The Times | By Tom Coghlan | 26 Nov 2009
Taleban leader Mullah Omar gets on message with speech aimed at West
[See here for Full Text of Message]

“The people of Afghanistan will not agree to negotiation which prolongs and legitimises the invader’s military presence in our beloved country. Afghanistan is our home”

The Taleban’s reclusive leader has rejected President Karzai’s call for peace negotiations, which were made last week at his inauguration for a second term.

Instead, Mullah Omar issued his own “state of the nation” address yesterday, apparently designed to exploit public unease in Western countries over the Afghan war, and before an expected announcement next Tuesday that the Obama Administration will send up to 35,000 reinforcements. The 3,000-word speech attributed to Mullah Omar was distributed by e-mail in three languages — English, Pashto and Dari — by the Taleban’s propaganda wing. It addresses nine different audiences, in at times idiosyncratic English, including a call to the “Freedom loving people of the West”.

This is a clear attempt to exploit the Achilles’ heel of the war effort — the Western public’s increasing doubts about the war — and portray the Taleban as a reasonable organisation concerned with the defence of the Afghan people.

The message is a fascinating demonstration of how an austere and vindictive group of extremists has adopted the PR techniques of its Western foes.

Many experts say the tactics show the influence of al-Qaeda in the use of technology, and an awareness that the militants must fight their own hearts and minds campaign.

It also belies the origins of Mullah Omar, as an illiterate village mullah from Kandahar province. The speech portrays the Taleban as a nationalist resistance movement, fighting colonial oppression and seeking only to defend its country and religious values — rather than a hardline Islamist movement linked to al-Qaeda. Mullah Omar explicitly rejects peace negotiations while Western forces remain in the country.

“The people of Afghanistan will not agree to negotiation which prolongs and legitimises the invader’s military presence in our beloved country. Afghanistan is our home,” says part of the statement, issued on the eve of the festival of Eid al-Adha.

“The invading Americans want [Taleban] Mujahidin to surrender under the pretext of the negotiation.”

Mullah Omar’s speech seeks to pre-empt British and American backed efforts to engage with “moderate Taleban”, and split them from the ideological core of the movement, repeatedly warning their followers against “disunity” within their own ranks.

Source: The Times Online