Kabul wil Somalie fiasco herhalen....

[Wizdom]

Kabul may arm militia to fight terrorists
By Rachel Morarjee in Kabul
Published: June 9 2006 22:01 | Last updated: June 9 2006 22:01

The Afghan government is considering arming tribal groups across the south of the country, where Nato is set to take command next month, in a move diplomats say would destabilise the country.

As violence in the country’s four southern provinces rises to its worst level since 2001, armed village and tribal groups would be recruited to back up the increasingly overstretched police force and fledgling national army.

Jawed Ludin, chief of staff in the government of Hamid Karzai, said: “The government wants to take measures to strengthen the security situation in the south.

“It is not so much that the terrorists are strong, but that we are weak.”

However, experts say the tribal groups to be armed are likely to be militias commanded by warlords, which would create alternative power bases and weaken an already fragile state.

One western diplomat said: “If this happens it is the beginning of the end for southern Afghanistan and has far-reaching implications for the north and west.”

A senior western security official said: “This is a vote of no confidence in everything that has been done so far to reform the police and army.”

But Mr Ludin said a force of young tribesmen could be used to back up police who have been left on the front line in the fight against the Taliban without adequate arms or equipment.

“This is not militias. It is strengthening the police and making sure the police have a strong community presence,” he added.

[Wizdom]

Alarm over plan to allow Afghan warlords to rearm
By Rachel Morarjee in Kabul
Published: June 9 2006 22:01 | Last updated: June 9 2006 22:01

Foreign donors and Afghan legislators have reacted with alarm to an Afghan government idea that could allow some of the most feared warlords in southern Afghanistan to rearm their men in order to fight the Taliban.


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Security in the region is at its worst level in years but outside the government many feel recruiting local tribesmen to back up official security forces will undermine the already brittle state institutions.

“It is a complete scandal. Thugs that we have worked for years to remove from power will come back with a vengeance,” said a senior western official.

The level of support within the government remains unclear, however. Interior minister Moqbal Zarar said: “I am totally against rearming militias, establishing new armed forces cannot aid security. I have not signed off on the plan.”

A top defence ministry official said the defence ministry would not fund any southern militias’ wages.

But two candidates positioning themselves to lead tribal militia forces are the former governors of southern Uruzgan province and neighbouring Helmand where British troops are deploying 2,000 extra troops to bolster security.

Both men were dismissed from their posts last year following months of international pressure because of their links to the country’s drugs trade.

In Helmand the former governor has already begun recruiting a private army. “I went to Helmand to look for 500 men and 700 men came forward.

“People are ready to help the Afghan National Army because they have suffered enough at the hands of the Taliban and al-Qaeda,” said former governor Sher Mohammed Akundzada said, adding that President Hamid Karzai was considering the move.

British troops stationed in the province but not yet at combat strength had not moved fast enough to back up a beleaguered police force, Mr Akundzada said.

In neighbouring Uruzgan province, where 1,200 Dutch troops will deploy in August, former governor Jan Mohammed Khan is also drumming up a militia force, according to MPs from the region. “It will only have negative consequences. Over the long-term it is not good to empower the militias,” said Haji Abdul Khaleeq, an MP and tribal elder from Uruzgan.

For Afghans in the south, the plan evokes the ghosts of the civil war years when the communist government recruited militias to fight the mujaheedin – a strategy that failed.

“It didn’t work then and it won’t work now. Rearming the former militias will create a group of thieves and looters,” said Habibullah Jan, a disarmed militia commander and MP for southern Kandahar.

More than $150m has been spent on a UN-backed plan to disarm private armies across the country and the process is still ongoing. Afghanistan made a commitment in January to disarm all illegal militias by the end of next year.

“Commanders in the north, the north-east and west are getting very nervous about the mention of rearming militias in the south,” said Peter Babbington, head of the UN-backed Afghan New Beginnings Programme which heads the disarmament drive.

[David]

Taliban: stenigen.
Warlords: stenigen.
Opgelost.