The Hindu : Front Page : We will not give Taliban share of power, Holbrooke assured Rao

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We will not give Taliban share of power, Holbrooke assured Rao

Narayan Lakshman

‘Reintegration of fighters into formal governing structure not a political negotiation'

Richard Holbrooke

WASHINGTON: The reintegration of Taliban fighters into any formal governing structure in Afghanistan “is not a political negotiation designed to give Taliban elements a share of power,” Richard Holbrooke, United States Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, assured Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao.

At a meeting on January 18, 2010, revealed in a private State Department cable published by the WikiLeaks whistleblower website, Ms. Rao was said to have raised “grave concerns about Taliban reintegration plans currently under discussion.”

She and other Indian colleagues had at the time argued that no amount of monetary incentives would induce the Taliban to alter its core beliefs of intolerance and militancy, and expressed scepticism that the British plan for Afghanistan would work unless Pakistan changed its policy on supporting the Quetta Shura and other Taliban elements.

Nirupama Rao

However, Mr. Holbrooke reassured Ms. Rao that the U.S. would not be a party to any such arrangement given, first, the Taliban's links to the Al-Qaeda and, secondly, the social programmes of the Taliban, which were “unpalatable.”

He sought to persuade Ms. Rao that India's concerns on any changes to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267 were unwarranted, in particular concerns that the policy on terrorism sanctions might be altered with respect to Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba leaders such as Mullah Omar, Gulubuddin Hekmatyar, and Hafiz Saeed.

As per the cable, Ms. Rao also brought escalating violence in Kashmir into the conversation, and expressed concern that there had been a “sharp increase in unseasonal Pakistan-inspired violence and preparation for violence.”

Touching on the issues of cross-border shelling along the Line of Control and in Punjab, increased infiltration, and the transfer of terrorist hardware, Ms. Rao said to Mr. Holbrooke: “They are clearly trying to stir the pot in Kashmir.”

When she then informed him that India had not turned its back to Pakistan but needed to see some Pakistani progress on terrorism before it could reengage in discussions, Mr. Holbrooke said he understood “clearly where the U.S. strategic interests lie,” and shared details with Ms. Rao on the evolving political landscape in Pakistan “with a weakening President Zardari and the fluid dynamic between the various centres of power, including COAS Kayani, Prime Minister Gilani, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, and Chief Justice Choudhary.”

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