by Abbas Ali

    KABUL, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- In a statement released on July 30, Taliban urged Afghans not to take part in elections, warning that militants would target the electoral process.

    The recent Taliban threats to elections came at a time when the Afghan government has repeatedly urged insurgents to join the political process.

    Last week a spokesman of the Presidential office Siamak Herawi said the government and insurgents have come to a ceasefire in the Northern Province of Badghis, adding that Taliban had promised notto target the polling stations and development process in Balamurghab District of Badghis.

    However, Taliban spokesman later rejected the ceasefire story and said it was impossible at a time when they are fighting in other parts of the country.

    The past July was the deadliest month for the International Security Assistance Force of NATO in Afghanistan while the situation in Afghanistan is getting deteriorating every day.

    Recently, there are discussions about possible talks between government and militants who are ready to join the reconciliation and political process.

    David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, told a NATO forum that he supported negotiations with Taliban insurgents who want to join the peaceful political process. Miliband said many Taliban insurgents are the paid fighters.

    Will the new notion of negotiating with insurgents work? Miliband and U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's support to the idea is not new. Such efforts were made long ago with former influential Taliban leaders including Mullah Mutawakil and Mullah Abdul Sallam Zeef. But these efforts did not yield a positive result.

    Recently in an online-message on their website, Taliban asked the people of Afghanistan to keep away from the polling stations and do not vote in the system set up by the U.S. "invaders." They also asked the people to join their movement of "resistance and Jihad" against America.

    Miliband is right about the paid fighters of Taliban. It is also realistic that the paid fighters may give up, if a substitute solution to their problems is provided. But it is very difficult to affect the wave of insurgency that boasts larger support among extremist Taliban hardliners.

    There have been similar efforts of negotiations with these hardliners in the past. According to previous reports, the session of talks in Saudi Arabia between former Taliban influential leader and Foreign Minister, Mullah Muwakil and Taliban Ambassador MullahSallam Zaeef were a total failure.

    Karzai's elder brother, according to media reports, was representing the government in the talks with the diplomatic support of Britain and Saudi Arabia as a delegation of Gulbadin Hekmatyar's Hezb-e-Islami was also present in the meeting held in Riyadh.

    All these efforts, made just a couple of months ago, went in vain.

    It is a fact that Taliban has no mass support. According to polls, more than 90 percent of common people in Afghanistan do not support Taliban. But still, militants have considerable number of fighters and suicide bombers.

    If any talk with insurgents is going to work, it would not be possible without the presence of the key leaders of the factions Mullah Omer, Jalaluddin Haqqani and Hekmatyar on table.

    Nevertheless, it is difficult to persuade them not only because they demand withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, their first and must-met demand for talks, but also they have problems with this political system and the constitution of the country.

    The basic demand of the Afghan government has been that the insurgents should lay down their arms, accept the government's writ, and show a willingness to join the democratic political process.

    On the contrary, the rebels want an Islamic system of government and withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan, which made it very difficult to set the table for negotiations.