A Canadian soldier talks to local villagers during a foot patrol in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, on Feb. 10, 2010.PIER PAOLO CITO/The Associated Press
Stephen Harper is laying down strict conditions to be met before Canada could bless a deal arising from peace talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan - negotiations that Canadian soldiers are standing by to assist.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai confirmed earlier this month that talks aimed at a power-sharing agreement with the Taliban have been going on "for quite some time."
In mid-2009, the Harper Conservatives publicly voiced support for talks after years of attacking political opponents such as NDP Leader Jack Layton for suggesting such a tack.
During a trip to Switzerland Friday, Mr. Harper said the conditions he wants to see in any peace deal include not only the Taliban laying down arms but also a commitment to the Afghan constitution, "including its human-rights guarantees." Those guarantees respect, among other things, the equal rights of women.
"Any agreement along those lines is something Canada would strongly support," Mr. Harper told reporters during a news conference with Swiss President Doris Leuthard.
Canada's influence in Afghanistan is on the decline as it prepares for a 2011 military withdrawal. But this country, which has spent a decade in Afghanistan and sacrificed more than 150 soldiers there, still carries weight along with the United States, United Kingdom and other NATO allies.
Also Friday, Canada's senior commander on the ground in southern Afghanistan said he's willing to ferry Taliban leaders to Kabul for negotiations if asked.
Although little public information is available, press reports suggest that NATO forces have already assisted four senior Taliban leaders - none of whom was Mullah Omar, the notorious former leader of Afghanistan - in travelling from Pakistan to Kabul. U.S. negotiators are not part of the talks.
Brigadier-General Dean Milner, commander of Canada's Joint Task Force Afghanistan in Kandahar, said his soldiers are willing to provide safe transportation and passage for members of the Taliban to reach talks.
"If we were tasked with something like this from our chain of command, absolutely. It has not come that far yet," Brig.-Gen. Milner told reporters during a conference call. "We think this is an excellent initiative and we're prepared to support President Karzai in anything that he would like us to do, but it has not come that far yet."
A surge of U.S. troops into Kandahar has enabled Canadians to spend more time routing insurgents, clearing them from hiding places - and preventing them from planting bombs.
"That's enabling us to operate against the insurgents on the ground," Gen. Milner told reporters. "We have really taken freedom of movement away from the Taliban."
This has led to a decline in bomb attacks. "There are fewer [improvised explosive devices]because we have blocked them in so many different ways," Brig.-Gen. Milner said. "We have stopped them from being able to move [bomb]components. We've deterred their movement almost completely. We are now living in villages they used to operate out of."
A commander from the Afghan National Army who joined Brig.-Gen. Milner in the conference call said he wished that Canada's work in Afghanistan would keep going. Canada is scheduled to pull out soldiers by 2011, even though some news reports have speculated Ottawa is considering leaving behind 400 military trainers after its combat mission ends.
"I would like to request the Canadian government to please continue their support in regards to security and development," Brig.-Gen Ahmed Habibi told Canadian media via a translator.
Before they changed their tune in 2009, the Conservatives used to deride the New Democrats for suggesting peace talks with the Taliban. Some critics called NDP Leader Jack Layton "Taliban Jack" for promoting the idea.
"Is it next going to be tea with Osama Bin Laden? This cannot happen," Defence Minister Peter MacKay told CBC in September, 2006.
But the Tories eventually came around to the view, shared by the Obama administration, that talks were possible with moderate elements in the Taliban.