AFGHANISTAN TO HAVE ITS OWN NATIONAL ARMY IN A YEAR TIME
From an IPS Correspondent
PETERSBERG, Germany 2 Dec. (IPS) Afghanistan’s interim Prime
Minister-President Hamed Karzai announced on Monday the creation of a national
army and banning all private militias, but called on the international
community, mostly the United States "not to forget" this war-shattered
nation while it concentrates on Iraq.
Mr. Karzai made the announcement at the end of the one day "anniversary conference" on Afghanistan, initiated by Germany and inaugurated in this resort village near Bonn by Germany’s Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who strongly stressed on the necessity of the equal rights of the women as well as all other components of the nation" in the country’s new Constitution, expected to be ratified by the end of 2003.
"The people of Afghanistan must take their fate in their own hands and the rights of all ethnic groups and women as well as men must receive protection in the new constitution", Mr. Schroeder said.
Observers said both the place of the women and the question of secularism had met serious objections by some of the Afghan delegates during the preliminary debates held ahead of the conference.
"Those who are outside of the ministry of defence, who consider themselves independent, are declared illegal from the signing of this document onwards", he said, referring to the various local commanders who have their own armies, estimated at more than 30.000, and rule over main Afghan provinces.
According to Mr. Karzai, the new army, placed under the supreme commandment
of the interim President, is intended to give Afghanistan an efficient, mobile,
well-paid armed forces, not exceeding 70,000 troops and officers all together.
While Germany said it would undertake the training of the new Afghan army and provide necessary means for the Karzai government’s education system, it was announced the both the US and the UK would bring the money needed for training and equip the force, estimated by Mr. David Johnson, the US Afghan Co-ordinator at US Dollars 350 millions a year.
High-ranking representatives from the United States, the United Nations, the European Community as well as 32 foreign ministers, including those of neighbouring nations, who pledged not to intervene in Afghanistan’s interior affairs, attended the meeting that observers described as "quite important", giving the present international situation.
In their opening speeches, all the intervening personalities stressed on the vital importance of security in the war-shattered Asian nation, a question which, according to Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN’s Special Envoy for Afghanistan, has remained as a "legacy" from the not very long past, when Afghanistan was ruled by the orthodox Muslim Taleban and served as a harbour for terrorist organisations like Al Qa’eda, the group suspected of having mastermind the 11 September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington D.C.
He cited the three millions children that now go to schools and the 1.700.000 Afghan refugees who have come back to their homeland as among Karzai government’s achievements.
"The time given for the total centralisation and effective control of the ministry of defence for all forces is a maximum of one year", Karzai warned the warlords, as heavy clashes between forces of Esma’il Khan, the Iran-backed Tajik Governor of Heart with rival Amanollah Khan, a Pahstoon, in the past days have killed at least 13 people and injured dozens more.
"We are proud to have adhered to the major milestones of the Bonn Agreement so far", Karzai said, referring to the UN-backed talks held here one year ago which saw the signing of a landmark agreement among warring Afghan groups to create an interim government and usher the lawless country in democracy.
"Our task now is to meet the key goals, those of creating the institutions of a state that would be bound by the rule of law, designed to meet the needs of the people and to create the enabling environment for prosperity", he said,
Admitting candidly that his authority continued to be limited, Mr. Karzai said the main criticism the people in Afghanistan have against the government is the lack of a centralised authority in other parts of the nation, and emphasised that without security, no Afghan entrepreneurs could help rebuilding the country that had been devastated by more than 20 years of suicidal, fratricide wars among local warlords.
"Afghanistan, has gone a long way since last year, from tyranny, oppression and hopelessness to freedom, to constitutionalism, to peace and economic prosperity", Karzai told a news conference, one year after having addressed the first meeting by satellite telephone from a remote area in an Afghanistan still under the control of the Taleban.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who had visited Kabol ten days ago, called on the international community to keep the spotlight on Afghanistan and to continue to support stability and rebuilding in Afghanistan as a crucial contribution to the international terrorism, irrational fanaticism and crime with no respect for human life".
Afghan sources said while the government needs a lot of money, but it seems that the Bonn conference would not pledge new funds, even though most of the donor nations, like the neighbouring Iran, which had pledged 500 millions USD over a five year period, are behind their promises.
Washington is hoping donor nations in the coming weeks will pay off Afghanistan's 47 million Dollars of debt to international institutions and open the way to significant new loans.
Mr. Xavier Solana, the Spanish EU Minister for Security and Foreign Affairs said the 15-members organisation would continue to help Karzai’s reconstruction and stability programmes and warned Afghan warlords that the international community would "no longer" tolerate their presence if outside the legal government authority.
The conference got underway in the historic hilltop conference palace, overlooking the former West German capital of Bonn amid tight security measures, with army helicopters circling above the village and armed soldiers splashed in the surrounding jungle.
Meanwhile, an adviser to U.S. President George Bush at the summit told the British news agency Reuters that forces had recently captured the son-in-law of Taleban leader Mollah Mohammad Omar, who was toppled last year and like Osama Ben Laden, the al-Qa’eda’s leader, is still in hiding.
"With regard to al Qa’eda and terrorism, significant progress has been made", the US’s Afghan-born Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalizad said, adding: "There are some figures that are in Afghanistan, but I don't think that Afghanistan is any longer the headquarters of al Qa’eda". ENDS AFQANS BONN CONFERENCE 21202