Defence ministry removes heavy weapons from capital

Standing in front of his tiny bicycle repair shop in Kabul, Ghulam Jilani was watching a convoy of old Russian trucks and armoured vehicles loaded with heavy weapons, many drawing artillery pieces. The vehicles headed out of the capital on Thursday in a move by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to improve security by removing such weapons of war. “We never believed that these arms which caused all the destruction would one day be moved out of our Kabul,” the 38-year-old mechanic who had lived in the city through decades of conflict, told IRIN. Assisted by troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the ministry moved more than 100 heavy weapons, including multiple rocket launchers, anti-tank guns and artillery pieces to a deserted former military base some 15 kms south of the capital. “Today’s process is not disarmament; it is aimed at securing Kabul,” deputy defence minister, General Rahim Wardak, told IRIN at a handover ceremony. Major General Shir Mohammad Karimi told IRIN the move was an attempt towards the implementation of the 2001 Bonn Agreement, which calls for the demilitarisation of Kabul as part of improving security and promoting peace in the country. Under the agreement, both heavy weapons and Afghan militia forces should have been moved from Kabul long ago. Most of the weapons removed were Soviet-era artillery pieces that had been brought into Kabul by different factions in the last two decades of conflict and civil war. Karimi said four sites had been identified for redeployment of the weapons. Although many of the big guns are obsolete or in disrepair, they are due to be handed over to the fledging Afghan National Army (ANA), currently being established with the help of the United States and other Western countries. The plan is to remove many more heavy weapons, including tanks, from the capital in a phased relocation from Kabul throughout 2004. The thousands of militia troops that flooded the capital following the fall of the Taliban in late 2001 also need to be relocated out of the city, but moving them has proven more problematic. “The problem is that we don’t have places outside Kabul for the [militia] soldiers to stay. We have to build barracks before we move them out,” the major general maintained. The ministry estimates that of 100,000 irregulars across the country, about 20,000 are currently in Kabul. The United Nations in Kabul said the removal of heavy weaponry to sites outside Kabul was a positive move. “It is a very welcome development,” said Manoel de Almeida e Silva, a spokesperson for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). UNAMA said the cantonment of heavy weapons was a long-standing commitment enshrined in the Bonn Agreement that needed to be fulfilled.