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Enticements in Plan to Disarm Afghan Militiamen Include Job Training

Monday, April 7, 2003
(4:18 AM)
Los Angeles Times

Yusuf Pashtun acknowledged that the agenda is daunting. "I warn my friends when I talk about Afghans that I´m usually optimistic. I have to be optimistic. Afghans have no experience on such a scale. It will require a lot of preparation and input from all the communities that have experience in this," he said.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- LAT
Amid rising violence, the government of President Hamid Karzai and the United Nations formally initiated an ambitious program Sunday to disarm up to 100,000 Afghan militiamen by using economic incentives.

Officials heading a new government entity called Afghanistan´s New Beginnings Program are under no illusions, however, about the difficulty of persuading a reluctant populace to give up weapons that can mean identity, income and self-defense.

Firearms are everywhere in evidence in Afghanistan, a country where the rule of the gun has superseded the legal system during a quarter-century of warfare. Many are toted by the thousands of militiamen on the payroll of the Ministry of Defense. The prevalence of arms is also widely recognized as a threat to security and an impediment to economic recovery.

The program unveiled Sunday had been delayed for weeks, reportedly by differences within the Karzai government over how to implement it. It is bound to ruffle the feathers of many former warlords now in high government positions who want to keep their armed retainers on call.
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2003 © Los Angeles Times

Dan