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Afghan plan to take the war out of
warlords
By Farangis Najibullah
PRAGUE - The latest round of clashes pitting
loyalists of General Abdul Rashid Dostum against those
of his rival, General Muhammad Atta, have left more than
a dozen people dead. Yet both powerful warlords say that
they are committed to the central government's plan
systematically to disarm regional militia groups such as
those fighting on their behalf in northern Afghanistan.
Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek, is head of
Junbesh-i-Milli-yi-Islami (National Islamic Movement)
and a military advisor to Afghan Transitional
Administration chairman Hamid Karzai. Atta, his arch
rival, is an ethnic Tajik and a commander of the
powerful Jamiyat-i-Islami (Islamic Society) group.
The men have spent years battling for control of
Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan's third-largest city. They
each have a number of militia groups under their
control. And it is precisely such groups that Kabul
hopes eventually to disarm through its United
Nations-sponsored demilitarization project. Deputy
Defense Minister Gulzarak Zadran, a member of the
government's Disarmament Commission, would not divulge
the budget or the scope of the two-year project, but did
say that Dostum and Atta loyalists would be among those
disarmed.
Dostum spokesman Faizullah Zaki said
Dostum is ready to disarm all the forces under his
control. But he warned that smaller groups and armed
individuals will prove a more difficult target. "General
Dostum is one of the political figures who started the
disarmament process a few months ago," Zaki said. "On
his own initiative, he unilaterally disarmed several
thousand armed people in the north. But there will not
be a disarmament process unless all groups participate
and cooperate in it. There is no doubt that Mr Dostum is
in favor of disarmament in the north, as well as in the
whole country."
Dostum's rival Atta says his men
are also ready to lay down their weapons, as long as the
government provides them with jobs and other assistance
to help them reintegrate. "We are ready [to disarm]. The
government, the Defense Ministry and the Disarmament
Commission should make their decision," Atta said. "But
in return, we ask them to provide job opportunities,
income opportunities for our mujahideen who fought for
the country. The process of disarmament and
demilitarization should run in tandem with the
implementation of the project to find employment and
other opportunities for people who give up their
weapons. This is our proposition."
The
disarmament process could affect tens of thousands of
armed men throughout the country, some of whom have been
fighting since the Soviet occupation in the early 1980s.
Most mujahideen have little or no education or job
qualifications - in a sense, fighting is their only
"profession".
Atta's deputy Yunoos Zalmai said
the government must lead the way in giving armed
fighters a reason to give up their weapons and pursue a
different way of life. "Why have we not disarmed so far?
To whom should we give our weapons? Disarmament requires
a special body, a special project," Zalmai said. "We
need to rebuild our national army. Our new army will
recruit 70,000 people, but there are some 200,000 armed
people. Who will be recruited to the army and what will
happen to the rest of them? Well, in the end, it is not
our responsibility. Our government has to think about
it. We are in charge of only one region. We are waiting
for our government to take positive steps."
Deputy Defense Minister Zadran says that under
the disarmament plan the former mujahideen will have
help finding employment, with job training and special
loans provided. Money allocated for the plan includes
US$50 million from the Japanese government. But Tokyo
and the UN's Kabul office announced this month that no
money will be dispensed until the Defense Ministry
undergoes a number of structural reforms.
Afghan
Defense Minister Qasim Fahim has been accused of filling
nearly all his ministry's key decision-making posts with
fellow ethnic Tajiks and Panjshir Valley natives. Zadram
said the Defense Ministry has accepted the demands.
"Yes, we are ready to reform and in fact, the reforms
have already started and are ongoing," he said. A Karzai
spokesman said on Monday that the Defense Ministry is
soon to announce at least eight new appointments and
characterized the changes as a major shakeup.
Copyright 2003, RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted with
the permission of Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW,
Washington, DC 20036.
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