Killing of former Taliban minister Arsala Rahmani overshadows launch of third phase of security handover
| by Emma Graham-Harrison in Kabul
Guardian UK
( May 13, 2012, Kabul, Sri Lanka Guardian) A former Taliban minister turned government peace negotiator has been shot dead while sitting in traffic in Kabul, overshadowing news of a security transfer designed to showcase Afghanistan's ability to tackle the insurgency on its own.
The killing was a blow to President Hamid Karzai's hopes of bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table as western troops head home rather than attempting to fight them into submission.
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| Arsala Rahmani is the second senior member of Hamid Karzai’s high peace council to be killed in less than a year. Photograph: Mohammad Ismail/Reuters |
Arsala Rahmani was the second senior member of Karzai's high peace council to be killed in less than a year, after a suicide bomber targeted the group's head, Burhanuddin Rabbani, last year.
A white car pulled up next to Rahmani's SUV in traffic at about 8.30am, his grandson Mohammad Wares told the Guardian. A hand with a pistol reached out, and Rahmani's bodyguard turned round to see Rahmani collapse, bleeding from the chest.
"There was only one bullet. They shot him through the small back window," Wares told the Guardian. "They took him to the hospital, but he passed away there."
The killer has not been caught, and the Taliban denied any role in the shooting, although the group has a standing threat against members of the high peace council. It has said it will not negotiate with the government of Karzai, whom it has condemned as a "puppet".
Diplomats said the Taliban had the most immediate motive for targeting someone who was a figurehead for government efforts to negotiate. "The obvious message is that there is no way of relating to the Taliban other than through their formal channels, the political committee and the leadership," said one senior diplomat. "I don't think its because he'd tried anything spectacular, I think it's more that he is considered a traitor."
A deputy minister for education under the Taliban government, Rahmani wore thick horn-rimmed glasses that belied his sharp eye for political shifts. He had served as prime minister under a previous government, and in recent years the septuagenarian's black-dyed beard and black turban were a familiar sight at gatherings of the powerful or influential.
He was one of several former members of the Taliban who were removed from a UN blacklist in July 2011, eliminating a travel ban and an assets freeze in a move seen as key to promoting the peace effort.
The Nato-led coalition fighting in Afghanistan said the assassination suggested the Taliban had little interest in negotiating an end to the war. "This attack is clear evidence that those who oppose the legitimate government of Afghanistan have absolutely no interest in supporting the peace process on any level but through murder, thuggery, and intimidation," the International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.
The killing came hours before Karzai announced the start of the third phase of a gradual security handover to the Afghan police and army, designed to pave the way for all foreign soldiers to return home by the end of 2014.
The extension included challenging areas such as the city of Kandahar, once the Taliban's main centre of power, and in theory puts the capitals of all Afghanistan's provinces under the control of the national army and police.
The announcement was welcomed as a sign of progress by the army and police, which have been expanding rapidly and long struggled to deal with a host of problems ranging from rampant drug abuse to corruption and high levels of attrition.
Nato's senior civilian representative in Afghanistan, Simon Gass, said: "[This] has been enabled by the great strides made by the Afghan national security forces who have repeatedly shown their ability to maintain security."
It means that officially three-quarters of Afghans will live in areas controlled by their own security forces. But the actual handover can take up to 18 months, making the transition as much aspiration as achievement.
"The transition of security responsibility in a designated area is a process that only takes place when the [Afghan forces] have the capability to take the lead role in maintaining their own security and can adequately deal with security situations that may arise in these areas," the Nato-led coalition said. "The complete process of transition in an area can take 12-18 months."
Mokhtar Amiri contributed reporting
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