MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan: The White House on Monday defended the release of five Guantanamo detainees in exchange for a US soldier held by the Taleban, as many ordinary Afghans criticized the deal for emboldening the militants.

Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl — the only US soldier held by the Taleban after being captured in Afghanistan — was freed on Saturday in a dramatic deal brokered by Qatar.

In exchange, five Taleban prisoners were turned over to the Arab emirate where they will remain for a year, raising hopes for peace as the US prepares to leave Afghanistan.

But the deal has also sparked sparked criticism from some Republicans, who claimed they could return to the battlefield and pose a threat to Americans abroad, as well as revulsion among Afghans in those parts of the country traditionally opposed to the Islamists.

Of the five men, Norullah Noori, the ex-governor of the northern province of Balkh, was seen as the most controversial among the people AFP spoke to in the area, where he is accused of taking part in the 1998 genocide of thousands of Shiites.

“Our close relatives and loved ones and neighbors were killed during Noori’s term as governor,” said Hussain Ali, a taxi driver in the Balkh provincial capital of Mazar-i-Sharif.

“We are very disappointed to hear about the release of these prisoners.” Amir Mohammad Ziaye, a prominent Shiite leader, said: “These prisoners should not have been handed over to Qatar, they should have been handed over to the Afghan government and Noori should have been tried for war crimes.” The allegations around Noori center on an August 1998 massacre of up to 8,000 Shiites at the hands of the Taleban, who in turn had set out to avenge the killing of 2,000 of their own men the year earlier.

Noori’s Guantanamo Bay detention file notes he is “wanted by the United Nations for possible war crimes including the murder of thousands of Shites,” though the Afghanistan Analysts Network said no clear evidence has been presented to back up the allegation.

But the move has been hailed by some, particularly in Pashtun-dominated parts of the country, and by a senior government negotiator.

“I think it shows all sides’ goodwill for trust-building and start of the peace talks in near future,” Ismail Qasimyar, of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, said of the deal Sunday.

Khalid Zia, a university lecturer in eastern city of Nangarhar, said he saw potential for the exchange to do good.

“We consider the release a positive move that will help pave the way for peace negotiations and strengthen morale.” US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel expressed hope Sunday the release would lead to direct US talks with the Taleban.




The Afghan president is angry at being kept in the dark over a deal to free five Taleban leaders in exchange for a captured US soldier, and accuses Washington of failing to back a peace plan for the war-torn country, a senior source said on Monday.

“The president is now even more distrustful of US intentions in the country,” said the source close to President Hamid Karzai’s palace in Kabul, who declined to be identified.

“He is asking: How come the prisoner exchange worked out so well, when the Afghan peace process failed to make any significant progress?” Karzai has backed peace talks with the hard-line Islamist Taleban movement, which ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001 and has fought a bloody insurgency since then against US-led forces in the country.

But they have come to little so far, and the group moved swiftly to dash hopes that the prisoner swap would rekindle negotiations between it and the Afghan government.

“It won’t help the peace process in any way, because we don’t believe in the peace process,” Taleban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Sunday.

The official close to the palace also said Karzai was worried about further deals being cut without his knowledge.

“It indicates that other deals could be negotiated behind the president’s back,” he said.

US ambassador to Afghanistan James Cunningham, speaking to reporters in Kabul, said the Karzai administration had been made aware of the impending prisoners’ swap.

“It’s not behind the government’s back. The government’s known that we’re trying to (do) this for a long time, and they agreed to it and they supported it,” he said.

“The only thing that was not transparent to anybody was the actual timing — the fact that there was an agreement and the timing. It certainly doesn’t undermine the government and they never expressed any concern to us that it would undermine the government.” Karzai has yet to comment publicly on a swap that is bound to deepen the mistrust of a leader who has been fiercely critical of the US administration in recent years.

He is due to step down as president later this year, but many Afghans believe Karzai will continue to wield considerable influence over policy from behind the scenes.

Karzai’s press office said in a statement that the US deal to transfer five Taleban militants from a Guantanamo Bay jail to Qatar violated international law.

“No government can transfer citizens of a country to a third country as prisoners,” said the statement, issued on behalf of the foreign ministry.

The prisoner swap has stoked widespread anger in Afghanistan, where many view it as a sign of a US desire to disengage from the country as quickly as possible.