KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Toor Jan, who used to kill Americans and Canadians here, does not want much from the Afghan government. A home. A job. And, yes, eight security guards.
He needs them. As one of the few Taliban commanders to switch sides, he is a target. In a rare interview, the 28-year-old, who is tall, thin and has a full black beard, is somber about the step he has taken, although he is one of the success stories of the government’s biggest and best-financed peace program, which aims to bring Taliban fighters over to the government side, sapping the insurgency’s strength.
“When I decided to switch sides, I was fed up with fighting,” he said. “I cannot pull the trigger anymore. I am just tired of it.”
Toor Jan’s switch may represent a hopeful sign for the government’s plan to reintegrate the Taliban into Afghan society - but it is also a rarity. Of the 1,700 fighters who have enrolled in the 10-month-old program, only a handful are midlevel commanders, and two-thirds are from the north, where the insurgency is much weaker than in the south, said Major General Phil Jones, the director of a NATO unit that is monitoring the program.
The total is only a small fraction of the 20,000 to 40,000 Taliban insurgents, and many of the fighters who have taken advantage of the program may not even be Taliban, just men with weapons.
The Taliban’s leaders, most of whom are in Pakistan, have yet to embrace reconciliation. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates acknowledged publicly on June 19 that the United States had begun preliminary reconciliation talks with members of the Taliban, but he expressed skepticism .
(On June 22, President Obama announced that he would withdraw 10,000 American troops from Afghanistan this year, and another 20,000 troops by the end of next summer.)
Western governments are committed to the plan to persuade fighters to switch sides. It is well financed, with $140 million of the $150 million pledged from Western governments, much of it from the United States and Japan.
The money provides a short-term stipend to fighters who change sides; it rewards their communities with development and job programs . The incentives were designed to prevent abuses of past programs, under which fighters would collect money in the winter, then resume the fight later.
General Jones said the program has grown more slowly in the south and east because many fighters fear that if they lay down their arms, the Taliban will take revenge on them or their families.
Bank accounts had to be set up to keep track of the money sent to the provincial governors to run the program. Afghan and NATO officials also have difficulty confirming the identities of those who say they want to switch.
In Kunduz Province, many of the 400 Taliban who have changed sides in recent months have formed armed groups known locally as arbakai, according to the leader of the peace and reconciliation committee there.
Some of those fighters are accused of taxing local people, running protection rackets and even rape, raising the question of whether they are just criminals.
Toor Jan said it took him a year and a half to reach the decision to leave the Taliban, which he joined in 2002. He did so, he said, because he had lost friends , seen civilians killed when his men’s bombs detonated accidentally and, in December, learned that American forces had detained his brother, who he said had done nothing wrong.
He came in, exhausted, with 12 men in February . His negotiations were with the intelligence department chief in Kandahar, who agreed to pay $120 a month to each of Toor Jan’s men and $150 a month to Toor Jan himself - the standard amount for Taliban who decide to switch sides.
His brother was released in April, raising Toor Jan’s spirits, but his men are still awaiting jobs. “The government cannot stand on its promises,” he said. “A good example is my defection: in the last five months I have received none of what they promised me: no salary, no good accommodations. Those who are fighting now say: ‘Your men are jobless. What have you achieved?’ ”
By ALISSA J. RUBIN
