Hekmatyar in Government or the Government of Hekmatyar?
It should be said there is a close relationship between the demands of Hezb-e Islami leader and the plan to form local governments.
The leader of Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin Hekmatyar entered Kabul last year after twenty-one years. The government of Afghanistan says Mr. Hekmatyar attended the government as a result of Afghan own peace talks, and the United Nations Security Council also removed him from its sanction list.
President Ashraf Ghani described Hekmatyar’s participation in the government as an achievement of National Unity Government (NUG).
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is known as a “Butcher” in capital Kabul. The people consider him responsible for destroying the city and killing their citizens; as Sima Samar, the head of the Human Rights Commission in an interview with VOA in 1395 (solar year) had said: she is not against peace, but Gulbuddin must apologize from the people. Hekmatyar not only apologized but defended himself.
According to Mrs. Sima Samar, nearly thousands of people were killed in wars that the leader of Hezb-e Islami involved in and it is a war crime.
Despite many political parties were against the arrival of Hezb-e Islami leader in Kabul, but it happens.
Political parties, experts, and people consider the presence of Hekmatyar ineffective in peace process while ARG had announced on the first days that with the arrival of Hekmatyar to Kabul, part of the country’s insecurity will be eliminated.
The leader of Hezb-e Islami pointed out issues in separate speeches that have strengthen ethnic conflicts; he has repeatedly called the current war as ethnic war and provoked the people of one province to another.
But the presidential palace has not reacted about his stances which is really questioning. One certainly remembers the words of Mohammad Mohaqiq in Iran that how it made the presidential palace furious.
The other day, New York Times in its latest report, described Gulbuddin Hekmatyar as an untrusted and hated person.
Hekmatyar recently in an interview with the newspaper said he has offered a peace plan to president Ghani.
According to the leader of Hezb-e Islami, the plan would grant local autonomy to the insurgent group in certain regions, or peace provinces. He called these regions “secure areas” that would remain part of Afghanistan, even as Afghan Army troops withdrew from them. This suggestion reminds the events of 1989 in public opinions.
In such a situation, giving the control of some provinces to Taliban is a strategic mistake. What the government wants is that Taliban should set aside violence and play a role in the future election and politics of Afghanistan through creating a political party.
The government also wants the Taliban to dissolve their military organizations as a result of the peace deal. Other political-military organizations also disarmed after Bonn conference and their prominent figures play a role in political and electoral games. But it seems that Hekmatyar’s peace plan and maybe some other Taliban leaders want to maintain their military formations and control some part of Afghanistan even by signing a peace agreement.
Yet, the ministry of defense has vowed that it had arranged the plan of creating a local army and currently it is working on its formations. This plan first offered to the defense ministry by Pentagon to give the security responsibilities on local residents.
It should be said there is a close relationship between the demands of Hezb-e Islami leader and the plan to form local governments. ARG is expected to consider the national interests and act according to the suggestion of Mr. Hekmatyar in the view of other political factions in the country, otherwise, the horrible incident of 1989 will take place.
Akhtar Suahil – (DID) press agency
