HIA denies joining reconciliation drive

KABUL (HIA), led by former prime minister Gulbadin Hekmatyar, on Thursday denied joining the government’s peace and reconciliation campaign.

A day earlier, a media report quoted an unnamed member of the council as saying that the HIA chief would renounce the insurgency and jump on the reconciliation bandwagon.

But a leader of the party, Qareebur Rahman Saeed, refuted the report as false. The HIA had always offered workable suggestions for peace in the country and the region at large, he insisted.

“HIA abhors war and is making efforts for peace in Afghanistan and in the region; it supports any idea or effort that can lead the country to peace and establishment of a democratic system based on specific principles,” he said in a statement.

Saeed recalled that last year the HIA had shared its 15-article programme with the Afghan government and foreigners. Afghanistan’s sovereignty was a key point of that strategy, he said.

In 2010, a five-member HIA delegation met Afghan officials and representatives of the international community in Kabul.

Important points of the HIA strategy included the withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan, beginning in July 2010, the transfer of security to Afghan forces, as well as presidential, Wolesi Jirga and provincial council elections.

Since the High Peace Council was not working independently, cooperation with it would be meaningless, the statement concluded.

am/mud