuming, so Afghans should hold on their nerves and patience and do not allow the longevity and ambiguity of the process to affect their hope and desire for peace. The Colombian Peace Talks got underway with a six point agenda on September 2012 and ended up with a final agreement signed by all the parties on August 2016.
Successful Peace talks is not only dependent on influential and inclusive delegation comprising of political, social and civil forces, also requires independent and impartial experts to provide technical supports and expertise. The other important components of peace talks are the involvement of at least a two country representatives to serve as observers and witnesses throughout the duration of the peace talks. Kingdom of Norway and Republic of Cuba served as witnesses to the Colombian peace talks with Republic of Venezuela and Chile committed themselves to the role of observers.
Key Principles of Peace Agreement
Democracy: consolidation and expansion of democratic values should form the foundation of Afghanistan – Taliban peace agreement. Only the essence of democracy would allow the inclusion and incorporation of all new forces including those laying down their weapons to the political, social and economic scenes of Afghanistan. Democracy shall pave the way for uncensored debate on key national issues and find amicable solution to outstanding problems caused by callous violence and bloodshed in the country. Furthermore, democracy allows to break the power and influence of political elites and curb their tendency to recurrence of conflict and violence.
Key Rights: respect for human rights and the rights of men, women, children and conflict victims should be guaranteed at all costs in the peace agreement. Given the fact that women have been the major victims of the ongoing conflict and violence in Afghanistan, the agreement should encompass their rights.
The women anxiety and angst about the ongoing peace process should be heard and must not be deprived from being involved in any peace building and decision making process. There is no more deplorable ploy other than excluding the Afghan women from peace process and ignoring their legitimate demands.
Coexistence: The peace and reconciliation agreement must encompass the promotion and dissemination of brotherhood and coexistence. No–bigotry, discrimination and unfair distribution of resources should form the essence of the agreement, because discrimination, prejudices and unjust distribution of power and resources are the root cause of the conflict and violence in the country and have led to an atmosphere of distrust and skepticism not only between the government and Taliban, but also among the people and resulted the divergence of the Afghan Society. The peace agreement should serve to end the conflict and allow the incorporation of the Taliban into social and political life. The peace agreement should also provide the platform for a holistic reconciliation among the masses in the Afghan society and contribute to dent the wall of distrust and skepticism among the people and corroborate the spirit of coexistence, social and political convergence.
Political Integration: The peace agreement must ensure the integration of the Taliban into social and political life in Afghanistan and transform them into a political force. The integration is not only the central pillar of ending up conflict, also confirms Taliban’s sincerity towards the peace process and their commitments of laying down weapons and becoming a non –armed political force.
Respecting individual freedom, freedom of expressions, women rights, freedom of movement and any other constitutionally guaranteed rights are complementary to the political settlement of Taliban into Afghanistan.
- Peace Building: Building peace and harmony is a monumental task and inking an agreement between the Taliban and the Afghan government certainly does not mean job is done. In fact, that means the beginning of the toughest phase of work, which is peace building with both the government and Taliban having equal obligation to capitulate to the terms and condition of the agreement and dissipate their energy and resources to enforcing the agreement.
Major Peace Building Tasks
Election: firstly, peace negotiation takes precedence over holding election, because peace-building task initiates by subsequent election as an opportunity for the incorporation of Taliban into political process and allowing them to embark on their non- violent political marathon. An election before the peace agreement shall multiply all the peace efforts to zero and prolongs conflict and violence in the country. Hence, we must accept the delay in holding the election as a concession for peace. To prevent this concession from being outlandish, we must shift all our focus and diligence on peace process.
Secondly, the peace building process should enshrine reform of the election process.
The electoral reform and paving the way for a free, fair and transparent election is pivotal for at least the following reasons:
- To assure the Taliban that they are participating in a free and fair election that is well-safeguarded against any attempts of manipulation;
- To assure the Afghans that only their participation and voting is the decisive force for deciding the winner and losers of the election;
- To convince the political oppositions that all the necessary safeguards are in place to protect the election against any encroachment by the government;
- The Afghans to express preference of election as the only ploy for transfer of power over any other medieval way.
Thirdly, the election has lost impetus among the masses due to the bitter experience of 2014 presidential election and the 2018 parliamentary election. Rightly, they are out of blame because the rigged previous elections have contributed not only to doubting the process, but also seen as a process always contrived to extend and prong government terms in power. Moreover, the people are perturbed by granting the former election commission officials impunity for the frauds they perpetrated and allowing them to continue living on public larges and treasury. In order to resituate the integrity of the electoral process and address the considerable level of anxiety and angst that exist about the transparency of election, which is detrimental for the peace building process and the future of democracy in Afghanistan, the Afghans have to focus on reforming the electoral process and ensure a free, fair and inclusive election as a requirement for building peace and perpetuating this very democratic way of transfer of power in the country. Afghan must remind themselves of the price of recurrence of rigged 2014 and 2018 elections would be hefty and the outcome shall be catastrophic.
Disarmament: Disarmament is the key to end conflict and cession of hostility and violence. A thorough and pervasive disarmament of the Taliban shall be the foundation of an impregnable peace and stability in Afghanistan and serves a preamble to building confidence and trust between the government and Taliban. The Taliban shall be the ultimate beneficiary of such disarmament, because it is going to test their sincerity to the process and their commitment to become a political force and not resorting to armed conflict and violence in pursuing their political agendas. The pervasive disarmament would abolish the culture of resolving disputes with the menace of AK 47. However, the success of a thorough and pervasive disarmament shall be dependent to preparing a precise account of weapons and ammunition being used and stashed in the country by all the armed groups, particularly the Taliban.
The veracity of such figures should be attested by an independent party and the disarmament to take place in phases under the UN auspices and weapons collected and destroyed by the UN. The Afghans experience of disarmament issue in the peace agreement with Hezb-e-Islami indicates that it has been both vague and lacking any definition and mechanism for the process. Thus, the agreement had little to offer on improving the security situation of the country.
Monitoring and Evaluation: Peace building process and the enforcement of the agreement can only be measured by a comprehensive evaluation of both government and Taliban’s honest approach to the commitments they agreed upon by the international community with punitive measure in place for any failure in enforcing the agreement or any lethargic behavior shown by the government or Taliban in delivering any of their commitments. Given the necessity of monitoring and evaluation, the agreement with Hez-e-Islami has not been conducive to the situation and both sides accusing each other of not living up to their commitments under the agreement.
Conclusion: For the very first time, all national, international and regional forces have raised their clamor for peace and trying to synchronizing their activities to end the nearly half a century conflict of Afghanistan, we are obliged to utilize this unique opportunity to end the conflict, settle the disputes, rejuvenate the spirit of coming together and thriving as a nation and invigorate democratic values. The history shall not absolve us for torpedoing this great peace building opportunity by giving precedence to our sinister political and tribal interests and ambitions.
