Afghanistan has changed, Nicholas Kay, NATO’s outgoing senior civilian representative in the country, said in a message to the Taliban on Monday.
Kay said that he had met the Taliban Shura in Kandahar in March 1995 with a group of other diplomats.
“You had just arrived on the scene and many people saw you as bringing law and order and justice,” Kay said in the message posted on Twitter. “But you have lost your way as a movement.”
“And now 25 years later, you are killing Afghan men, Afghan women, Afghan children just because you want to impose again your regime,” Kay said.
He said that in the last three years he travelled around Afghanistan and spoke with many Afghans who said their country has changed and they don’t welcome the return of the Taliban regime.
“What they do welcome is anyone who wants to come and contribute to peace and security in the country,” Kay said.
“They welcome anyone who respects the diversity of peoples and faiths in this country, who is honest and law binding, but they do not welcome anyone who will deprive them of their human rights, their political and civil rights.”
He called on Taliban to “embrace the new Afghanistan and come and contribute to the betterment of the country.”
