Afghan president launches ambitious disarmament drive

About 1,000 Afghan militiamen were formally demobilised by President Hamid Karzai yesterday in a football field in the north of the country at the launch of an ambitious UN-backed disarmament drive.

The men had handed in their weapons this week in a pilot scheme for the $200 million Japanese-led Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) plan, which aims to cover 100,000 militiamen across the country over two years.

Major doubts still hang over the plan, including whether Afghanistan's unruly warlords will cooperate and whether fighters themselves will give up for good a life ruled by the gun.

But Karzai and UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said the plan was an important first step towards a peaceful Afghanistan where a new national army and police force would be the only people authorised to carry guns.

"This programme is the beginning of a new life in Afghanistan," Karzai said to applause from hundreds of schoolgirls in white veils and black dresses who had come to watch.

"Today we are starting a new jihad (holy struggle) to rescue people, provide them with a comfortable life and rebuild our country."

Some of the men on parade yesterday wore uniforms, but most were in civilian clothes - long shirts and baggy trousers, flat woollen caps and cotton scarves thrown over a shoulder.

Most were part-time soldiers or reservists, who their commanders can call on in times of war, and many had not been paid for months or years. In return for weapons they will receive $200 in cash, food, clothes and help in finding a new life.

"I hope the government re-opens the factories that used to be here so I can get work," said 38-year-old, white-bearded Nasrullah. "I fought in the jihad against the Soviets, and against the Taliban. But now we have destroyed our country by ourselves, and we are tired of it."

A cargo container painted in UN colours was driven onto the field yesterday and opened to reveal the weapons received from Nasrullah and his colleagues - a motley collection of Kalashnikov assault rifles, other guns and rocket launchers.

Karzai then locked the container and handed a set of keys to Defence Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim. The weapons will eventually be handed over to the national army which is being formed in parallel with the disarmament drive.

Rural Kunduz was chosen to launch the plan because it is largely peaceful and suffers from less of the ethnic and political tensions that bedevil much of the rest of the country.

But it is far from clear how the plan will work in the south and east, where Taliban militants stage daily hit-and-run attacks on aid workers, government posts and US-led forces.