Bridges burnt

This refers to the article ‘Can the OIC avert the Afghanistan crisis?’ by Zunaira Inam Khan (December 18). The writer covers the current situation with optimism, and one hopes that the humanitarian crises could be averted – at least for now – if the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) acts pragmatically. The writer, however, also claims that “only through engagement and incentives can the Taliban be made to uphold the promises they made earlier about respecting human rights.” One thinks that to fulfil the promises of upholding human rights, the Taliban should not expect any ‘incentives’. This would be against the principle of giving a ‘word’.

As for ‘engagements’, the parties that worked vigorously to facilitate the US-Taliban discussions should once more come forward to convince the Taliban to uphold their commitments so that the world can trust them. The Taliban government should understand Afghanistan’s heavy dependency on foreign aid and should not repeat the behaviour of the early 2000s. One is also astonished to note the lack of vision of the parties involved in the negotiations who failed to foresee this type of crisis coming up and are now scrambling to mitigate it.

Anas A Khan

Edmonton, Canada