Vitaly Churkin: The tactics of peace-making with Taliban bring into disrepute

Russia opposes the tactics of peace-making with Taliban, said Russian ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin addressing the UN Security Council on the 14th of October. “Russia proceeds from the fact that the tactics of peace-making with Taliban and other extremist groups bring into disrepute primordially. Any attempt to begin to play with them causes an irreparable damage to positions of the central government and leading anti-Taliban groups. Unfortunately, there are supporters of the idea of reconciliation with extremists among the officials of international organizations as well as within Afghanistan,” Vitaly Churkin said.

The ambassador especially pointed to the escalated terrorist activity and reminded of the attempt on the Afghan President’s life, large-scale terrorist attacks carried out in Kabul and other regions of the country and growing attacks on officials of humanitarian organizations and the United Nations. According to him, all these show the uncompromising aggressiveness of extremists who chomp for power and ignore the life of innocent people for the sake of achieving their goals. “In these circumstances no one should back track from the policy of isolating extremist leaders,” Vitaly Churkin said.

At the same time he noted the need for preserving ordinary militants of Taliban who have not committed military crimes and have the possibility of returning to peaceful life.

According to Churkin, the UN Mission should stick to the above policy as a part of its mandate.

The ambassador also said the Moscow was ready to render economic assistance to Afghanistan. He believes that steps are being taken to adjust the situation in security area should be strengthened by efforts devoted to social and economic reconstruction of Afghanistan.

“The reconstruction of Kabul Polytechnic University and the construction of the Home for Mother and Child in Masar-i-Sharif could be the projects supplement to Russian aid. Russia has rendered free-of-charge significant military and technical aid worth of $220 million to Afghanistan. It is ready to resume relevant efforts,” Vitaly Churkin said.

After ousting the Taliban regime the international community made commitments to rebuild Afghanistan. Main donors are western countries that have allocated dozens of billions of dollars.

The Russian ambassador also criticized the coalition forces for carrying out air raids that have led to a large number of civilian casualties. He urged NATO to take steps to avoid civilian casualties. He emphasized that the action of coalition forces had undermined the local people’s trust in international efforts in Afghanistan.

Vitaly Churkin said this had been extremely important in the context of long-term stabilization of Afghanistan and added that the Afghan authorities and the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan had agreed with Russia’s standpoint.

Reportedly, over 90 civilians were killed as a result of air raids by the coalition forces on the Afghan city of Shindand on the 22nd of August. American command had long dismissed the death of civilians during the operation but it partially admitted the fact only on the 8th of October.