Afghan envoy warns against joining Taliban
by Leander Schaerlaeckens
UPI
06.11.2007
WASHINGTON, June 11 (UPI) -- The Afghan ambassador to the United States has encouraged Afghans to support their government and not join the Taliban insurgency.
Said T. Jawad, a former press secretary for Afghan President Hamid Karzai, told a news conference Friday that the Taliban had been able to recruit more fighters because of the government's inability to improve the standard of living.
"They capitalize on the frustration of the Afghan people when they don't see improvement in their life," he said. "This is because of a lack of reconstruction and the lack of capacity of the Afghan government to deliver services."
Taliban attacks have risen from 1,632 in 2005 to 5,388 in 2006. There have been 59 suicide attacks this year alone, and violence increased by almost 400 percent in 2006. Four thousand Afghans died last year because of terrorist activity.
But Jawad rejected the notion that the Taliban was a suitable alternative to the government. "The Taliban are a xenophobic terrorist group with a very dark past and a history of oppression. They do not provide a clear political vision," he said.
"Their leader is a blind cleric who isn't even Islamic and whose religious credentials are seriously under question. But they do enjoy foreign ideological, financial and logistical support, and as you know most of the senior leadership of the Taliban resides outside Afghanistan," he said.
However, the Taliban's deep pockets have made it difficult for the government to recruit a police force. The Taliban pays recruits $250, and a suicide bomber gets between $8,000 and $10,000, according to Jawad. A policeman on the other hand gets only $40 per month.
