Editorial
Rabbani assassination
A serious setback to peace talks
The hopes of approaching an end to the crisis in Afghanistan were further tattered on September 20 with the assassination of former President Burhanuddin Rabbani by a Taliban insurgent.
At a time when the United States and Nato forces approach a withdrawal from Afghanistan, it is extremely crucial that that mainstream Afghan government reach a peace agreement with the Taliban in order to establish stability and the beginnings of peace in the country.
However, Tuesday's assassination is the third blatant show of violence and force demonstrated by the Taliban in the last couple of weeks. First, there came the bombings near the US Embassy, the assassination of President Karzai's half-brother and now this. It becomes more and more apparent that the Taliban have become more powerful, organized and confident. Their presence and violent attacks in Kabul itself and in highly secured areas such as near the US Embassy make it obvious that the negotiations which the Obama administration and President Karzai would hope for could be much more difficult that they thought.
This leads to certain questions regarding the real intent and thought process of the Taliban. If negotiations were under way, why then would they engage in assassinations and bombings? Furthermore, is it at all plausible that perhaps there are those who do not want the negotiations to a peace process to materialise? Could it also be that while in the process of negotiation, the Taliban want to portray the image of power to leverage an outcome in their favour?
These unanswered questions may be answered gradually as time passes. What we cannot ignore however, is that with the withdrawal of the US and Nato forces from Afghanistan and the ratchetting up of violence that the Taliban have embarked upon, there are signs that the aggressive elements in the Taliban wanted to take advantage of the resulting power vacuum.
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