Afghan government seeks Election Day truces with insurgents

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Source: McClatchy Newspapers

Afghan government seeks Election Day truces with insurgents
By Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers Sun Aug 16, 5:06 pm ET

KABUL, Afghanistan — The government here, with the blessing of its foreign backers, is trying to arrange Election Day truces with local Taliban commanders to ensure that voting can take place in the war-torn south and east, senior Afghan officials said Sunday.

The officials declined to disclose what the insurgents have been offered in return for ceasefires during Thursday's polls for president and 34 provincial councils. Amrullah Saleh , the head of the National Directorate of Security , the country's chief intelligence agency, smiled but said nothing when asked if the insurgents were being offered cash.

"We've been talking through our people . . . daily" to convince Taliban commanders to "respect international law, to protect civilians especially during the election process," Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar told McClatchy . "In many places that response has been positive. Where the response has been negative, we've launched military operations."

The Obama administration and its NATO allies, their troops embroiled in the worst violence here since the 2001 U.S. invasion, are backing the Election Day truce-making effort as a way to possibly identify mid-level Taliban commanders who may be prepared to negotiate permanent peace accords, said a Western official. The official asked not to be further identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.

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