Safiullah dreams of being a farmer, but up until now the 22-year-old Afghan militiaman has only ever known a life of fighting.
"I picked up my brother's gun after he was killed by the Taleban. I had to finish the war he had begun," he said, cradling an ancient AK-47. "I'm tired of carrying weapons. I want to go into civilian life, but I also want the government to help me."
Safiullah is one of more than 2,000 ex-mujahedin fighters who Sunday laid down weapons in the western Afghan city of Herat as part of a disarmament drive in a country facing renewed violence ahead of its first post-Taleban polls.
In Herat, over 40 percent of 6,000 men loyal to powerful regional warlord Ismail Khan will be disarmed before the October vote, says Tahir Khan, of the state-run Disarmament, Demobilisation and Re-Integration (DDR) Commission.
According to UN figures 10,360 Afghan troops have now been disarmed, short of the targets of 40,000 troops and the pre-poll removal of heavy weapons from private hands set when President Hamid Karzai launched the project in May.
With the goal far from complete, Afghanistan remains awash with arms, a fact underlined by an explosion which killed five civilians and injured 31 in downtown Herat Sunday as the city was launching its disarmament drive.
Afghan defence ministry spokesman Mohammed Azizi denied the two incidents were linked but the UN's special envoy Jean Arnault warned that violence linked to the disarmament process is likely.
"In many other countries, security incidents are used to demonstrate that a (militia) force is indispensable, so I see no reason for Afghanistan to be an exception," he said.
The disarmament campaign is aimed chiefly at dismantling the power of warlords who control large parts of Afghanistan through private armies, undermining efforts by the central government to extend its writ.
The UN has stressed that widespread disarmament is critical to minimising voter intimidation and ensuring free and fair elections.
For Safiullah, the programme represents the chance of a new life, allowing him to make up for an education he lost, like many other Afghans, when he was drawn into decade-long wars. "I joined the military because I had no other choice. I had to make money and feed my family," he said. Beside a certificate and a medal, combatants who lay down their arms receive food from the UN, as well as support to "start a new life," in the form of vocational training or sums of money to small to attract cash-hungry warlords. Former militiamen are given a choice of careers including joining the new national army, the police force, demining projects or becoming a small businessman or farmer, UN disarmament official Ahmad Jan Nawzadi told AFP.
But the disarmament and reintegration drive is a complex process. In a country which has seen decades of war and where many military governors are loath to give up their weapons while regional rivals remain armed. Near the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, the scene of some of the worst post-Taleban factional fighting, rival commanders Abdul Rashid Dostam and Mohammed Atta are both yet to offer to fully disarm their troops.
Peter Babbington, deputy program director of the disarmament drive said the main challenge, made tougher by the militia involvement in Afghanistan's rampant drugs trade, was getting such factional commanders to accept the idea.
"Commanders will try and maintain their position of influence to get as many concessions from the government as possible and obviously drugs play a part - a militia is very useful if you are moving drugs around the country," he said.
When the winter sets and the harvest of lucrative opium poppies is over, the disarmament process could speed up, he added.
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