Musharraf for Multi-pronged Strategy on Afghanistan
By Maria Khan 'Pakistan Times' Diplomatic Correspondent

ISLAMABAD: President General Pervez Musharraf Wednesday said peace in Afghanistan will not come from the barrel of a gun and called for a multi-pronged strategy to tackle the situation.

The President, in an interview to Canadian national daily The Globe and Mail said; "We have to have a multi-pronged strategy. In Afghanistan it is only the military strategy which is working now."

The President said "political element is the negotiations between warring factions. Who are the warring factions? Warring factions are the Afghan government and the coalition forces on one side and the militant Taliban and even non-Taliban ... so some form of negotiations (is needed) between these two."

He said there may be groups who want to give up militancy and negotiate.

"So I can't lay down whether you negotiate with the Taliban, but [if] they want to go on fighting, you don't negotiate with them, take a military angle," the President said.

President Musharraf said Pakistan was the only country that had a military, political, developmental and administrative strategy to defeat extremism.

"I would tell everyone: Come and learn from us. We are sitting here knowing exactly what is happening on the ground," he said. "You sitting in the West don't know anything ... Come and understand the environment. And then decide on what has to be done and what doesn't have to be done."

About the deal with the local tribal elders President Musharraf said it served as a way of breaking the cycle of violence.

"These are the tribal Maliks [leaders] and elders. Locate them. Identify them, deal with them, wean them away. That's the strategy that should have been adopted a long time back."●