50 Taliban Surrender to Kandahar Government

Reported by Reuters

More than four dozen Taliban fighters and a rebel leader defected to the Afghan government April 11 in a dramatic example of a wave of defections this year.

Reuters reported that 50 fighters handed over their weapons and ammunition to Kandahar provincial governor Tooryali Weesa on Monday, requesting amnesty and jobs. The group included a militant who had been selected by Taliban leadership in Pakistan to act as a so-called "shadow governor" in northern Kunduz province.

"I have realized that the government is not the puppet regime that I was told to fight against," the Taliban group's leader Maolawi Abdul Aziz told Reuters.

Aziz was due to travel to Kunduz to become its Taliban representative but decided to hand over his arms and renounce his Taliban affiliation because continuing the fight wasn't "sensible," Reuters reported.

Kunduz has recently been rocked by Taliban attacks against coalition forces after months of relative quiet.
"These former rebels under Aziz also brought 50 pieces of weapons including assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades and handed them over to the authorities," Kandahar provincial governor Weesa told reporters.

The mass defection is the latest in a growing wave of surrenders across Afghanistan with Afghan government officials and U.S. negotiators working hard to push so-called "small-'t' Taliban" to reconcile with Kabul. Coalition leaders have pointed to increased control of provinces in the Taliban heartland of Kandahar and Helmand as evidence their counterinsurgency plan is working.

Reports indicate so far over 200 Taliban fighters and their leaders have defected to the Afghan government over the last month. During a meeting in London in March, overall commander of forces in Afghanistan Gen. David Petraeus said so far nearly 5,000 Taliban have defected or are "in the process of reintegration" into Afghan society.

The efforts to convince Taliban foot soldiers and key leaders to embrace the Kabul government come as the White House continues with plans to begin withdrawing some American troops from Afghanistan this summer.

Petraeus told lawmakers last month coalition forces have reversed Taliban gains since 2005 and that he's working on a recommendation for a drawdown.

"However, while the security progress achieved over the past year is significant, it is also fragile and reversible," he told Senators in March 15 testimony on the progress of the Afghanistan war.

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Datum: 13. 04. 2011