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New Afghan disarmament drive threatens force against militias
Kabul, (AFP) May 14, 2006 Afghanistan has intensified efforts to disarm scores of illegal militias by giving commanders two months to hand over their weapons or face the law, an official said Sunday. The new campaign, part of the UN-backed Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG) programme launched in June 2005, began in the central province of Kapisa at the start of this month, DIAG officials said. Commanders of 38 groups in Kapisa were told by letter to hand in their weapons, UN Deputy Special Representative Chris Alexander said on the sidelines of a meeting to explain the process to officials from the next provinces to introduce the campaign. "Those people have one month to voluntarily disarm but if that fails, there is one month in which their disarmament is negotiated... then after that they face law enforcement one way or another," Alexander said. "They could very well face arrest or other kinds of legal sanction." Alexander said there were about 2,000 illegal armed groups in Afghanistan but only between 100 and 200 of them were considered "serious". "Many of the groups have only a very few weapons and are not even active. We are not worried about them. We are worried about the ones that are active, defying the government, creating problems for the population. "Some are connected to the narcotics trade, some are connected to other forms of crime, some simply started what they are doing during the jihad (anti-Soviet resistance) and they never stopped," he said. Afghanistan is awash with illegal weapons after 25 years of war, including the resistance to the 1979-89 Soviet occupation during which the United States supplied militias with weapons to fight Russia. The government that replaced the hardline Taliban regime, toppled by a US-led coalition in late 2001, is collecting weapons and disbanding illegal groups in a bid to bring stability to the war-torn nation. More than 36,500 light weapons and 12,240 heavy weapons have been collected since June last year. Alexander said the disarmament programme was challenging in a country like Afghanistan. "It is not easy to do, to go after commanders who have enjoyed impunity for decades, in some cases who are used to being the top of the pile in their community and say, 'Listen, it's now the government which has the authority, which has the monopoly on use of force'." Nonetheless there had been cooperation for the programme, with some pressure for disarmament coming from ordinary people tired of fighting, he said. "People do understand that to be part of the future, they have to take difficult steps like this... People who live in these communities which are terrorised by these groups are very impatient for this to be implemented," he said. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links News From Across The Stans
The Changing Face Of Asia
Almaty, Kazakhstan (UPI) Apr 28, 2006When we think about the rapidly changing face of Asia, we tend to look towards the Far East; the Japanese and South Korean post-World War II economic miracles. More recently the focus has turned to China and India, the new wonder boys on the block who are rapidly emerging as the financial and commercial powerhouses of the future. Often, newer emerging markets in Central Asia tend to receive little, if any, attention. Kazakhstan falls under that category. |
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