Said Tayeb Jawad, chief of staff for President Hamid Karzai, had an op-ed in the NY Times calling for a de-militarization of the armed groups in Afghanistan.
Just over a year ago at the conference in Bonn on organizing a post-Taliban government, the factions of Afghanistan pledged “to withdraw all military units from Kabul.” A glance around this city, especially at night, reveals the emptiness of those words. Clumps of armed Afghans in olive fatigues loom up out of the darkness. Kalashnikovs slung over their shoulders, they search, harass, shake down or wave on, at whim.
My country is at peace. And yet Kabul, once a vibrant and sophisticated capital, is like an armed camp. It is time to demilitarize our major cities.
What about the 2nd amendment? I am kidding, but for those nut-cases who think a right to arms is absolute, Afghanistan is an important example. Some people have told me guns are what preserve liberty. They are right to an extent, but guns can also take away liberty, life and safety. Afghanistan shows us both sides.
These armed groups can turn Afghanistan once again into a dangerous and explosive place, a menace to Afghans and the international community. For the truth is this: Afghans are a moderate people. But the violence of the militias opens the door —- as it did in 1992 —- to fundamentalism and dictatorship by pushing a desperate population to seek refuge in groups like the Taliban.
I believe the violence of the mujahideen is what really mattered in the rise of the Taliban and it can happen again. We should give all the help we can to Karzai to get some basic things to the population, like law and order, food and water, etc.
Afghans are acutely aware of this danger. In my work with President Hamid Karzai, I am constantly approached by Afghans who are concerned about the persistent presence of the militias. “My constituents didn’t ask me for schools or clinics,” said one delegate to last summer’s loya jirga, the grand council that selected the president. “They wanted the weapons collected. They wanted the warlords disarmed.”
To fulfill this wish, President Karzai last month unveiled a comprehensive disarmament, demilitarization, and reintegration program, including job training and incentives for men-at-arms to return to civilian life. But Afghans cannot do this alone. We need the strong backing and unequivocal support of the United States and other members of the international community to bring about the withdrawal of the armed groups from our cities that was solemnly pledged in Bonn.
[…]But the problem holds in the provinces as well. In many places, regional commanders who have usurped the trappings of legitimacy hold the population hostage. The Afghans have repudiated them, but their gunmen impose silence, while they violate human rights and expand their hold on power and the economy in their regions. Until these men are disarmed, the Afghan people cannot invest themselves in the future of their country.
This is definitely important work. I hope the Bush administration is working on it. I hope that this op-ed is not the act of desperation of begging in a newspaper.
