Afghanistan Considers Rearming Warlords

President Hamid Karzai’s chief of staff says that armed village and tribal groups would be recruited to back up Afghanistan’s stretched police force and fledgling national army in the southern provinces, but these groups could become militias commanded by warlords.

“It is a complete scandal. Thugs that we have worked for years to remove from power will come back with a vengeance,” said a senior western official.

The Afghan government is considering arming tribal groups across southern Afghanistan, where NATO is set to take command next month, in a move diplomats say would destabilise the country. As violence in the country’s four southern provinces flares to its worst level since 2001, armed village and tribal groups would be recruited to back up Afghanistan’s stretched police force and fledgling national army.

“The government wants to take measures to strengthen the security situation in the south,” said Jawed Ludin, President Hamid Karzai’s chief of staff. “It is not so much that the terrorists are strong, but that we are weak. In some districts bordering Pakistan which are prone to infiltration we have 40 police to protect 200,000 people,” he said.

However, experts say that the armed tribal groups would become militias commanded by warlords, creating create alternative power bases and weakening an already fragile state.

“It is a complete scandal. Thugs that we have worked for years to remove from power will come back with a vengeance,” said a senior western official.

The level of support within the government for arming tribal groups remains unclear, however. Moqbal Zarar, interior minister, said: “I am totally against rearming militias, establishing new armed forces…

Posted by CurlyJoe