Peace Jirga Disrupted But Not Stopped by Afghan Mujahideen

A thick line has been drawn in the rocky sands of the Afghan mountains. On one side are the insurgents and warlords who are willing to sit down and talk through the pressing problems facing them, their constituents and their country, spearheaded by Afghan President Hamid Karzai. On the other side are the Afghan militants who refuse to do so and are committed to violence as obstinately as the U.S. military, all the way up to its Commander in Chief, President Obama.

Unfortunately, the line was drawn by rockets that landed about 200 feet from a rare and important meeting, called a 'peace jirga,' a Pashto term for a tribal assembly of elders which takes decisions by consensus. Such 'councils of elders,' as we may call them, are common in Afghanistan and among the Pashtun in Pakistan, but the meeting that was disrupted — but not stopped — was of a distinctly special kind. It was the latest in a series of key events that have made clear that Afghan, United Nations and United Kingdom officials are committed to a peaceful political solution that seems to be beyond the mujahedeen's, the U.S.'s and NATO's military-motivated minds so far.

In addition to President Karzai, the United Nation's top envoy to Afghanistan, Staffan de Mistura, was at the meeting. He praised the resilience of the participants and spectators, including "300 women" who "were defiant. The signal was 'we are used to this, we are ready for it but we want to continue."

The well-timed rockets landed just moments into President Karzai's opening speech. He responded to the delegates: "Someone is trying [to disrupt us] with a rocket perhaps ... Don't worry about it, let's proceed."

About 1,600 delegates were at the peace jirga — including tribal leaders, former fighters, religious leaders, members of parliament, and foreign observers — all of whom seemed genuinely engaged in the peace process in the videos and photographs that have been released. Outside the peace jirga's walls, however, some 12,000 security personnel guarded them, a sign of the perplexing paradox in which they live and must make state-forming decisions, but also of their bravery and commitment to peace.

President Karzai, who should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his tireless pragmatic efforts to end the war while building peace in the past year (in my humble opinion), made a strong yet critical case to his audience:  "You should provide the opportunity for the foreign forces to leave … Make peace with me and there will be no need for foreigners here. As long as you are not talking to us, not making peace with us, we will not let the foreigners leave."

For their part, two major mujahedeen factions issued statements belittling the peace jirga as non-representative, merely consultative and with no decision-making powers before launching the rockets that failed to stop it. For their part, the U.S. military still plans for troop numbers to peak at 150,000 in August, crossing the $1 trillion dollar cost for the war and that in Iraq in a time of exploding national debt and global economic uncertainty.

Photo credit: isafmedia