Priority 6. Facilitate Afghan-led efforts toward political reconciliation.
Achieving a stable peace in Afghanistan will demand a difficult political reconciliation among Afghans. It cannot be accomplished by military force alone. The processes of reconciliation must be led by Afghans, but they can be supported internationally.
Canadian Objective for 2011: By 2011, we expect that national and provincial Afghan government initiatives will encourage political reconciliation, and receive timely support from Canada.
A developing dialogue between Afghan authorities and coalition partners, including Canada, has helped create a common understanding of the right conditions for reconciling and reintegrating former insurgents into Afghan society. Simultaneously, several meetings during the quarter—the summit in Turkey, the Afghanistan-Pakistan Peace Jirga in Islamabad, and widely reported Saudi-sponsored contacts between unofficial Afghan government representatives and insurgent intermediaries—helped frame possible Afghan reconciliation in a broader regional context.
Canada has urged Afghan authorities to appoint a lead agency responsible for reconciliation at the national level, and to establish a national reconciliation process. A framework for local-level initiatives has emerged, coordinated by the Independent Directorate for Local Governance. There is not yet a fully developed national reconciliation strategy.
All that being said, no prospects for early and meaningful reconciliation were apparent during the quarter. Deteriorating security left little reason to expect insurgents to renounce warfare in significant numbers, and the government seemed unlikely to pursue vigorous negotiations before reducing the violence and reclaiming some position of strength. Nor could it be predicted how reconciliation might be affected by the 2009 presidential election.
