Afghan disarmament in jeopardy
2004-05-06 20:19
Kabul - A plan to disarm Afghanistan's warring militias ahead of landmark elections is "seriously in jeopardy," the United Nations warned on Thursday, because of obstruction by powerful commanders, including several in key government posts.
The Afghan Ministry of Defence adopted a plan in late March to disarm 40% of the country's estimated 100 000 irregular fighters by the end of June.
But the UN's top official in Afghanistan said the plan, which President Hamid Karzai used to drum up billions in aid pledges at a donor conference in Germany, had yet to begin.
"The possibility that it will be completed in time is now seriously in jeopardy," UN Special Representative Jean Arnault said in a statement read by his spokesperson.
The United Nations says disarming the militias is crucial to ensuring that presidential and parliamentary elections slated for September are free and fair.
Karzai vowed at the Berlin conference in April to tackle feuding warlords and militias, many of whom are suspected of involvement in the country's booming drug trade.
But the Defence Ministry, headed by powerful faction leader Mohammed Fahim, has been slow to implement the disarmament plan, raising suspicion that he and his lieutenants are clinging to armed force that could distort the vote.
UN spokesperson Manoel de Almeida e Silva said Fahim's ministry had been informed of the world body's concerns.
"I think it boils down to the will of those who control military formations and weapons," he said.
Officials in Karzai's office and at the Defence Ministry were not immediately available for comment.
UN officials say three key commanders for the Tajik-dominated Jamiat faction - to which Fahim also belongs - are stalling on handing over lists of soldiers to be disarmed.
The three are Herat Gov Ismail Khan and the commanders of the 6th and 7th army corps, Gen Mohammed Daoud and Gen Atta Mohammed. Men loyal to Khan and Mohammed have been involved in deadly fighting with rival militias in recent months.
Arnault insisted the commanders had no excuse, saying the units to be slimmed or scrapped had no role in fighting militants, organised crime or drug trafficking.
"Quite the contrary, many of them have been in the past two years involved in factional fighting which is a continuing cause of instability and of suffering," Arnault said.
UN and Afghan officials had identified job opportunities for all the soldiers affected, he added, accusing commanders of ignoring ordinary Afghans' desire for peace after more than two decades of war.
"They (Afghan people) have stressed again and again that the national election could be a genuine exercise in free political choice only after guns cease to be a tool in the hands of local power holders.
"No-one should be allowed to betray such a basic and legitimate aspiration," he said.
- AP