At the bottom of a hill on the outskirts of the Afghan capital, billboards display pictures of past Afghan rulers with captions extolling how they resolved critical national issues at various times by holding “jirgas”, traditional gatherings of elders and notables.
Flyers addressing Taliban insurgents and their sympathisers, bear an ancient Afghan maxim: “If you insist on your might and I do the same, neither of us will exist. But if you listen to me and I do to you, both of us will survive.”
The homespun, softly-softly message is part of an effort by President Hamid Karzai to reach out to the Taliban at a time when the insurgency is at its strongest and before US President Barack Obama’s pledge to start withdrawing troops in mid-2011. Mr Karzai, ruler of Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, has called a jirga from June 2-5 to present proposals for how to start peace talks.
Delegates will debate and tinker with a draft that includes suggestions for the integration of Taliban foot soldiers into the Army or the police, the removal of some Taliban leaders from a UN blacklist and possibly seeking asylum for others in an Islamic country from where they can engage in talks.
Analysts and observers are not optimistic the jirga will amount to much, but rather give Mr Karzai’s proposals a veneer of national acceptance. “What we hope is that this process will help demonstrate Mr Karzai as a true national leader,” said a senior Obama aide in Washington.
“This is really just the beginning of an important process and the Afghan government will be seeking some consensus on how to proceed,” added the official, who declined to be named.
Washington does not want to be seen as interfering in what it says must be an Afghan-led process. Although jirgas are largely a Pashtun affairs, tribal elders and notables from all of Afghanistan’s different ethnic groups across the country will attend. They include Afghanistan’s Ulema religious council, members of civil societies and representatives of refugees living in Iran and Pakistan.
Women will make up about 20 per cent of the delegates and some 200 observers — including foreign diplomats, will attend.