During his inauguration speech for his second term as president, Hamid Karzai announced plans for a loya jirga designed to look for ways to make peace in Afghanistan. The gathering became known as the “peace jirga.”
The peace jirga got off to a shaky start when insurgents attacked the meeting with rockets and suicide bombers during Karzai’s speech on the opening day.
Although several steps were taken as a result of the jirga, such as reviewing the cases of Taliban members being held in Afghan prisons, few Afghans say that the peace jirga produced meaningful results. More than a year later, there are few, if any indications that reconciliation efforts have substantively advanced since the peace jirga.
Former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani presided over the peace jirga. Mr. Rabbani would later be appointed as the head of Mr. Karzai’s High Peace Council, a position he held until he was assassinated in September.
