Cannon touts Afghan reconciliation.
By Bill Graveland

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon told an international conference in Kabul Tuesday that Canada would be willing to support reconciliation with the Taliban to bring peace to Afghanistan but only if a number of criteria are met first.

Cannon, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other senior foreign officials from nearly 70 countries gathered in Afghanistan's capital for the one-day conference, which was seen as an affirmation of international support for the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Karzai has been reaching out to the Taliban in hopes of ending the war.

He won endorsement from a national conference over a month ago for his plan to offer incentives to militants to lay down their arms and to seek talks with the Taliban leadership.

The Taliban have publicly shunned the offer, and the United States is skeptical whether peace can succeed until the Taliban are weakened on the battlefield.

"We encourage a reconciliation process that is inclusive of all Afghans, no matter their ethnicity, tribe or gender. Those who are reconciling must renounce violence, accept the Afghan constitution and cut all ties to terrorist groups such as al-Qaida," said Cannon in a speech to the conference.

"Canada is supportive of it because there are no conflicts in the world that have been able to resolve themselves without any reconciliation and reintegration so we have indicated our support for that process."

Cannon also called for electoral reform, a review of the National Justice Programme in Afghanistan and in order to address "past and present human rights abuses", an update of the 2006 Action Plan on Peace, Reconciliation and Justice.

President Hamid Karzai is urging international partners to help his country move toward responsibility for its own security and for government programs saying Afghanistan and Western powers backing the country share “a vicious common enemy.”

But, he said, victory will come in giving Afghans as much responsibility as possible in combating the insurgency within its borders.

The goal is to transfer security in all 34 provinces to the Afghan government by the end of 2014 _ more than three years after Canada and the U.S. plan to pull out of the war-torn country.

"It is realistic. Last year when President Karzai was sworn in - he said this mandate of his is a mandate of transition and there are separate benchmarks," Cannon told reporters during a conference call following his speech.

"Those targets are well on their way to being achieved. So I'm quite confident that President Karzai and his government and the NATO forces, particularly in that regard will be able to meet these targets as they are coming forward."

Clinton said the United States and the world will stand by Afghanistan even as fears are growing about the course of the nearly 9-year-old war.

She acknowledged deepening opposition to international involvement in the conflict amid rising death tolls of foreign troops in the country. But said the West was committed to the struggle against extremism.

“We will answer these questions with our actions,” Clinton said.

Kabul was virtually in lock-down mode Tuesday. Afghan security forces killed several insurgents and detained two other suspects while pursuing a Talban facilitator believed to be in final stages of preparation for attacks against the Kabul Conference.

Cannon said he had received no pressure from any of Canada's allies to extend the current Afghan mission beyond 2011.

"Everybody recognizes that Canada has made a decision to withdraw its forces by 2011 and they all recognize that Canada post-2011 will continue with its diplomatic and with its development projects and programs," he said.

"I think there's no problem as to Canada receiving any push back from other nations on that."

Source: ca.news.yahoo.com