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Shelling Breaks Ceasefire in Afghan Ethnic Clashes
Thursday, July 25, 2002
(6:17 AM AEST)
The ABC

A local commander said on Tuesday that at least 12 people were killed in the earlier armed clashes, seven Tajiks and five Pashtuns, while dozens were wounded.

Shelling continued in western Afghanistan as ethnic Tajiks and Pashtuns fought over control of an old Soviet air base, defying a Government-brokered ceasefire, a local official says.

The clashes broke out early in the week around Shindand, some 120 kilometres south of the city of Herat and in an area which marks a boundary between the Persian-speaking north of Afghanistan and the Pashto-speaking south.

Government officials sent from Kabul brokered a ceasefire that took effect on Monday night but appeared to have broken down on Wednesday.

The clash along ethnic lines underlines Afghanistans continued vulnerability to in-fighting since a new Government led by President Hamid Karzai was put in place to succeed the Taliban last year.

Anger over the division of power after the fall of the Taliban, mainly Pashtuns from the south, is widespread.
(More: Afghanistan Peace Organization News Source)
2002 © Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Dan