Afghanistan ends disarmament drive 08.07.2005 KABUL: Afghanistan said on Thursday it had completed the first stage of a major UN-backed disarmament prorgramme aimed at collecting weapons including tanks and cannon from tens of thousands of former militiamen. Since it was launched in October 2003, more than 60,000 people have been disarmed under the so-called Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration scheme, Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said. “No one can now exert power through the barrel of gun,” the minister told a ceremony to mark the formal end of the prorgramme’s initial phase, part of efforts to rebuild the shattered country after 25 years of war. More than 52,000 of the former anti-Taliban and anti-Soviet fighters who gave up their guns have been reintegrated into civilian life, Wardak said. He said some 34,727 small- and medium-range weapons and 9,085 heavy weapons, including tanks and artillery, have been collected from the private militia forces. The total of weapons collected is less than the number of militiamen disarmed because in some cases private army units handed over a number of weapons and all their members were then considered as being nominally disarmed. But the defence minister said an even greater number of illegal forces and weapons were still circulating in Afghanistan. Wardak said the collection of arms from illegal militia groups will continue under the second phase of the prorgramme, known as the Disarm Illegal Armed Groups scheme, which was launched on June 11. Most of those disarmed are former mujahideen fighters who fought the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and then helped the United States and other countries to oust the Taliban in late 2001. Meanwhile, Australia’s cabinet will decide next week on a proposal to send troops back to Afghanistan to help in the war on terrorism, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said on Thursday. Australia sent Special Forces troops and air support to Afghanistan in the initial stages of the war on terrorism following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, but withdrew its forces in 2002 after the fall of the Taliban regime. “There has been a standing request from the government of Afghanistan over quite a period of time to a lot of countries including Australia to send troops. We’re going to talk about it in cabinet next week,” Howard told Australian radio. agencies. << | >> |
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