Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani announced on June 7 that the Afghan army will observe a temporary ceasefire with Taliban insurgents from June 12 through 19, coinciding with the end of the holy month of Ramadan, during the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr. Ghani said military operations against other armed groups, such as Islamic State will continue. Two days later, the Taliban announced that they too would also observe a 3-day ceasefire during the holiday. The ceasefire is the first such declared truce since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
The ceasefire was declared just days after a gathering of Afghanistan’s top Islamic clerics in the capital of Kabul, where they issued a fatwa – or religious edict – against suicide bombings. However, the religious gathering itself was the target of a suicide bombing that killed at least seven people. And as the ceasefire got underway on June 12, Taliban fighters killed a district governor and eight others in northern Afghanistan.
Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of the group Voices for Creative Nonviolence, who recently returned from a trip to Afghanistan. Here, she assesses the significance of the recently announced ceasefire, a drought that has stricken 22 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, and a 400-mile walk for peace recently undertaken by Afghan men.
KATHY KELLY: So you know, I’m told that ceasefires are often very, very fragile and hard to sustain. And yet, that doesn’t mean that it’s not a step toward a peace process. So I don’t want to sound terribly negative, but I guess we should just acknowledge that the Taliban had been surrounding Afghan cities like Kunduz in the north or in the western areas, Farah, and taking them over for a short time and then withdrawing as just sort of as a sign of their strength. And they have control over roadways leading to cities such that the reality is that the Afghan government is not declaring a ceasefire and therefore they’re going to stop offensive attacks. They’re really declaring a ceasefire, but they’re the ones on the defensive. The Taliban has said, “Okay, for the three days that mark the end of Ramadan, we also will declare a ceasefire. But you see a shift in Gen. Nicholson’s version of the ceasefire is exclusive to the Taliban. That doesn’t mean they’ll stop attacking Islamic state in the Khorasan province – ISKP, or you could just consider that Islamic state. There are many, many different warring insurgent groups run by various warlords within Afghanistan. So that makes it all the more difficult to declare a ceasefire, because who’s really in on the ceasefire? Certainly the Taliban are the strongest.
BETWEEN THE LINES: What are the prospects for peace in your view in terms of negotiations between the Afghan government under (Afghanistan President) Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban?
KATHY KELLY: Well, I don’t think that the work can be ended without negotiations and it’s a terrible shame that President Trump has said he won’t engage in any negotiations and he doesn’t approve of talks, but that doesn’t mean that talks aren’t happening. And I think negotiations are crucial. I don’t think either side can gain a military victory – this has gone on for such a very long time. And yet, if you talk about a lasting peace, I think it has to be predicated on creation of jobs and incomes for people, because when people are desperate, they have to feed their families, they have to find water. Then given that the money that’s in the country is wrapped up with military groups, you’ll see continued cooperation with military groups. People don’t want to do that, but they don’t have other means of earning an income.
BETWEEN THE LINES: Tell us to what extent Afghanistan has been affected by this drought across the region.
KATHY KELLY: Well, right now out of 34 provinces in Afghanistan, 21 are afflicted by drought. In drought-ridden countries, water wars break out and it’s hard to imagine that more water wars won’t take place within Afghanistan. Already there’s fighting going on over access to water or over creation of dams that move water in a different direction. And when people flee and they, generally go to the cities –and I’m most familiar with Kabul – these are cities that had been battered by war and their water systems are already inadequate and climate change has just dealt a terrible deck of cards to Afghanistan. You know the water is contaminated. You have to boil every drop of drinking water and you know it’s humiliating for them if they can’t get water for cleaning, for laundering.
BETWEEN THE LINES: Kathy, we only have a couple of minutes left, but I wanted to make sure to have you talk about the peace walk where men have undertaken a walk advocating a peaceful resolution to this long conflict in Afghanistan. Tell us about this walk and the motivation for the folks engaged in the walk.
KATHY KELLY: Well, you know, it’s a real heart in your throat sort of thing. Are they going to make it safely to Kabul? They’re so vulnerable. They started out as nine men and they had done a two-month vigil in the Helmand province following a suicide bombing and they were in a tent. Women were in the tent as well, which Is really unusual because this is such a conservative area and they were asking that the Taliban and the American government stop fighting. And these very determined people, even though other such vigils in other cities kind of wrapped it up and said, you know, nobody’s giving us a positive answer – we don’t hear negotiation surfacing from the government or from the Taliban – but they said, okay, we’re going to roll up our tent, and they put on their sandals and declared intent to walk 434 miles from Helmand to Kabul and they said, our work will strengthen our movement.
And they’ve been right. It’s very heartening as they go to various cities, you know, they arrive and their feet are bloodied and blistered and torn. They are met by people who say, “We are with you” and now their numbers have swelled. Dozens of people are walking. Throngs of people come to them when they arrive in cities. And when I was there, I heard from numerous people who said “Yes, we approve of them we’re going to welcome them.” So we have to hope that there won’t be an attack when these very brave and yet, very vulnerable people arrive in Kabul.
For more information on Voices for Creative Nonviolence, visit vcnv.org. Her most recent article is “Digging Deeper.”
