Afghan-Pakistani Parley Seeks Unity Against Extremism

Leaders Hope to Allay Old Suspicions

KABUL, Aug. 7 -- Banners have been strung up showing two hands in a firm, brotherly grip. A giant air-conditioned meeting tent is being readied, hundreds of guest rooms are being prepared on a college campus, and welcome speeches are being written.

But as 700 tribal elders and officials from Pakistan and Afghanistan gather here this week for a four-day peace conference aimed at finding ways for the quarrelsome neighbor countries to collaborate in the war against Islamic insurgents, the weight of historical suspicions will be battling the common urgency of the moment.

The presidents of both countries, in a goodwill gesture, are scheduled to jointly inaugurate the session Thursday after months of blaming each other for sending extremist violence across the common border. But many tribal elders and legislators from the most volatile border areas in Pakistan, whose participation is key to any meaningful progress, have already announced that they will boycott the conference. Representatives of the Taliban insurgents were not invited.

Many people in the Afghan capital, unnerved by a season of suicide bombings and the continued holding of 21 South Korean hostages by the Taliban, expressed deep skepticism this week about the mass meeting, known as a jerga. Many asserted that Pakistan was behind the spread of religious violence, that its leaders could not be trusted and that the parley was just for show.

"It could help if the Pakistanis stick to their promises, but our enmity with them is very old, and they have their interests in our insecurity," said Shams Hoja, 50, a carpet seller. "We want to be hospitable to our guests, but they created the Taliban and the terrorism. They will just talk and talk and nothing will change."

Afghans are especially suspicious of Pakistani intelligence services. This week the governor of Ghazni province -- where Taliban insurgents on July 19 abducted 23 South Koreans, two of whom have been killed -- publicly accused Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence agency of orchestrating the incident. Pakistan has denied the claim.

Pakistani officials, in turn, often describe the Taliban as a homegrown Afghan phenomenon and disparage the Kabul government as being unable or unwilling to stop Taliban fighters from sneaking into Pakistan for refuge.

But Pakistan now has several compelling new reasons to cooperate with Afghanistan. Its government, after years of trying to co-opt local Islamic groups, has suddenly become a high-profile victim of religiously inspired violence on its own soil. More than 300 people have died in suicide bombings and military clashes this summer following a radical Islamic group's seizure of the Red Mosque and an adjacent religious school in downtown Islamabad, the normally quiet federal capital.

Moreover, Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has come under enormous international pressure to mend fences with Afghanistan and to deny a haven to Taliban fighters and their al-Qaeda associates in the lawless tribal areas along the border. For the first time since Musharraf took power in 1999, American officials have threatened to pursue armed insurgents into Pakistani territory from Afghanistan, where about 20,000 U.S. troops and 18,000 NATO personnel are stationed.

"The circumstances have changed," said Sayed Hamed Gailani, a son and spokesman for Pir Sayed Ahmed Gailani, the elderly religious and tribal leader who will head the Afghan delegation at the jerga. "Pakistan has now been bitten by the mosquito, and they know if they do not join a broad campaign with us to eliminate these mosquitoes, it could endanger the health of the entire region."

Within Pakistan, the approaching conference has created confusion and tensions between the Musharraf government and some religious and tribal leaders, especially over the role of the Taliban. There have been reports that Taliban members in the border region of South Waziristan have threatened to harm anyone who attends.

Elders and legislators from the area denied they had come under pressure, and some said they thought the Taliban should be included in the jerga.

Maulana Fazlur Rahman, the leader of a major Islamic party and onetime ally of Musharraf who is also boycotting the jerga, said the Taliban's participation was "a prerequisite" for any peace effort, "but they have been left out of the loop."

Some Afghans, meanwhile, complain that the selection of delegates has already stacked the meeting in favor of Pakistan and certain powerful interests. The Afghan side is dominated by former Islamic militia leaders who worked under Pakistani tutelage to fight Soviet occupation in the 1980s and who still wield strong influence in Afghanistan -- some say more than its elected, Western-backed president, Hamid Karzai.

Critics of the jerga say it is a throwback to a loosely structured tribal tradition that will undermine the authority of both governments and produce no formal result. Supporters, however, contend that this informal quality may be what allows participants to break through barriers of suspicion and bitter memories and begin cooperating against the common enemy of Islamic insurgents.

"This is a unique opportunity for both sides," said the younger Gailani. "Blaming each other has become a tradition, but now all the big shots know things have to change. Even if the jerga produces only a 2 percent improvement in the situation, it will be better than what we have now."

Ali reported from Peshawar, Pakistan.