Some 83 percent of Afghan adults back efforts to secure the country through negotiations with armed, anti-government groups, the survey conducted by the Asia Foundation said. That’s up from 71 percent last year.
The report also said that 55 percent of Afghan adults had no sympathy at all for the armed opposition groups — up from 36 percent last year — and another 26 percent had only a little sympathy.
Moreover, 81 percent — 10 percent more than last year — support programs to lure Taleban foot soldiers off the battlefield by providing assistance, jobs and housing to those who lay down their arms and reintegrate into society.
President Hamid Karzai has made reconciliation a top priority and recently formed a 70-member High Peace Council to find a political solution to the war, now in its 10th year. Officials in both the government and the NATO military coalition in Afghanistan have confirmed that contacts are being made with top insurgent leaders, but say no formal peace talks are yet under way.
The Taleban has denied that any of their top leaders are talking with the government. However, reconciliation is gaining support across the war-weary nation, according to the poll. Nearly three quarters of all respondents think government reconciliation efforts will succeed in helping stabilize the country.
Support for a peace process is highest in areas where fighting is the most intense with 89 percent of Afghans in the east, and 85 percent in the southeast and northwest backing reconciliation talks, the survey said.
But 20 percent of women say they oppose the negotiations compared to only 12 percent of men, possibly reflecting their fear that a future government with Taleban would curtail women’s freedoms.
According to the survey, 37 percent believe insecurity is the nation’s biggest problem, while 28 percent cited unemployment as the worst problem and 27 percent noted corruption, the poll said.
