Disarmament accelerated as elections approach

Tens of thousands of ex-combatants will be disarmed by the UN-backed disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programme before the October elections, according to officials at the Afghan Ministry of Defence (MoD). The multi-million dollar Afghanistan's New Beginning Programme (ANBP, the official name for the DDR process) is designed to disarm more than 100,000 former fighters. Fewer than 20,000 members of the militia forces have been decommissioned since disarmament was launched last October. But MoD officials are optimistic that through an "accelerated DDR plan" they will meet the pre-election target of 40,000 disarmed soldiers in less than a month's time. "The government has shown a tougher approach this time. They [militia forces] must accept DDR or their contingents will be cancelled without benefiting from DDR privileges," Colonel Rad Manish, a communications officer at the MoD's department of parliamentary and public affairs, told IRIN. According to Manish, following a presidential decree on 7 September, the disarmament programme was making significant progress. "In just two weeks, more than 2,000 soldiers have been disarmed," said Manish. Meanwhile, according to the MoD, political parties have been told to cooperate with the disarmament programme or they will not be registered. "They [political parties] have military roots or have influence over these armed groups," said Manish. Manish said that more than 70 parties had applied for registration at the MoD but only 41 had been granted a licence. Jamiate-Islami (Islamic Community) of the Northern Alliance group headed by ex-President Burhanudin Rabani, Junbish-Islami (Islamic Movement) led by northern warlord Abdul Rashid Dustum, and Wahdat-mili-Islami, led by Akbari, a warlord from the Hazara minority, are among the big political parties that have been denied recognition for not cooperating with the disarmament process, he added. Observers remain sceptical about the political and military pressures on armed groups. The lack of adequate pressure on commanders has already forced compromises in the process, such as the exclusion of certain units from the main DDR phase, said Vikram Parekh, a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group (ICG). "DDR is unlikely to succeed because the ANBP lacks the capacity to identify commanders down to the village level, a vetting process that can compare lists submitted by the MoD against the ANBP's own data," the international observer, who has researched Afghan DDR, told IRIN. Parekh is also critical of the low proportion of commanders among the personnel that have been disarmed. "It is essential to ensure that all commanders, including 'Sargroups' [team leaders] in the villages, are brought into the process; otherwise, militia leaders will retain the capacity and networks to mobilise new recruits." However, the United Nations in Kabul has expressed optimism over DDR progress achieved in the last two weeks. "DDR has moved very, very, very slowly. But since the new presidential decree on DDR on 7 September, our view is that there is a new momentum. And this new momentum, we trust, will enable the government to disarm many more than the previous rhythm indicated," Manoel de Almeida e Silva, a spokesperson of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), told IRIN. According to UNAMA, 1,400 men were disarmed in a single week - about 10 per cent of the total disarmed in the last 10 months. "So that's encouraging. And I think that's how we should look at it."