The challenge of dismantling irregular militias

Tens of thousands of irregular militia groups will be disarmed through a new joint United Nations and government initiative, officials from the Afghan Ministry of Defence (MOD) told IRIN on Tuesday. Although more than 30,000 of an estimated 60,000 Afghan ex-combatants have already been assisted by the UN-backed Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programme, MOD officials believe there are still irregular armed groups and individuals that are not linked to known militia forces and which operate privately. "While the DDR is making significant achievements, this is the time to address all those who are armed illegally," Zahir Azimi, an MOD spokesman, told IRIN. Azimi said they were discussing with the UN and donor countries the raising of funds to identify and disarm what the MOD estimates at more than 100,000 illegally armed people. The programme will face many challenges in a country such as Afghanistan that has been at war for more than two decades and where carrying and using firearms is ingrained in the culture. Azimi said a part of the programme would be to create a code of conduct for weapon ownership and punishment for holding illegal firearms. "We expect to deal with tens of thousands of people. This will be many, many times bigger than the size of militia forces to be disarmed through the DDR," he noted. According to the Afghanistan New Beginning Programme (ANBP), the official name for the DDR exercise, many of these illegal militias have links to drug mafias and those who obtain funding from illegal taxes in their areas. With the country to see parliamentary elections next spring, these groups remain a major challenge to holding polls in a free environment. "There is a determination by the president [Hamid Karzai] that we must tackle the worst cases, worst areas and worst groups prior to the parliamentary elections. Otherwise it won't be a free and fair election because these guys can threaten potential members of parliament," Peter Babbington, acting programme director of ANBP told IRIN. He explained that there were many different categories of these irregular militias scattered in different parts of the country. "Category one are the bad boys, the ones who are taking money from people and stopping the customs [revenues]. Category two are individuals who walk in and say, 'I have some ammunition or I have got some people to be disarmed'. Another is some unlicensed and unregistered security bands, and the final category is the ones who were used legitimately by [US-led] Coalition forces on operations in the south." The programme is in its early stage. Babbington said the groups or individuals holding arms illegally would not be given the cash or other incentives that ex-combatants received under the DDR process. "They will not be offered cash or other incentives but a particular community or area can be granted some development projects if they help the process." According to the Defence Ministry, more than half of all militia troops in Afghanistan have been disarmed while another 30,000 are expected to put down their weapons permanently in 2005. "But the dismantling of illegal militias will take a bit longer as it is more complicated and challenging than DDR," Azimi said.