Bonn minus Pakistan

The Bonn conference would have provided Pakistan an opportunity to explain its position on Afghanistan to the world.


Britta Petersen December 05, 2011

War can be described as a breakdown of communication. When arguments fail, weapons speak their own language. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn’t. In Afghanistan obviously it didn’t. Thirty years of war without a victor and it seems that we have not reached an end yet.

The second Bonn Conference which took place on December 5th in Germany, is an attempt to correct the various mistakes of the past. At least formally, all parties agree that the Afghan conflict cannot be settled my military means. The German government, as a host, has worked hard to eliminate the mistakes of the first Bonn Conference in 2001 that gave the former Northern Alliance a disproportionate representation in the Kabul government and ignored the various democratic forces within Afghanistan andin exile.

Just a week ago, a delegation of the Taliban representatives including Wakil Ahmad Mottawakil, Mullah Salaam Zaeef, Abdul Hakim Mujahid along with Pakistan’s Major-General Athar Abbas and Pashtun leader Mahmud Khan Achakzai were in the German capital to attend background talks. This was a good step in the right direction.

Although it seems that not much has been achieved between the warring parties, it is quite obvious that the peace process needs to be continued. But nothing will happen until both sides are ready for some concessions. The mistake of the US is that its military still believes that it can shoot the Taliban to the negotiating table and that it just needs to raise the pressure on Pakistan to succeed. This is a gross miscalculation, as the fallout of the Salala tragedy has shown.

Pakistan has several reasons to be upset with Washington. But, by boycotting the Bonn conference, Pakistan is barking up the wrong tree. The relationship between Pakistan and the US is very complex and this has to be solved on a bilateral level. It is dangerous to make the Afghan peace process a hostage to everything that went wrong between these former partners. The Bonn conference is a multilateral attempt to bring all stakeholders together and it would have provided Pakistan an opportunity to engage constructively in the peace process.

Unfortunately, Pakistan’s policymakers suffer from an unhealthy fixation on Washington that prevents them from interacting with other stakeholders. It is true that the European Union and Germany, in particular, are not the main players in Afghanistan. However, they do play a role and they might be more open to Pakistan’s position compared to the currentUS government. But making new friends or engaging old ones (except China), seems to not be a part of Islamabad’s strategy. For now, it seems to be happy having spoiled the game.

This is short-sighted because Pakistan is not strong enough to fight on all fronts. In fact, it cannot even afford the present confrontation as seen by the state of its economic and development indicators. As it is often said, Pakistan is suffering the most from the war on terror. But it is suffering from its own strategy as well. Eating grass in order to uphold one’s national pride is not really a good idea. Who has respect for a country that cannot provide basic goods and services to its people? Economic growth and human development would be a better basis for the sustainable success of the nation.

Pakistan urgently needs to make friends who understand its legitimate interests in the wider security set-up of South and Central Asia. But that needs communication, in fact, a lot of it. My own organisation is constantly engaged in bringing Pakistani speakers to Germany. But much more needs to be done. If Pakistan feels misunderstood by almost everybody, it needs to review its own communication strategy.

The Bonn conference would have provided an opportunity to Pakistan to explain its position on Afghanistan to the world. It is not that there are no arguments. A political process means explaining one’s own position over and over again and sometimes even reviewing it. This holds true for the US as well. But if we increasingly trust the power of weapons more than the power of words, only war can be the result.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6th, 2011.

COMMENTS (82)

Iqbal | 12 years ago | Reply

All those blaming Pakistan explain to me why millions of Afghan displaced during war with Russia do not go back to their beloved country and have opted to stay in Pakistan. They have jobs, business, getting educated in Pakistan School and Universities and above all a roof on their head. They were not thrown in the refugees camps and were able to live a dignified life. Who had to foot the bill, PAKISTAN.

Why the Afghan government does not call them back in their country? I am sure just for a few none will response, because Karzi has nothing to offer excepts empty words. What has US and Europeans done to repatriate the Afghans back to their country. All they made was empty promises of providing billions of $$ to help Afghanistan, and what they gave much of it has been taken back through their NGO,s and greedy contractors.

US and the West had abandon Afghanistan after defeat of Russia and they will do so again, except this time maintain a base to try and contain Russia and China. Afghanistan will remain poor and underdeveloped as long as they will depend on United States of America. History is the proof, that hard working people of Japan built Japan after WWII and not America, South Korea was rebuilt by their hard working country men and not USA.

Afghans cannot ignore its neighbors when re-building their country they have to learn to differentiate between so-called friends and their brothers in faith.

Grace | 12 years ago | Reply

@Loyal to Pakistan: Well put; such patronizing comments by Europeans means little to Pakistanis who have suffered the most due to the instability created in the region because the West used Pakistan to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan and end the Cold War. Guess how much money we saved the West and how much security we brought them by ending the risk of a nuclear Thirdr World War between the West and Soviets. In return, they left us to clean up the mess of millions of Afghani refuegees in Pakistan, thousands of extremists Arabs, Chechens, Central Asians etc. That too with limited resources. And now they have the gall to tell us to attend a conference because they are so concerned about the region! I'm sorry but Pakistan should not attend Bonn or any summit until the nation is given its due. If Germany has so much money to throw at the Indian agents who masquerade as Afghanistan's government, let them give it to us because all the Afghans really want is to get to Germany and become political refugees there and live on welfare.

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