EU team reports on talks with Taliban

Despite expressing its long term humanitarian commitment to the Afghan people, a European Union (EU) team ended a visit to the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar last week after receiving a very clear rejection from the Taliban to the idea that they bore any responsibility whatsoever for the continuing Afghan conflict. EU ambassador and head of delegation, Kurt Juul, told IRIN that he was "not optimistic", following the mission's attempts to urge the Taliban to leave the warpath and "seriously engage in a process leading to peace". The delegation received an outrightly negative message from the Taliban to the effect that they did not want to have anything to do with the UN [political office], according to Swedish Ambassador Peter Tejler, representing the presidency of the EU. "We have built our common position [on Afghanistan] around an effort by the UN, and that appears to be in distress. How can you be optimistic when you go away with a message like this?" Juul questioned. The delegation stressed during a meeting with Taliban Foreign Minister Mowlawi Wakil Ahmad Motawakkil that when a durable peace effort was in place, the EU would be ready to assist in the reconstruction of the country. This was one of the messages which the EU team took to the Taliban, following a request by the 15 member states and the European Commission (EC) to present a common position, or EU policy, to both warring parties. A delegation will also meet with the Northern Alliance, though a date has yet to be set. The thrust of the EU's message, according to Tejler, was that the warring parties bore the ultimate responsibility for finding a solution to the conflict. The EU expressed its full support for the peace efforts of the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, and his special envoy, Francesc Vendrell. "We want to see a broad-based and representative government. We also made it clear that the warring parties have to follow international law, respect human rights, including the rights of women and children, and the Taliban has to implement the UN Security Council Resolutions, especially 1267 and 1333, which specifically address the question of terrorism and Usama bin Ladin," Tejler said. The EU team underlined its position with respect to the weapons embargo. It said the EU in 1996 imposed an embargo on the export of all weapons to Afghanistan. This policy was an "unconditional ban", which applied not specifically to one side, but to the whole of Afghanistan. The EC and the EU member states have been heavily engaged in providing Afghanistan with humanitarian aid over the past 10 years, and, according to Juul, have spent over 400 million euros in basic lifeline support - food, water and sanitation. In EU member states, there was "no donor fatigue" as far as Afghanistan was concerned, Tejler assured the Taliban. Following the Taliban's outright ban on poppy production last year, the EU mission sought to look at ways of assisting farmers, who were now lacking a source of income. One key concern was the existence of stockpiles of opium. "What is currently sold in the streets of Europe are more the stockpiles than the production of today," Tejler maintained. He said the Taliban had ensured the full implementation of the poppy ban, but claimed they were unable to take action against the stockpiles. "They said that when production was carried out there was no ban, and you can't have retroactivity of laws. They also said they cannot go to every farmer and collect three to four kilos." Possibly the only positive commitment the delegation received from the Taliban was a commitment to secure the safety of aid workers. According to Juul, the next step would be to convey the same messages to the Northern Alliance. "We are speaking to the Taliban and we are speaking to the Northern Alliance. We would have liked the Taliban to understand that this is a balanced approach, but I don't think we got our message through on this."