Sunday, March 11, 2007
Hekmatyar wants 'joint front'against govt http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\03\11\story_11-3-2007_pg7_2
KABUL: Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has been trying without success to form a "joint front" with the Taliban and other parties against the government, his purported spokesman said on Saturday.
Hekmatyar's Hezb-e-Islami had been pushing the plan for more than a year but had had no response from the Taliban and was for the most part fighting separately from them, he said in a telephone interview from an unknown location.
The commander was also "absolutely against" talks with the government of President Hamid Karzai as long as US troops remained in Afghanistan, said the man who identified himself as Haroon Zarghoon, Hekmatyar's spokesman.
The commander had been "misunderstood" in media reports this week that said he split with the Taliban and was open to negotiations with Karzai, he said. "What Hekmatyar Saeb (sir) said was he had called on Taliban to join the Hezb-e-Islami and establish a joint front. So far we have not got any response from the Taliban and we can't wait for them," he said. "We have mobilised our own mujahedin - whenever the Taliban is ready they can join us."
"Right now the Taliban are fighting their own war and we our own. In some areas we do have co-ordination, but mainly we fight separately."
Hekmatyar wanted the front to include the Taliban and "other parties," said Zarghoon, without identifying these groups.
The warlord, aged about 60, is on the US most-wanted list for allegedly trying to destabilise post-Taliban Afghanistan through terror attacks, mainly in the east of the country near the border with Pakistan. His whereabouts are unknown.
He and his "radical faction" - which was fed weapons and cash by the US and Pakistan to fight the 1980s Soviet occupation - inflicted severe damage on Kabul in the 1992-1996 civil war, during which he was briefly prime minister. He has a history of switching allegiances and was at one point fighting against the Taliban, which took power in 1996 and was toppled in a US-led invasion in 2001.
Hekmatyar has previously also expressed willingness to fight with Al Qaeda, whose leader Osama Bin Laden he has said he helped escape US bombing in the 2001 invasion. "We don't have any ties with Al Qaeda," Zarghoon said. "Actually we did help Al Qaeda as our guests, moving them to safe areas following the US invasion." "They've left Afghanistan," he said.
The warlord has also said he would be willing to negotiate with Karzai's government if the thousands of foreign troops helping his government withdrew. "But as long as the US troops are here it is not possible," the spokesman said. To "join the Karzai government is not part of our programme, it's absolutely not possible. Karzai's government is a puppet government," he said. afp
Daily Times - All Rights Reserved