Afghanistan's reconciliation commission said Monday that wanted former Taleban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar could be offered an amnesty and allowed to enter politics. Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, the head of the Independent National Commision for Peace in Afghanistan, said the amnesty would also cover Afghan detainees held at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The offer would seem to contradict earlier statements by President Hamid Karzai who last year offered an olive branch to rank-and-file Taleban fighters but ruled out a rapprochement with 150 hardcore militants including Omar and former prime minister Hekmatyar who are wanted for human rights violations.
Omar is still wanted by the United States and has a 10 million dollar bounty on his head for his role in sheltering the al Qaeda network and its leaders in the run-up to the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Mojaddedi insisted the Afghan government's policy had changed towards Omar and other hardcore militants, and he said his commission had been given independent powers to decide on who to offer amnesty.
"The issue of Hekmatyar and Mullah Omar, if the government of Afghanistan has announced it, that was the policy some while ago. The policies change day by day," he told a press conference.
"It is an independent and national commission and will work without the government's interference. They (the government) have given us enough authority, whatever we think is suitable they will co-operate with us."
The Afghan government and the presidential palace was not immediately available for comment.
Mojaddedi, a former mujahideen leader from the anti-Soviet struggle, said his commission would treat Omar and Hekmatyar as individuals and that if they accepted the government's terms they could re-enter politics.
"Our terms are if they lay down their weapons, respect the constitution and obey the government. We don't have big conditions for them," he said.
Asked if the commission had contacted Omar and Hekmatyar, Mujaddedi said: "We cannot find their places to get in touch with them. Today we announced this, let them think about it and give them time."
He also said all Afghan detainees held at the US base at Guantanamo Bay and the Bagram detention center near Kabul would also be eligible for amnesty.
"The amnesty covers those in Guantanamo and Bagram detention centers, and we reached an agreement with our American friends (on this issue)," he said.
The Afghan government has been involved in dialogue for several months with high-ranking leaders of the Taleban, who were pushed from power by US-backed opposition forces in November 2001.
A mainly US coalition force of 18,000 troops is still deployed in Afghanistan to hunt down remnants of the Taleban regime and their al Qaeda allies.
Taleban forces have stepped up attacks on the government and the coalition troops in recent weeks. In the latest incident two US marines and 11 insurgents were killed in a gunbattle on Sunday near the eastern city of Jalalabad.
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