Secret Afghan talks in Switzerland fail

Frontier Post

Monitoring ReportISLAMABAD - The Swiss government has organised secret talks between the rival factions in Afghanistan’s civil war, Swiss Radio International reported Thursday.

According to the radio report quoted by IRNA, several meetings were held in Switzerland last year and at the beginning of this year, but broke off after failing to make progress.

Andrei Motyl, a Swiss official who organized the meetings, said the talks involved senior representatives of the ruling Taliban movement and main opposition leader Ahmad Shah Massood.

“The participants were of various levels.

Since we always insisted on having people very close to the leadership, we had ministers or vice-ministers from both sides.” The foreign minister, Joseph Deiss, said last year the Afghan factions had been invited to Switzerland to examine the working of democratic institutions.

But it is the first time officials have said the invitation was taken up.

While in Switzerland, the rivals visited museums, hospitals and cantonal governments together.

Motyl said the aim was “to find out if the two sides, which have been fighting now for several years, still might have some common denominator or interests.” However, the Afghan confidence-building measures foundered at the beginning of this year.

The French-language daily, Le Temps, said Massood’s side feared the talks would give the Taleban a measure of international recognition.

Motyl said the two sides were unable to find any common ground.

“We have not made big steps ahead towards peace, and the reason is simply that both sides are so far apart.

Their positions are so incompatible that any initiative from outside is very difficult.”