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Afghanistan disarmament to begin October 29th
Lots of critics have been complaining about the warlords of Afghanistan and why the hell the US hasn't disarmed them yet. Well as I've said all along that would amount to opening a Pandora's Box and destabalize the whole damn place. The Russians already tried going in and blowing up everything and that didn't really work. Sometimes you have to work with people on the terms given and not try to impose your own ideal rule on top of them right away.
So now the long awaited disarmament program begins at the end of the month. And it couldn't come sooner considering two of the Northern Alliance factions decided to kill each other this week.
The fighting came as the Afghan government and the United Nations signed a deal paving the way to deploy teams of U.N. and Afghan personnel in cities across Afghanistan to start a much-delayed program to disarm militiamen loyal to warlords.
Disarming the tens of thousands of militiamen is essential if the Afghan government is to be able to build and deploy a national army to maintain security. It is also an important step if a NATO-led peacekeeping mission is to expand to regions outside Kabul.
Convincing the warlords, many of whom are also provincial governors, to agree to surrender their weapons will be a major challenge. Some of them are allegedly involved in drug trafficking and other crimes and may see little benefit in giving up the arms that keep them in power.
The first disarmament team is expected in the northern city of Kunduz on October 25. Teams are then scheduled to head for the cities of Gardez, Mazar-e-Sharif and Kabul later this year.
Attempts last year to disarm the two militia groups loyal to Atta and Dostum largely failed.
So now the long awaited disarmament program begins at the end of the month. And it couldn't come sooner considering two of the Northern Alliance factions decided to kill each other this week.
The fighting came as the Afghan government and the United Nations signed a deal paving the way to deploy teams of U.N. and Afghan personnel in cities across Afghanistan to start a much-delayed program to disarm militiamen loyal to warlords.
Disarming the tens of thousands of militiamen is essential if the Afghan government is to be able to build and deploy a national army to maintain security. It is also an important step if a NATO-led peacekeeping mission is to expand to regions outside Kabul.
Convincing the warlords, many of whom are also provincial governors, to agree to surrender their weapons will be a major challenge. Some of them are allegedly involved in drug trafficking and other crimes and may see little benefit in giving up the arms that keep them in power.
The first disarmament team is expected in the northern city of Kunduz on October 25. Teams are then scheduled to head for the cities of Gardez, Mazar-e-Sharif and Kabul later this year.
Attempts last year to disarm the two militia groups loyal to Atta and Dostum largely failed.
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