BRUSSELS (AP) – Afghanistan’s recent peace deal with a notorious warlord could be a model for reconciliation with the Taliban, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday, imploring the country’s former leaders to lay down their arms so U.S.-led military forces can leave.
Speaking at an international conference on Afghanistan, Kerry said the Kabul government’s agreement last week with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar requires his commanders to cease violence, cut ties with terrorist groups and accept the Afghan constitution’s rights for women and minorities. In return, Hekmatyar, a man once dubbed the “Butcher of Kabul,” can rejoin Afghan society.
The Sept. 29 peace treaty was Afghanistan’s first since the Taliban’s overthrow in 2001. Hekmatyar is believed to have killed thousands of Afghans in sustained rocket attacks on the Afghan capital during civil war in the 1990s. The U.S. declared him a “global terrorist” in 2003. The U.N. blacklisted him the same year. Both are considering lifting sanctions.
“The message from every person here today to the Taliban would be: Take note,” Kerry said at a conference that included dozens of top diplomats from more than 70 countries, hailing Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his rival, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, for “being willing to take this risk.”
But the Taliban, Kerry said, is still “trying to test the Afghan government’s resolve.” He condemned an attack last month on the American University of Afghanistan, saying any movement that targets youth “has no legitimacy whatsoever to claim to lead the country’s future.”