Disarmament Program Begins in Afghanistan

Disarmament Program Begins in Afghanistan
22.10.2003 KUNDUZ, Afghanistan - Militiamen talked and laughed as they handed over their Kalashnikov rifles Tuesday under a long-awaited U.N.-sponsored program to disarm 100,000 fighters and hopefully end the cycle of violence in a country plagued by two decades of war.

Starting in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz, the New Beginnings Program encourages militia fighters to exchange weapons for work, thereby removing some of the estimated 1 million arms from circulation.

"This Kalashnikov has been on my shoulder for eight years," said Mirajuddin, a 27-year-old fighter from the Dasht Arche district of Kunduz. "But I will give up my weapon because I want my children to go to school, I want a stable life and I want security and peace in the country."

Mirajuddin was one of the militiamen registering weapons and placing them into huge bins at a military base in Kunduz city in the program, which began Monday. Already by Tuesday evening, 490 weapons had been turned in here.

"Everyone is being 100 percent supportive of the program so far, and we're seeing the result of a huge effort," said James Grimshaw, a U.N. spokesman for the initiative.

The aim of the disarmament project is to take weapons from fighters who are nominally under the Defense Ministry, but in reality are loyal to regional warlords who have ruled Afghanistan for decades and constantly test each other's will to fight.

President Hamid Karzai's government, whose influence is largely confined to the capital, is trying to build a 70,000-member U.S.- and French-trained national army — now with only 5,000 troops — to replace the warlords' militias.

"War is finished in this country," said Commander Mir Alam Khan, whose unit is based in Kunduz city. "There is no more reason to fight."

Still, the program is likely to face resistance in the countryside, where every family has a gun, and a weapon is as much a part of a man's attire as his turban.

The disarmament program was originally set to begin July 1, but was delayed because Afghan authorities were slow to implement reforms within the Defense Ministry.

The disarmament campaign, which has a three-year budget of $167 million, hinges on ongoing reforms in the ministry aimed at making it more ethnically balanced to encourage opposing factions to lay down their arms.

While the ministry is supposed to play a leading role in collecting weapons, critics say the process won't be easy as long as its top posts are controlled by Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim and his allies, who are ethnic Tajiks. Fahim wields enormous power, especially in the north where he has his own army.

On Saturday, the disarmed soldiers will be demobilized and assessed to see which livelihood will suit them. The jobs — among them carpentry, teaching and farming — will mostly be created by non-governmental organizations, the Afghan government and private contractors.

The fighters will also be given a small sum of money and vocational training or access to credit. Some will be given a chance to apply for positions in the new National Army.

Disarmament teams will be deployed to the cities of Gardez, Mazar-e-Sharif and Parwan later this year.

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