KABUL, 14 April 2004 — President Hamid Karzai’s government will press ahead with plans to disarm Afghanistan’s regional militias ahead of elections, his spokesman said yesterday, calling the private fighters a threat to fair polls.

Violence in southern and eastern Afghanistan, where Taleban remnants and their militant allies are active despite being toppled from power more than two years ago, prompted Karzai to delay June’s planned elections to September.

Security fears were heightened by fighting last month between forces of the provincial governor and a pro-Karzai commander in the western city of Herat, previously known as a safe region, and clashes last week in the northern provinces of Faryab and Balkh.

Asked at a news conference if factional fighting was a threat to elections, Karzai’s chief spokesman Jawed Ludin replied “Yes.”

“We believe that the main reason for the remaining problems is the presence of militias and the issue of warlordism. As long as this situation continues, unfortunately, progress on all spheres will be threatened.”

Regional commanders and their private militias, mostly from former Mujahedeen factions that fought Soviet occupation in the 1980s, helped the US-led military topple the radical Taleban regime in late 2001.

But many have since concentrated on consolidating fiefdoms at the expense of Karzai’s US-backed government, which is trying to unite and rebuild the country after nearly 25 years of war.

One of the most powerful, Uzbek Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, is one of Karzai’s nominal advisers, but his troops overran Faryab and its provincial capital Maimana last week, forcing its governor and top military commander to flee.

Karzai had to rush soldiers from the infant US-trained National Army to both Herat and Maimana to maintain a presence. Dostum’s men withdrew from Maimana on Saturday but they remain in Faryab province despite orders to leave.

The government has announced ambitious plans to disarm 40 percent of an estimated 100,000 fighters loyal to regional commanders such as Dostum and Herat Governor Ismail Khan by June.

“Disarmament is the only solution at the end of the day for the problem of warlordism and presence of militias,” said Ludin.