The President of Afghanistan, President Ashraf Ghani has issued a decree early Wednesday promising to release 1,500 Taliban prisoners as a goodwill gesture to get intra-Afghan negotiations started, Associated Press reports.
The report obtained by Reuters also showed that the two-page decree which was signed by Ghani and will be made public later by his office, said that all released Taliban prisoners will have to provide “a written guarantee to not return to the battlefield.”
The decree lays out details about how the prisoners will be released in a systematic manner, a process that it says will begin in four days.
“The process of releasing 1,500 Taliban prisoners will be completed within 15 days, with 100 prisoners walking out of Afghan jails every day,” according to the decree.
If the talks make progress, the government said it will release a further 500 Taliban prisoners every two weeks until a total of 5,000 Taliban prisoners have been freed.
The decree said that the Taliban will have to stick to its commitment to a reduction in violence during this period and beyond.
The release of the prisoners is part of a confidence-building measure to pave the way for the opening of direct talks between the government and the insurgents, after talks with both sides and the United States separately.
A recent peace deal signed between the United States and the Taliban called for the release of up to 5,000 prisoners ahead of the much sought-after negotiations.
The issue has become one of the biggest sticking points in any progress towards peace, complicated by differing wording of documents between the United States and the Taliban, and the United States and the Afghan government.
However, even if the Taliban agree to start negotiations, Kabul’s political turmoil and relentless bickering between Ghani and his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah, who has also sworn himself in as Afghanistan’s president, have left Kabul struggling to come up with a united negotiating team.
Ghani’s decree came as the U.S. State Department issued a statement saying that the level of violence is “unacceptable,” and that while the Taliban have stopped attacks against the U.S.-led coalition forces and in Afghan cities, the violence in the countryside remains too high.
The statement also said Afghanistan’s “presidential electoral crisis” an apparent reference to the two inaugurations and political chaos has delayed the establishment of a national negotiating team and the start of intra-Afghan talks, which were to begin on Tuesday in Oslo, Norway.
Despite the political chaos in Kabul and increased violence on the battlefield, the United States has started withdrawing its troops in keeping with the deal it signed on Feb. 29 with the Taliban. In the first phase, Washington will reduce its troops contingent to 8,600, down from the current 13,000.
If the Taliban adhere to their commitments to deny terrorists safe havens in Afghanistan, Washington will withdraw the remainder of its troops over 14 months, according to the agreement.
When it was signed, the U.S.-Taliban deal was touted as Afghanistan’s best chance at finding peace after 40 years of relentless war while offering the United States an exit after nearly 19 years and its longest war.
(Associated Press/Reuters)