Heavy snow brings cheer to capital
KABUL — If Afghans are right and snow brings luck, their war-ravaged country is due for a large dose of good news amid tentative moves towards peace talks with Taliban.
Heavy snow falls transformed the usually dry and dusty capital Kabul yesterday, with even the ubiquitous concertina razor wire metamorphosed into curly white works of art.
On streets lined with trees — and hesco blast walls — laced in white, men shovelling sidewalks and guards nursing assault rifles in gloved hands chatted, smiling, to strangers passing by.
The social networking site Twitter, widely used in Afghanistan to track the latest horrors of the 10-year war, reflected the cheerful mood.
“Quite a bit of snow on the ground here in Kabul over the past 24 hours. Looks beautiful,” tweeted ISAF, Nato’s International Security Assistance Force, which has some 130,000 Us-led troops in the country. “Kabul police dropped their AK47S and playing snowball in Kabul city,” tweeted one resident.
But the mood is likely to be brief, melting with the snow and an inevitable return to news of death and destruction as both the United States and the Taliban work on strategies of fighting and talking at the same time.
The Taliban, who have announced plans to open a political office in Qatar ahead of possible talks with Washington, said this did not mean they had surrendered in the war against Us-led coalition forces.
Rather, they would use their political wing alongside their military to achieve their aims, they said.
The move towards talks met with some scepticism, but the Taliban surprised analysts last week by saying that an online video of US Marines urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban fighters would not derail negotiations.
There were fears that the offensive video, quickly condemned in Washington, could lead to violent anti-us protests in Afghanistan.
“The fact that Taliban chose not to have an angry reaction as in the past cases and not reverse their deci- sion to talk to US could be a reason why we are not witnessing protests in Kabul,” said Afghan analyst Mati Kharoti.
Given that many of the more conservative Afghans outside the main cities do not have access to the Internet or television, analysts have cautioned that protests could still erupt. But yesterday, as groups of people warmed their hands on the charcoal braziers of kebab sellers and breathed crisp air cleansed of the usual pollution by the snow, there was cautious optimism about the country’s future.
“I am optimistic about the Taliban office in Qatar which will be set up for negotiations purpose,” said Mahboob Shah, 30, a mason.
“Without a Taliban political address it is impossible to bring durable peace in Afghanistan, because they are part of this land.”
Student Abdul Kabir, 19, agreed: “We support the Taliban office in Qatar which will be set up for talks. With this office, hopefully the war and internal fighting would end in Afghanistan.” — AFP