Political resistance and human rights groups in Afghanistan have called on international parties seeking to dialogue with the Taliban to ensure they involve genuine Afghan representation.
In a joint statement released Wednesday, several Afghan women’s rights movements and political parties denounced efforts of international players seeking to work with the Taliban without the Afghan people represented, saying it effectively concedes to the Taliban’s values and methods of rule.
More than 20 groups including the Global Movement of Hazara Women and Afghanistan Women’s Political Participation Network were signatories to the statement that said ignoring the will of the people and failing to address the root causes of the crisis will not only fail to resolve the Afghan crisis but will exacerbate it.
The statement highlighted that increased international engagement with Afghanistan will only be meaningful if it is structured and considers the interests of the Afghan people and ethnic groups.
It accused the Taliban of inflicting greater suffering and insecurity on the Afghan people, imposing arbitrary taxes, and turning Afghanistan into a haven for multinational terrorist groups.
It said the focus of the upcoming third Doha meeting needed to focus on these issues including the Taliban’s relationships with terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda, its promotion of extremist ideologies, and its exporting of terrorism to neighboring countries and the world.
The statement accused the Taliban of flagrant criminal activity, creating political and legal anarchy, killing war prisoners, forcibly displacing indigenous people, seizing properties unlawfully, extorting Afghans under the guise of taxes, erasing identities, depriving women of education and work, interfering in the social fabric of geographical areas, carrying out extrajudicial killings of former government defense and security personnel, and committing other grossly inhumane acts.
These actions, according to the statement, have pushed Afghanistan to the brink of an uncontrollable crisis.
The groups that warned that any unilateral engagement with the Taliban overlooks the human rights and suffering endured by the Afghan people over the past three decades.
It said that if hope in the peace process is lost, they may be forced to resort to armed struggle.
The third Doha meeting which is expected to be attended by special representatives for Afghanistan from various countries is held on June 30 and July 1 in Qatar.
The summit is pitched as aiming to increase “international engagement with Afghanistan in a structured and coherent manner”.
