Legacies of conflict
Seventeen months after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on 15 August 2021, little has been done to address local level grievances and disputes that have fuelled decades of conflict. This report, based on field research conducted from October 2021 to March 2022 in Helmand province, strongly argues that these grievances risk erupting into renewed violence and further destabilising the country.
This paper suggests several elements of a possible approach to addressing the grievances in a practical and holistic manner. Despite the less prominent role of traditional district mechanisms in Helmand and other provinces now, enlisting traditional dispute mechanisms in order to address community disputes and elicit local Taliban buy-in still remain one of the possible important approaches.
Product details
Table of contents
Acronyms and glossary 3
Executive summary 4
Chapter 1: Introduction 6
1.1 Methodology 8
Chapter 2: Multi-Dimensional Grievances 9
2.1 Taliban, their Families and their communities 9
Chapter 3: Former Government Officials and
Security forces 12
3.1 Civilians and wider communities 14
Chapter 4: Taliban‘s Effort 17
4.1 The Taliban‘s General Amnesty 17
4.2 The Taliban Courts and Authorities 18
Chapter 5: Addressing Grievances 21
5.1 Potential approaches and Elements to consider 22
Conclusion 25
Imprint