BOURNEMOUTH, England: Afghanistan’s Islamist Taliban militia will have to be involved in the country’s peace process, Britain’s defence minister said on Monday.
Speaking at the governing Labour Party’s annual convention here, Des Browne also echoed comments made by the head of the British Army General Richard Dannatt, who said in June that Britain faced a “generation of conflict.”
“In Afghanistan, at some stage, the Taliban will need to be involved in the peace process because they are not going away any more than I suspect Hamas are going away from Palestine,” Browne told delegates at a fringe meeting at the convention.
“But in my view, those who convene that process are entitled to say there are some basic parameters that people ought to apply to their engagement.”
Browne said that he did not believe that a legal system with its roots in “a sort of Judeo-Christian or Romano-system” could be established in Afghanistan, adding that “some solution that has its roots in Islamic law” would likely emerge.
“I don’t want to tell you the colour of the face of the Swedish defence minister when I suggested to her at some stage it may be necessary for us, in order to get to where we want to be in Afghanistan, for us to accept that there is some route through an Islamic-based legal system that will get us there.”
He added that British commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan would last “for decades, some of them may be commitments for generations,” though he noted that such involvement would not necessarily be in a military role.
Regarding Darfur, Browne said that British involvement in any solution there “will not be boots on the ground when we have those boots on the ground on other ground.”
Britain currently has about 5,500 troops in Iraq, a figure that is set to drop to 5,000 by the end of the year, and more than 6,000 in Afghanistan, set to increase to 7,700 by the end of the year. - AFP |
