Afghanistan's Karzai offers olive branch to Taliban

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai marked the 15th anniversary of the defeat of communist rule on Saturday with a fresh call to the Taliban to give up their insurgency amid rising violence.

Mujahideen warriors captured Kabul on April 28, 1992, ending the rule of a pro-Soviet government but ushering in a civil war that only ended when the Taliban seized power in 1996.

The Taliban, ousted by U.S. and mujahideen forces in late 2001, have since last year unleashed a wave of unprecedented roadside and suicide bombings, ambushes and raids, in their drive to oust foreign forces and defeat Karzai's government.

"Today, while celebrating the jihad victory, we once again invite those who have sided with aliens because of seduction against their nation, to give up sedition and evil and join peaceful life," Karzai said in a victory day speech.

The ceremony was marked by a military parade that included disabled victims of Afghanistan's fighting -- in wheelchairs and on crutches -- as well as a display that included Soviet-era tanks, modern American Humvees and camels.

Karzai, who has been leading Afghanistan since soon after the Taliban were ousted, first called on rank-and-file Taliban to rejoin society more than three years ago and has repeated his offer several times, but few have responded.

He has opened talks with former Taliban leaders in Kabul, but few details have emerged publicly.

Karzai said regional countries has prospered economically since the Taliban's ouster and there were further opportunities.

But on the eve of talks in Turkey with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf over accusations and counter-accusations on the Taliban's presence in Pakistan, Karzai said to achieve that required "honest cooperation" against the Taliban and their Islamic allies.

"Preventing destruction, killing, abduction by ... terrorists, requires earnest, honest cooperation of our brothers and neighboring countries, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and other regional countries."

Saturday's military parade passed one of Kabul's main mosques and along a road by buildings ruined in the bloody civil war that followed the communists' downfall.

Tens of thousands of people were killed as factions battled for the city, reducing whole neighborhoods to rubble.

The 10-year occupation of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union and the Western-backed Mujahideen war killed more than two million people and forced millions more to flee as refugees.

Some of the commanders who fought then now hold positions in government, or seats in parliament. Others are Taliban allies.

Among the parade were two old British cannons, captured during a bloody British incursion into Afghanistan in the 19th century.

A stream of old but newly painted Soviet-era armored personnel carriers, tanks and truck-mounted multiple-rocket launchers were paraded along with newly donated military equipment and vehicles from Western countries.

Helicopters and jets thundered overhead watched by Karzai and senior U.S. and foreign military officers.

Unlike past years, former Mujahideen era President Burhanuddin Rabbani and another leading Mujahideen figure Mohammad Qasim Fahim were not present.

The two leaders played key roles in helping oust the Taliban in 2001, but despite serving in the government have been sidelined and have formed an opposition bloc that is demanding reducing Karzai's powers.