Members of the Afghan delegation attend the Tribal Elders Jirga meeting in Islamabad October 27, 2008. Political and ethnic Pashtun tribal leaders from Afghanistan and Pakistan began a two-day meeting on Monday to find ways to end surging militant violence including the possibility of opening talks with the Taliban.REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood (PAKISTAN)
From Voice Of America:
About 50 Afghan political and tribal leaders have gone to Pakistan for a meeting with their Pakistani counterparts to discuss the insurgency on both sides of the border. VOA Correspondent Steve Herman in Kabul reports the Afghans are hoping the conference can agree on a road map to peace for both countries.
Politicians, respected elders and Muslim clerics from Afghanistan and Pakistan will hold talks - dubbed as a mini-jirga -- in Islamabad from Monday to see if they can agree on joint action to end the rising violence by al-Qaida and Taliban militants.
The jirga system has been used for more than one thousand years by the region's Pashtun tribal leaders to decide important matters.
The two-day meeting in Pakistan is seen as a follow-up to a grand jirga last year in Kabul, when Afghans and Pakistanis pledged not to let their respective countries become training centers and sanctuaries for terrorism.
The reality is that militants, fighting both governments, continue to operate in the two countries.
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My Comment: Many are looking for a road map to peace .... but the leadership of the Taliban and Al Qaeda have no interest .... for now.