Fear of ‘farce’ looms over Afghanistan conference

A major international conference on Monday will seek to chart a course for Afghanistan after NATO troops pull out in 2014 but a boycott by the government has dealt a stinging blow to hopes for a roadmap.
The meeting will bring 100 national delegations to the western German city of Bonn. However a deadly NATO bombing raid prompted the government to scratch its name from the list, jeopardising already modest expectations. “If they (Pakistan) stick with their decision to cancel it would be a setback,” the conference’s host, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, admitted after Islamabad pulled out in the wake of Saturday’s airstrikes that killed 24 troops.
A senior Western diplomat went further, calling it a “pretty huge blow”. Commentators said the meticulously planned meeting, 10 years after Germany staged another international huddle on political transition following the fall of the radical Taliban, risked becoming a “farce”.
“The entire future engagement of the international community is based on the hope that the peace process between the Afghan government and the Taliban will progress, and Pakistan is the key to this process,” Die Welt newspaper noted. “The Bonn conference is turning into a farce,” wrote the Financial Times Deutschland. “If Pakistan’s cancellation is maintained, then the conference will be virtually pointless on many issues.” “Bonn risks becoming just another of those conferences that have brought little benefit to Afghans,” the daily Berliner Zeitung added, also speaking of a potential “farce”.
German officials expressed hope that Islamabad would still be represented at some level, if not by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar. An analyst at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Christian Wagner, noted that the West and Pakistan had “differing perspectives on the political future of Afghanistan”. He said while Pakistan saw the Taliban as a potential “bulwark” against Indian influence and Pashtun nationalism in Afghanistan, “the international community is holding on to the prospect of a democratic order”.