Japan announces further contribution for disarmament

With Afghanistan's disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programme still in its pilot phase with only a few thousand ex-soldiers disarmed to date, Tokyo announced on Thursday another US $24.5 million contribution to the process. The money will be used to help demobilise up to 35,000 combatants before the country’s forthcoming elections scheduled later this year. The DDR process is designed to demobilise and reintegrate 100,000 ex-combatants over three years. “We have a very short time now before the elections and the DDR process cannot be undertaken throughout the country. So we will target at least 30,000 of the combatants in the essential areas before the elections take place,” Kinichi Komano, the ambassador of Japan in Afghanistan, told IRIN in the capital Kabul. “We made this further contribution in order to prepare favourable conditions for holding free and fair elections,” the Japanese ambassador said, adding that while Japan had already contributed $35 million to the DDR process, the new money would include a provision of incentives for decommissioning commanders, turning decommissioned soldiers into deminers and the destruction of surplus ammunitions. Accelerating the UN-managed DDR process is seen as a vital component in weakening provincial warlords, a key objective if the elections are to take place in an environment free of voter intimidation. But the DDR effort still has a long way to go. To date, only 5,400 soldiers have been disarmed and 3,400 of them reintegrated into civilian life, since the DDR pilot phase started in October 2003, according to the Afghanistan New Beginning Programme (the official name of the DDR process). However, the DDR will go into its main phase by early April after its pilot phase is undertaken in the remaining targeted provinces of Kandahar, Bamian, Jalalabad and Herat. Based on the pilot phase, around 1,000 ex-soldiers are expected to participate in each targeted province. “The main phase will be undertaken in two segments, firstly disarming 30,000 ex-soldiers by the elections and then to address the remaining 70,000 across the country in the remaining two years,” Mohammad Massoom Stanekzai, the chairman of the DDR commission, who is also the Afghan communications minister, told IRIN. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) which is managing the $162-million three-year-programme, Japan is the largest financial contributor of the effort, with substantial contributions from Canada and the United Kingdom, along with pledges from the United States. “For the success of voter registration, elections and long-term reconstruction and development of Afghanistan, the continuous progress of DDR is condition number one,” Ercan Murat, UNDP resident representative in Afghanistan, said after Thursday's signing ceremony to mark the Japanese contribution. Murat said the DDR was an issue of building confidence and opening up the possibility of peaceful negotiations in conflict areas, noting: “The DDR's failure is not an option.”