KABUL
- Afghan and United States officials say that clear
lessons are emerging as they examine events behind March
21 fighting in Herat between governor Ismail Khan's
private army and the Defense Ministry's 4th Corps
militia.
The US ambassador to Afghanistan,
Zalmay Khalilzad, says the fighting shows that programs
aimed at strengthening the central government's
authority outside of Kabul need to be implemented more
quickly.
"I don't think [the crisis in Herat]
affects the strategic direction of this country," he
said. "I think what it highlights is that we need to
accelerate some things that need to be done here.
Disarming and reintegrating militias is, in my view, the
lesson that I take away from this as to what needs to be
accelerated. And [the building of] national
institutions, such as the Afghan National Army that you
see responding to the situation [in Herat], needs to be
speeded up." Afghan Transitional Administration
chairman Hamid Karzai's spokesman, Javed Ludin, says the
crisis shows that security in the Afghan provinces could
deteriorate further unless disarmament is expedited and
starts to produce results. The issue is especially
critical as the country gears up for presidential and
legislative elections, scheduled for later this year.
But Ludin only hinted to journalists about plans
to establish permanent bases for the Afghan National
Army in areas that are under the control of powerful
regional warlords. "What [the Herat crisis] will mean in
terms of the future [is that the central government's
priority] will be to make sure that the security and
safety of the people of Herat is not threatened and to
do everything to get this objective done," Ludin said.
"We will think about the long-term implications of this
particular event. This will certainly have implications
for a number of programs that the government is trying
to implement, and the disarmament process is, of course,
the most important one. In order to ensure that people -
not only in Herat but also in the rest of the country -
do not face a similar risk in the future, we will do
everything that is necessary."
RFE/RL has
learned that one project considered necessary by both
the Afghan central government and US military officials
is the setting up of permanent garrisons for the Afghan
National Army in or near the cities of Herat, Kandahar,
Mazar-e-Sharif and Gardez. Even before the March 21
violence, teams from the US Army and the Afghan Defense
Ministry were visiting potential sites for the new
bases.
The deployment of at least 1,500 National
Army troops to Herat in response to the fighting marks
the beginning of what analysts say could become a
permanent presence in the city by those forces.
Indeed, some of the National Army soldiers have
been sent to the garrison of the 17th Herat Division of
the Defense Ministry's 4th Corps. That was the
headquarters of General Abdul Zaher Nayebzadah's troops
before his garrison and residence were overrun by Ismail
Khan's militia on March 21. The Defense Ministry has
final approval on whether the location will now become a
permanent garrison for the National Army.
Meanwhile, both the US and the Afghan government
have sought to downplay the significance of the fact
that the leaders of the forces involved in the battle
were one of Afghanistan's most powerful regional
warlords and a general who was appointed to his Defense
Ministry command by Karzai.
Nayebzadah's troops
in the 4th Corps - like many of the factional militias
that operate under the auspices of the Defense Ministry
- are nominally part of the central government's
security forces. General Nayebzadah receives orders from
Karzai through the Defense Ministry.
Vikram
Parekh is a Kabul-based expert on Afghanistan for the
International Crisis Group. He said the March 21
violence appears to be the extension of a power struggle
that has been going on in Herat since last year between
Ismail Khan and the Afghan central government.
"The 4th Corps has been a contentious issue for
several months between Ismail Khan and the central
government," he said. "Last fall, Karzai had appointed a
new head of the 4th Corps who had, initially, not even
been really able to take his post in Herat because it
came at the expense of Ismail Khan, [who at that time
had] both political authority as governor and military
authority as head of the 4th Corps. The Afghan National
Army's deployment is the thing that could make this
actually stick. So this [deployment] would be a first
real attempt by the central government to put some bite
into its appointments."
But the 4th Corps also
is an entirely different entity than the Afghan National
Army. The National Army is now working closely with US
forces against former Taliban and al-Qaeda militants as
part of Operation Mountain Storm. The National Army
troops are trained by the US-led coalition and hail from
various ethnic groups so that its battalions are
representative of the country's demographic diversity.
Parekh concludes that a decision by the Defense
Ministry to keep Afghan National Army troops in Herat
permanently will dramatically alter the situation in the
province. "I think the ANA's [ Afghan National Army]
presence there will have a difference both militarily
and politically in the relations between the center and
[governor Khan's faction] in Herat if [the ANA troops]
are kept in Herat for a long enough time."
Khan's spokesman, General Gholam Mohammad
Mas'un, has made it clear that the Herat governor does
not want the National Army to stay in the province
permanently. Mas'un told RFE/RL that the deployments are
unnecessary and are "not fair".
Khalilzad says
Ismail Khan has officially welcomed the deployments. But
the US ambassador says he is not ready to predict that
violence in Herat is over once and for all. He was asked
whether he thinks there will be fighting in the future
between Ismail Khan's militia and the ANA. "I hope not.
I think the presence of the forces of the Afghan
National Army should have a positive stabilizing
effect," he said. "That's our expectation. That's our
hope. That's what the central government is trying to
do. And also, that's what Governor Ismail Khan has said.
That's his expectation, as well. So, well, we will have
to see."
Meanwhile, some details are emerging
about the events that set off the fighting in Herat and
the killing there on March 21 of Ismail Khan's son,
Civil Aviation Minister Mirwais Sadeq. A preliminary
report on the investigation by Interior Minister Ali
Ahmed Jalali and Defense Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim
says that Sadeq's death was the result of a "tragic
event sparked by a small accident". The report did not
elaborate on the accident. But it did lower the
estimated death toll to 16 people.
Foreign
Ministry spokesman Omar Samad had said earlier that
Sadeq's death was a "result of the fighting" rather than
a cause of the fighting. Foreign Minister Abdullah
Abdullah says the ministerial delegation's findings
suggest the death of Sadeq was not a premeditated
assassination, as initially reported.
Copyright (c) 2004, RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted
with the permission of Radio Free
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