Reintegration hinges on turncoat Taliban

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/ME20Df01.html

KANDAHAR - Only weeks ago, Mullah Noorul Aziz was thick in the fight against Afghan and United States forces, leading more than 600 Taliban fighters across the deserts, mountains and river valleys of southern Afghanistan to plant land mines and carry out ambushes.

Today, his life is in the midst of a complete reversal, having switched sides by signing on to an internationally backed effort to reintegrate militants.

The 30-something Aziz's steps into the unknown are treacherous, and highly significant to other Taliban members weighing


President Hamid Karzai's calls for them to drop their fight and rejoin the folds of Afghan society.

"I believed the president when he said that every Taliban is my friend and my brother and that the infidel foreigners should go back to their own countries," says Aziz.