Afghans Discuss Ways Towards Peace

People from remote villages in three provinces of Afghanistan travelled for hours by foot or on donkeys to talk about what peace meant to them.

Both men and women took part in the debates, entitled Peace from the People's Perspective, in Balkh province in the north, Herat in the west and Daikundi in central Afghanistan. They were held as a way of allowing Afghans to talk about the prospects for peace, under an IWPR project called Afghan Reconciliation: Promoting Peace and Building Trust by Engaging Civil Society. (See Helping Afghans Work Towards Peace for more.)

One common theme that emerged was the need for sound, effective and accountable government as a precondition for restoring stability. However, as many speakers pointed out, it is conflict itself that makes good governance hard to achieve.

At the Herat debate, Abdul Karim Zargar, who heads the technical services department in the provincial government, said principles like credibility and transparency were badly eroded in times of war.

"When there is no peace, people are deprived of civil rights such as holding their government to account," he said.

In Daikundi, where 130 people met in a mosque in the main town, Nili, the regional head of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said that only in peacetime could people enjoy "equal opportunities, rights and social wellbeing".

The AIHRC official, Mohammad Jawad Dadgar, said conflict would only end in Afghanistan when the government guaranteed rule of law.

The debates were attended by local representatives of the High Peace Council, the national body charged with engaging the Taleban in peace negotiations.

Sayed Habibullah Hashemi, a member of the High Peace Council in Daikundi, said the institution had failed to make any headway.

Asked why he continued to work for a council he believed had achieved nothing, Hashemi accused senior government figures of blocking all attempts at progress.

He accused former president Hamed Karzai - now replaced by Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai - of taking too soft a stance with the insurgents.

"The government did not have a clear-cut and obvious position on the Taleban, so all the activities the council undertook were futile," he said.

Another recurring theme of the three debates was the role of the individual rather than institutions in working towards understanding and coexistence at a personal level.

In a debate in Balkh's main town, Mazar-e Sharif, another High Peace Council representative stressed the role that women could play in the process.

"If an Afghan woman living in poverty and raising her children in deprivation is able to stand like a rock against her own problems, she would make a good mediator for achieving peace," Nafisa Ghiasi said.

Suhaila Sahi of the Balkh department of the women's affairs ministry said that family relationships - good and bad - shaped the dynamics of wider society.

"The wait for peace will remain a dream until tolerance and self-sacrifice replace strife and conflict within the family," Sahi said.