Afghanistan government to release 400 ‘hardcore’ Taliban prisoners after US pressure

Such a release is often a prelude to a ceasefire in civil wars, writes Kim Sengupta

President Ashraf Ghani signs the decree in Kabul on Monday (EPA)

The Afghan government is to release 400 “hardcore” Taliban and allied insurgent prisoners – a highly significant step, both militarily and symbolically, with far-reaching consequences for peace and war.

The fighters are the last and the most senior of 5,000 who have been freed as part of the deal made by the Americans with the Taliban over a ceasefire and the withdrawal of US forces.

The group of detainees, which includes fighters from the Haqqani Network as well as the Taliban, have been responsible for the multiple killings of civilians and security forces, both Afghan and foreign.

Among those set to be released are the militants responsible for the truck bombing in 2017 in Kabul, near the German embassy, which slaughtered more than 150 people in the worst massacre in the last 20 years of the conflict.

According to government reports, 156 of the 400 prisoners had been sentenced to death, 105 were convicted of homicide, 34 of kidnapping and 51 of narcotics trafficking and some of rape.

The release of the bombers and gunmen has caused anguish to many of the families of more than 100,000 civilians who have been killed; around 10,000 last year alone. The civil liberties organisation Human Rights Watch pointed out that a large number of the prisoners have been jailed under “overly broad terrorism laws that provide for indefinite preventive detention”.

The decision to go ahead with the release was recommended by a Loya Jirga, a national assembly of elders, last weekend, and followed by Ashraf Ghani, the president of Aghanistan, who signed the executive order to do so.

In reality the Afghan government had little choice on the matter after Washington had reached the agreement with the Taliban in February at talks in Doha. It strongly resisted the release programme initially, asking for it to be delayed at least until progress had been made in the talks, and there was tangible evidence of the Islamists wanting a meaningful settlement.

But the government was effectively overruled by Washington. The announcement of the prisoner release was followed by defence secretary Mark Esper announcing that the US force strength would be reduced from the current level of 8,600 to 5,000 by November.

Donald Trump is determined to show that he is bringing the troops home as the US election approaches. The Loya Jirga, giving its decisions, also called on the international community, especially the United States, to “be committed to the people of Afghanistan”. But the Afghans can hardly depend on Mr Trump, a president who fails to act on US intelligence reports that Russia had offered bounties to the Taliban to kill American forces.

A Joe Biden presidency after the election would be welcomed by many US allies after the chaos of the Trump years. But there is general weariness about the longest war in American history and a change at the White House is unlikely to lead to renewed enthusiasm for US involvement.

Asked recently on CBS News whether he would bear responsibility if the Taliban came back to power, Mr Biden responded: “Zero responsibility. The responsibility I have is to protect America’s self-interest and not put our women and men in harm’s way ... that’s what I’d do as president.”

Mr Ghani told the Loya Jirga: “The Taliban have said that if the 400 prisoners are released the direct talks between our negotiating team and the Taliban will start. In the meantime, they have threatened that if they are not released, not only they will continue their war and violence but they will escalate it.”

He later tweeted: “It is a bitter decision to release 400 Taliban prisoners, but I do it to honour my pledge to Loya Jirga. Now it is to the Taliban to accept the Afghan diversity & pluralism and come to the table. No obstacle is left. I’m mindful of the challenges & uncertainties too.”

In a statement to the elders, US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said the Taliban had agreed to direct negotiations after the prisoners were released and would scale back attacks during the talks and America will ensure that this happens.

In a broad perspective, releasing prisoners has often taken place as a prelude to ceasefire in civil wars. The final outcome, however, varies.

Ten years ago, for instance, my colleagues and I watched as republican and loyalist prisoners walked out of the Maze outside Lisburn as part of the Good Friday Agreement. There was much criticism of the release at the time. But, despite occasional bursts of violence, peace has lasted in Northern Ireland.

In a different conflict in Libya, The Independent met fighters who had been freed from the notorious Abu Salim prison in Tripoli under amnesties and had taken up arms against the Gaddafi regime when the uprising began.

One of them, Tareq Mohammed Ramadan from the Libyan Islamist Fighting Group (LIFG), said he had no qualms about ignoring the pledges he had to make to secure his release. “Any promise you make to those who have persecuted you, who oppress people, does not matter. You would be failing God if you didn’t try to overthrow someone like Gaddafi.”

The Taliban has made no public comment yet on the prisoner release. A spokesman for its negotiating team, Suhail Shaheen, said there should not be any obstacles to the negotiations starting soon.

Some families who have suffered from Taliban violence say they have come to accept that the compromise was necessary for the sake of a ceasefire and peace talks.

Gul Mohammed Orakzai lost his 19-year-old son, Hamid, in a bombing in Kabul two years ago in which more than 100 people were killed. “We wanted those killers to face justice, for all the innocent people who died,” he said. “But if this helps to stop more killings then we have to go along with it. We hope this will stop other fathers and mothers losing their children, going through the grief we feel. But who knows what will happen. We have to trust God.”