UN to deal with ammunition stockpiles

More than 100,000 mt of ammunition will be collected from across the country under a new programme, the United Nations backed Afghanistan New Beginnings Programme (ANBP) confirmed to IRIN on Monday. Although a huge programme of heavy weapons' collection, disarmament of militia forces and land mine clearance is already under way, the existence of such a sheer quantity of ammunition stockpiles is another major challenge for the post-conflict country. As part of the programme, ANBP has launched a three-month survey to identify the locations of the stockpiles and get ready for the actual collection programme. "The survey's task is to give us a proper map of where all the ammunition [stockpiles] are," Peter Babbington, acting programme director of ANBP, told IRIN in the capital Kabul. According to ANBP, more than 30,000 of an estimated 60,000 members of Afghan militia forces have been disarmed since the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) process started in late 2003. In addition, more than 90 percent of all heavy weapons in Afghanistan have been collected. On the problem of land mines, so far 2.8 million explosive devices, including mines and UXOs (unexploded ordnance), have been cleared from 320 million sq metres of land. But 815 million sq metres of land remain have to be cleared to ensure the safe return of hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) and refugees. Huge amounts of ammunition are thought to be with local commanders and large militia forces, and at ex-military bases and private stockpiles throughout Afghanistan. With many rural Afghan areas still under the rule of the gun, the existence of such quantities of ammunition creates the danger of further conflicts and threatens the rehabilitation process in the country. Early findings indicate that there are around 600 Kamaz trucks (large Russian lorries) of ammunition in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif alone. Another 5,000 mt of ammunition have recently been moved out of the western city of Herat, which accounts for only a third of the whole problem in Herat province. "If you extend that across the country you are going to have probably over 100,000 mt of ammunition of various types," Babbington said. The first phase is to find the ammunition, separate out the good material which can be used by the Afghan army, and then destroy that which is dangerous and unstable, he added. While the US-led coalition forces are also collecting depots of ammunitions and reward people who help them find these caches, the ANBP officer said they will avoid any cash incentives so that not to change the process to a "cash-for-ammunition programme". "But we will probably give some development projects to a particular area to achieve the aim of getting them to disarm or give us their ammunition and return the valley to peace," he noted. The survey has only started in Herat and Mazar-e Sharif, but will be extended to other provinces. Canada is the lead nation for the project and so far has contributed some $400,000 to conduct the survey. The whole programme, which is expected to take more than a year, will require much extra funding.