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Rabbani killing a costly loss to peace

RaviVelloor
THE murder of former Afghan leader Burhanuddin Rabbani is a major blow to President Hamid Karzai's control of the peace process as well as to the Tajik community, a pillar of Afghanistan's ethnic scaffolding behind the dominant Pashtuns.
Mr. Rabbani, about 70 years old, was killed in his high-security Kabul home by Taleban assassins who had won his trust by pretending to be interested in the peace process he headed.
Analysts say the murder is a bodyblow to the peace talks.
It also threatens to send the country into another round of blood-letting with Tajiks and Uzbeks likely once again to arm themselves to hold off the Pashtun-dominated Taleban, who will likely grow more powerful as Western troops withdraw post 2014.
Mr. Rabbani, who had two stints as his nation's president, was a key figure in the powerful Northern Alliance.
Widely accepted by Afghans thanks to his personal charisma and track record as a jihadi against Soviet occupation, Mr. Rabbani was invited by Mr. Karzai last year to head the High Peace Council, aimed at brokering peace with the Taleban and eventually, broader national reconciliation.
Even though he was fiercely opposed to the Taleban, he was in favour of peace and reconciliation with the fundamentalist group, whose strongholds are mainly in the south of the country.
The High Peace Council, which helps run a US$200 million (S$255 million) government-backed trust fund meant to promote reintegration,
gave him a measure of economic influence and autonomy, people familiar with Afghan politics say.
With his death, they add, Mr. Karzai may have lost the one figure capable of striking a deal with the Taleban and bridging the North-South divide.
Just as importantiy, the murder is the clearest signal that the Taleban see litde room for accommodation and seek nothing short of total power.
On Tuesday night, a Taleban spokesman claimed responsibility for the assassination. He told Reuters to expect more killings of key figures.
A senior South Asian diplomatic source said Mr. Rabbani's killing follows a pattern seen in earlier political murders on the subcontinent where hardcore groups sought to eliminate moderate forces to hijack the political process.
They include the murders of Ahmed Shah Massoud, lionised leader of the Panjsher Valley who served as
defence minister to Mr. Rabbani, former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, and the eminent barrister A. Amrithalingam, head of Sri Lanka's democratically inclined Tamil United Liberation Force.
Mr. Massoud was assassinated 10 years ago this month by Arab men from Al-Qaeda posing as journalists. Mr. Gandhi and Mr. Amrithalingam were killed by the Tamil Tigers in 1991 and 1989 respectively.
"In each case, just as with the Rabbani killing, the assassins worked for months to lower the guard of their targets by appearing to send peace emissaries or seeking their wise counsel," this diplomat pointed out.
Sadly, Mr. Rabbani appears to have fallen for the ruse even though everyone knew the Taleban had strong reason to want him dead.
Like the late Mr. Massoud, Mr. Rabbani was dangerous to the Taleban because he had a near-spiritual appeal to those Afghans who despise the harsh interpretations of the Islamic faith projected by the Taleban, al-Qaeda and some of their Saudi Arabian backers.
In Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taleban movement, officials voiced
their worries freely at the development and what it portends.
"It is a great loss not only to the peace programme, but for this nation as well," Mr. Atta Mohammad, who heads reconciliation efforts in the province, told wire services. "This bombing will have a big impact on the peace programme for some time." The killing has lent credence to sceptics of Mr. Karzai's efforts to bring the Taleban to the table.
"We should recognise and know our enemy from the lower ranks up to the top officials of the country because by any means, by any way, they are trying to kill us and eliminate all high-ranking officials and jihadi leaders," Mr. Abdullah Abdullah, a prominent Tajik who lost to Mr. Karzai in the 2009 presidential poll, told Associated Press.
The bomber, identified as Esmatullah, had stayed at a guest house used by the peace council, a council spokesman told AP.
The bomber insisted on meeting face-to-face with the ex-president and waited in Kabul for days to talk with him about brokering peace with the Taleban.
On Tuesday, the attacker went to shake hands with Mr. Rabbani at his home, bowing his head near the former president's chest and detonating a bomb hidden in his turban.
Meanwhile, condemnation of the murder poured in from around the world.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon sent "heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased and wounded" and underscored the UN's commitment to "supporting Afghanistan and its people attaining peace and stability and to working in close cooperation with them."
President Barack Obama, meeting Mr. Karzai on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, said the killing will not deter the US and Afghanistan from helping Afghans live freely.
He said the former president's death is tragic because he was a man who cared deeply about Afghanistan.
© The Straits Times. Reprinted by arrangement with Asia News Network.