Maulawi Ustad Farooq never leaves home without his three bodyguards. He will always be a commander. "I am a fighter," he said proudly in a Kabul restaurant whose curtained-off back rooms lend themselves to confidential conversations.

A deserted fighter, that is. The maulawi (spiritual leader) said he once controlled hundreds of Taliban fighters in the hills surrounding the Afghan capital until the regime of Mullah Omar was brought down in 2001.

Afghans fighting Afghans

After "killing time" in Pakistan for four years he reported to Afghanistan's Commission for Reconciliation and Peace, a government institution for deserting Taliban fighters. That put an official end to his time with the Taliban.

"I had joined the Taliban because they wanted to end the civil war," Farooq said as his men gnawed on large mutton bones and ate milk pudding with pistachios. "We brought stability, we made sure there was no more thievery and we opened Koranic schools. We simply wanted to stop Afghans fighting Afghans."

He had hoped that after 2001 the international community would try to reconcile the Taliban and the new president, Hamid Karzai. "Otherwise both sides would suffer losses and we would destroy the country. Unfortunately that initiative never came."

The call for reconciliation is still there almost eight years later, as the Taliban once again has control of large parts of the country. It comes from the mouths of US president Barack Obama, British prime minister Gordon Brown and the special envoy from the United Nations, Kai Eide.

"The countries supplying troops feel they cannot continue the fight much longer with the current fatality rate. That puts them under pressure," said Ahmad Nader Nadery of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission.

Stronger every year

The Taliban have grown stronger year by year since 2006, even as the international troops also increased year by year. They have developed tactics that the Western soldiers find it harder and harder to defend against. Their roadside bombs have become more powerful and advanced.

They instil fear with their complex attacks on army bases and government buildings, in which they combine shooting and suicide actions. On Monday five Afghan officers were killed in such an attack on the governor's office in Logar province, which borders on Kabul.

The Taliban are feeling too strong at the moment to even consider negotiations, said Nadery. "If US generals say: we are not winning the war, Afghans read that as: they say they're losing. The message the Taliban are getting is: we've forced them to their knees."

Still reconciliation remains one of the most important topics in the Afghanistan debate at the moment.

The candidates in the presidential elections, planned for August 20, have talked about reconciliation in their campaigns. It is assumed that the next president will try to put a peace process in motion.

'Moderates'

Opinions vary on how that process should take shape. Richard Holbrooke, US envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, believes that more than 70 percent of the fighters can be wrested from the radical ideas of Mullah Omar and Al-Qaeda. British foreign minister Miliband has also talked about negotiations with "moderate elements." But UN man Eide recently said: "If you want a relevant peace process, you will have to talk to the relevant people."

President Karzai too wants talks with the Taliban leadership, on condition that the Taliban put down their arms. If he wins the election, he said on Tuesday, he will invite them for a loya jirga, a great meeting of tribal leaders.

There is one thing everyone agrees on: the Afghan president must take the lead in any reconciliation process. "But Karzai lacks vision," said Nadery of the human rights commission. "And how can you persuade an armed man without a solid argument."

The initiatives Karzai has undertaken in his seven years as president have indeed yielded little in the way of results.

Invitations to the Taliban leadership have never led to any serious talks, as far as is known. The more than 6,000 fighters that the reconciliation commission claims to have legalised largely come from the lower ranks. Farooq is an exception. The commission simply does not have enough funds to help high-level defectors start a new life or offer them protection.

Broken promises

"They promised me everything, but I got nothing," maulawi Farooq said in the Kabul restaurant. Except a card which states that henceforth he will act in accordance with the law and contribute to the success of the country. He pulled the crumpled card from his breast pocket. His black beard was a bit longer in the photo than it was now. "They were going to bring over eighty of my family members from Pakistan and I would be given money to start a new Koranic school. It turned out to be all lies."

Exploratory talks took place in Mecca last year between the government and former Taliban leaders, at the invitation of the Saudi king Abdullah. One of those in attendance was Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, a moderate who served as foreign minister during the Taliban regime.

"King Abdullah sat at the head of the dinner table, but did not get involved in the talks," Muttawakil recalled recently in his house in Kabul. "His people came to us and asked how a dialogue could be started." No 'real' Taliban leaders were invited, he said.

Muttawakil described the statements about reconciliation as "a charade being played out via the media". Both parties' demands are too high, he said. "If Karzai asks the Taliban to lay down their arms, he is in fact asking them to capitulate. Nor can the Taliban insist as a starting demand that all foreign armed forces leave the country."

Compromise

After the elections, the new government and the international community will first have to reach agreement, said Muttawakil. After that the various parties will have to make minor concessions in order to start talks. "The government could ask the Taliban to stop burning schools. The Taliban could then demand that the foreigners do more to avoid civilian casualties."

Only after that could serious topics be addressed, said the former minister, such as a new constitution. The Taliban and the movement of the warlord Hekmatyar were not involved in establishing the current system, a mistake that has to be remedied, according to Muttawakil.

Karzai has always demanded that former Taliban members show their support for the constitution. Muttawakil: "Both parties must reach compromises in order to determine how much democracy will be established in Afghanistan, how much Islamic law and how much international law."

Researcher Nadery said it is "one of the greatest worries of the Afghans" that reconciliation will take place "at the expense of what has been achieved in the past seven years", especially in the area of human rights.

Another big question is how moderate those Taliban labelled as 'moderate' really are.

"In my mind I am still one of them," said Muttawakil, "you cannot take that out of me."

"I have done nothing wrong," said Farook. "There is nothing I regret. I let the Koran guide me. Has the commission asked me to swear off violence? No. Why would I?"