DEMOCRATIC UNIONIST MP Jeffrey Donaldson, who engaged in talks in Baghdad and Finland with groupings central to the Iraqi conflict, says he is prepared to assist the Afghan parliament if it was believed lessons could be drawn from the Northern Ireland peace process. Mr Donaldson said: “I would be happy to do the same again if it was felt this could assist the Afghan parliament design a process that might work”.
He made his offer after British prime minister David Cameron, on a two-day trip to Afghanistan, compared making peace in Afghanistan to the negotiated agreement in Northern Ireland.
“I would say to the Taliban . . . put down your weapons and you can be a part of this country,” Mr Cameron said in a joint press conference in Kabul with Afghan president Hamid Karzai.
“I have seen it in my own country, in Northern Ireland, where people who were involved in trying to kill, to maim and bomb civilians and police officers, army personnel and even politicians have actually become politicians themselves and are involved in the governance of that country,” he added.
Northern Ireland politicians who were involved in talks with participants to the Iraqi conflict in Baghdad and in Finland included Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, Mr Donaldson, former Alliance leader Lord Alderdice and former loyalist politician Billy Hutchinson. While Mr McGuinness engaged in peace talks in Iraq and Sri Lanka, a Sinn Féin spokesman said the party would only get involved in Afghanistan if there were a request from Afghanistan.
The spokesman was, however, critical of Mr Cameron, stating it was a “complete distortion to compare the Irish republican project to that of the Taliban”.