IHT : Musharraf admits Taliban getting cross-border aid

Musharraf admits Taliban getting cross-border aid

By Taimoor Shah and Carlotta Gall

KABUL: General Pervez Musharraf, the president of Pakistan, made a rare admission on Sunday before hundreds of Pakistani and Afghan delegates at a grand tribal assembly here, saying that support for militants emanating from Pakistan had caused problems for Afghanistan, and that his country should work to secure peace on its side of their mutual border.

"I realize this problem goes deeper, there is support from these areas," Musharraf told delegates on Sunday. "There is no doubt Afghan militants are supported from Pakistan soil. The problem that you have in your region is because support is provided from our side."

President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan nodded in agreement.

Musharraf's words, and his appearance at the final ceremony of the four-day meeting in Kabul, were a sharp turnaround for him. In the past he has maintained that the insurgency in Afghanistan is a homegrown problem and stems from dissatisfaction with the Afghan government.

Karzai has often asserted that the source of the Taliban insurgency lies in training camps and madrasas in Pakistan and that the insurgents take sanctuary there. Relations between the countries have deteriorated over the past two years as their presidents have repeated the same accusations over and over.

Musharraf had abruptly canceled his appearance at the opening ceremony of the assembly, or jirga, Thursday in what appeared to be a slight to Karzai, but it emerged that he was consumed by domestic politics. He met with aides in Islamabad to consider imposing emergency rule in the period leading up to elections, drawing enormous diplomatic and political pressure, including a phone conversation with the U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice around 2 a.m. Thursday that seemed to help convince him that emergency rule was not necessary.

His presence at the final ceremony of the jirga lent weight to the proceedings. In a declaration at the end of their four-day assembly - convened to try to bring peace and stability to the region - the 650 delegates pledged to continue an "extended, tireless and persistent campaign against terrorism" and not to allow terrorist sanctuaries and training camps in their territory.

They agreed to establish a smaller jirga, consisting of 25 representatives from each country, to work on peace efforts with the Taliban and other insurgents opposed to the governments of both countries and to continue a dialogue between the countries. They also agreed to urge their governments to combat the narcotics trade in the region.

The Peace Jirga, as it was called, was an initiative of Karzai, aimed at reaching out to the tribes and populations of the troubled regions along the border of the two countries, where anti-government insurgents hold sway. It was the first time tribal leaders from both sides of the troubled border region had gathered in such numbers for decades. and the hope is to mobilize traditional structures to try to end the fighting and a drift toward extremism.

While the peace delegates met, the violence continued. Three American soldiers and their civilian interpreter were killed in a roadside bomb in Nangarhar Province in eastern Afghanistan Sunday, the U.S. military said in a statement. A British soldier was killed and several others were wounded Saturday in an attack in southern Afghanistan.

Carlotta Gall reported from Islamabad.