Kabul backs call to end support for warlords

The Afghan government has welcomed a call by Human Rights Watch (HRW) to US President George W Bush, asking him to withdraw financial support and arms deliveries to regional warlords and military commanders tied to rights abuses. ”The suggestion by Human Rights Watch is supported by the Afghan Transitional government," Ali Ahmad Jalali, the Afghan Interior Minister, told IRIN on Wednesday in the country's capital, Kabul. "It should be said, however, that the US has even in the past made a commitment not to provide money and arms to warlords." According to Jalali, to his knowledge Washington had not been supporting warlords but rather been trying to strengthen the authority of central government. His comments come one day after the international watchdog sent a letter to Bush, just prior to his meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. “When US President George W Bush meets with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan on Tuesday, he should commit the United States to withdrawing financial support and arms deliveries to regional warlords and military commanders responsible for human rights violations,” the letter said. "It is crucial that the United States immediately end its unsuccessful policy of supporting the national government and regional warlords at the same time, as this policy has been both destabilising and contributed to human rights abuses," said Brad Adams, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division. "President Bush should order the Departments of State and Defense and United States intelligence agencies to implement this policy consistently and in a coordinated manner." Meanwhile, many on the ground shared HRW’s concern saying Washington’s current approach could further deteriorate the situation in the country. “Strengthening these commanders actually prolongs the current fragmentation of authority as they are not operating under a clear command and control framework that makes them accountable to the central government,” Vikram Parekh, a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank told IRIN in Kabul. Parekh said continued collaboration with the warlords and local commanders would seem as an obstacle to development of Afghan National Army (ANA). According to the senior analyst, Washington's cooperation with the warlords had done much to discredit the US-led international coalition, particularly in south and southeastern Afghanistan. Parekh said very often the coalition had relied on information that had been supplied by commanders to discredit or remove their adversaries for reasons that had nothing to do with war on terrorism. “It has drawn the coalition into local disputes of ethnic or tribal nature and has made it seem like a biased actor,” he maintained.

Afghan Interior Minister, Ali Ahmad Jalali

HRW said since leading the military effort to remove the Taliban from power in 2001, the United States had attempted to support the government in Kabul while providing arms and money to regional warlords and military commanders who had joined the continuing fight against Taliban remnants and al-Qaeda. “In a series of reports, HRW has documented systematic rights violations by gunmen under the warlords' command and the deteriorating security situation that has ensued,” the letter underlined. But coalition sources told IRIN its aim was to support representatives of the Afghan government whether they were governors or commanders. When Afghanistan’s transitional government was formed in 2001, many warlords – who had helped Washington in it’s war against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda - were given positions of influence and responsibility “The coalition continues to cooperate with the representatives of the central government and those in the provinces who are recognised by central government,” Colonel Davis Rodney, a spokesperson of the US-led international coalition told IRIN. Rodney noted that the coalition supported a number of officially sanctioned provincial leaders - in some cases governors. “The coalition continues to work with a number of security forces which has been very successful in defeating anti-coalition forces in various areas,” the US military officer claimed.