WASHINGTON: Afghanistan`s President Hamid Karzai said Sunday there are no formal peace talks between his government and the Taliban, although he admitted to "individual contacts" with the hardline Islamic group.
"Of course, there are individual contacts with some Taliban elements -- that`s not yet a formal process," Karzai told ABC television`s "This Week" program.
The Afghan leader added, however, that there is a "clear" course toward possible future peace talks with the outlawed insurgents.
"The roadmap is clear. The indications for peace would be that Afghanistan will be ready to talk to those Taliban powers who belong to Afghanistan and are not part of Al-Qaeda, who are not part of any other terrorist network, who accept the Afghanistan Constitution and the progress that we have achieved in the past so many years," he said.
Karzai also stressed the need to eliminate private security contractors inside his country, one day after ordering them to begin disbanding immediately.
The president said private security firms are "running a parallel security structure to the Afghan government" and "looting and stealing from the Afghan people."
He said the contractors were working with criminal elements in Afghanistan and funding insurgents with US money.
"I am appealing to the US taxpayer not allow their hard-earned money to be wasted on groups that are not only providing lots of inconveniences to the Afghan people, but actually are, God knows, in contact with Mafia-like groups and perhaps also funding militants and insurgents and terrorists through those firms."
Karzai made his comments after Taliban military inroads in the south and east of the country, along the border with Pakistan, and as the group extends its presence into Afghanistan`s north.
Women`s rights groups have said that any future path that would grant legitimacy to the Taliban is threatening for women in Afghanistan and could erode their hard-won constitutional rights.
Karzai said he believes that it is possible to prevail against the Taliban despite recent military setbacks.
"I believe the campaign against terrorism is absolutely winnable," he said.
"In order for us to do that, we must end the business as usual and we must begin to reexamine whether we are doing everything correctly -- whether we are doing the right things and whether we are having the support of the Afghan people," he said.
"We must provide protection to the Afghan people rather than causing civilian casualties, we must end corruption and corrupt practices in Afghanistan -- done by the international community by the way contracts are given," he said.
"We must end parallel structures to the Afghan government, we must end the security firms who are spending billions of dollars, in the presence of whom Afghanistan would never develop a police force," Karzai said.
BDST: 0932 HRS, August 23, 2010
