[continued from previous message] 
  
 it has been a major concession to the Taliban. Speaking on Radio Free 
 Europe, he said he had complete trust in the region's elders and in their 
 promise not to allow any "saboteurs" in Musa Qala. However, Karzai also 
 expressed concern about reports that a local Islamic cleric was humiliated 
 by Taliban fighters and that a senior tribal leader had disappeared. 
 Karzai's embrace of the agreement stands in marked contrast to the 
 skepticism he and other Afghan officials have shown toward two similar 
 peace deals reached this fall between the government of Pakistan and tribal 
 leaders in districts abutting the Afghan border. Those districts are widely 
 believed to serve as havens for Islamic extremists and al-Qaeda fugitives 
 who train insurgents and send them across the border to fight against 
 Afghan and NATO forces. 
  
 Some observers here worry that the Musa Qala deal is not only setting a 
 tone of conciliation toward the insurgency, but that it also means Karzai 
 and his foreign defenders are falling back on Afghanistan's tribal system 
 of jergas, or informal consensual agreements, at the expense of modern 
 democratic institutions. 
  
 "This is the wrong way to solve things," said Noorulhaq Olemi, a member of 
 parliament who chairs its security and defense committee. "Our problem is 
 that we have a weak government. We need a better national army and police. 
 We need reconciliation with the people, not with terrorists. If we go back 
 to the tribal system and jergas, we could end up with the country divided 
 into pieces." 
  
 Although Helmand residents disagree on the issue of negotiating with the 
 Taliban, many express common anger and disillusionment with regional 
 authorities. Both the Greshk women and the Nau Zad elders said that many 
 police and civilian officials in Helmand are abusive and corrupt, and that 
 this problem is creating local support for the Taliban. 
  
 The diplomats and academics on the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board 
 agreed, stating in their report that the factors driving the insurgency in 
 the south include poor government services, corrupt officials and lack of 
 law enforcement. In Helmand especially, they added, the "scourge of the 
 narcotics industry" has significantly helped fuel the insurgency. 
  
 "When there is an absence in basic service delivery by the government, 
 people inevitably look to alternative sources," the report said. "Only by 
 eliminating corruption can the government diminish the freedom of operation 
 that insurgents and drug traffickers now enjoy." 
  
 To the women from Greshk, who include government teachers and 
 professionals, the Musa Qala agreement is a frightening example of 
 authority caving in to powerful miscreants. One member of the delegation 
 said the Taliban and its criminal allies had already built a plane runway 
 and a heroin laboratory in Musa Qala. 
  
 But to the elders from Nau Zad, mostly poor farmers whose homes and 
 livelihoods have been savaged by months of fighting, Musa Qala represents a 
 model for peace that they desperately hope can be replicated in their 
 district. 
  
 "Some people call it a Taliban agreement, but that is wrong," said Mohammed 
 Anwar, a member of parliament from Nau Zad who hosted the visiting elders 
 in Kabul. "The foreign Taliban are terrorists, but the local Taliban are 
 the sons of Afghanistan. They will speak with us and live under the flag 
 with us. If the government cannot bring security and stop this terrible 
 bombing, they should let the elders try." 
  
 € 1996-2006 The Washington Post Company 
  
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