KABUL, 3 July 2003 — Afghanistan has postponed the launch of an ambitious drive to disarm 100,000 fighters until key reforms are implemented in the Defense Ministry to make it more ethnically representative and accountable.
The disarmament program — seen as a crucial step in establishing stability in the war-ravaged country — should have begun in early July but has been postponed until the end of the month, an aide to President Hamid Karzai said.
“The Cabinet is discussing the issue of reform. The president waits to see the reform before actually launching it,” said presidential press official Khaliq Ahmad, referring to the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) program.
“So, the program has been delayed until the end of July.” Provincial governors and warlords control militias numbering tens of thousands of fighters across the country. Most ignore the authority of the central government and some battle rivals over territory and trade routes.
Compounding Afghanistan’s security problems are remnants of the former Taleban regime, their Al-Qaeda allies and fighters loyal to renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, all of whom have been accused of recent attacks on government and international forces and aid workers.
The Defense Ministry is dominated by a small but powerful ethnic Tajik faction under Defense Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim, who helped the US military topple the Taleban in 2001.
Karzai, a member of the country’s biggest ethnic group, the Pashtuns, has said reform of the ministry is essential before the disarmament plan can go ahead. Government officials say the aim of the reform is to avoid favoring one faction over another.
Khaliq said the delay in the launch of the three-year disarmament plan was not because of any rift in the transitional government. Analysts have said delays in Defense Ministry reform and in the disarmament plan could result in the postponement of a general election due in June 2004.
But Khaliq said Karzai was keen to finish his term of office before June next year and did not want to delay the election.
Attacks Doubled in May: ISAF
Meanwhile, the commander of the peacekeeping International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said yesterday that attacks across Afghanistan doubled between April and May and are still running high.
“What we realized and what we recognized over the last four or five months is really an increase of incidents and accidents in the entire country,” German Lt. Gen. Norbert van Heyst told reporters at his monthly press conference at ISAF headquarters.
“Basically, the total number of incidents in May doubled against the number of incidents in April.” The level of attacks stabilized “on a very high level” in June, he said.
The US military, which heads a separate 11,500 strong coalition force hunting for remnants of Al-Qaeda and the Taleban has also acknowledged an increase in attacks in recent months.
In the latest incidents a suspected bomber accidentally blew himself up Tuesday in a Kabul bazaar, police chief Basir Salangi said yesterday, while last week a US soldier was killed in a firefight in southeast Afghanistan bringing the toll of US troops killed in combat to at least 30.
Four German ISAF soldiers were also killed and 29 others badly injured in a suicide car bomb attack on their bus on June 7 in Kabul. ISAF is currently under joint German-Dutch command. NATO will take over command on Aug. 11, with some 1,900 Canadian soldiers replacing most of the German contingent.
