Tuesday, March 24, 2015

High Peace Council Sidelined

Under the Karzai administration the High Peace Council (HPC) was responsible for peace talks with high-level insurgents and the reintegration of mid- and low-level insurgents. The HPC failed miserably on both counts. While ISAF claimed over 6,000 insurgents were reintegrated  - a close examination would show that much of the money provided to Afghanistan for peace and reintegration efforts were wasted on HPC staff at national, provincial and district levels who never showed for work and on development projects tied to reintegration efforts that usually were provided by corrupt officials to their families and friends. Many of the reintegrated insurgents were really farmers or cronies of corrupt officials provided with an old AK-47 who were looking for the three-month stipend and vocational training offered by the HPC for being reintegrated. Read more in "Afghan president pursues peace with Taliban - his way"Los Angeles Times, March 22, 2015.

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