Afghanistan completes first disarmament phase

Afghanistan said Thursday it had completed the first stage of a major UN-backed disarmament program aimed at collecting weapons including tanks and cannon from tens of thousands of former militiamen. Since it was launched in October 2003, more than 60,000 people have been disarmed under the so-called Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration scheme, Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said.
"No one can now exert power through the barrel of gun," the minister told a ceremony to mark the formal end of the program's initial phase, part of efforts to rebuild the shattered country after 25 years of war.
More than 52,000 of the former anti-Taleban and anti-Soviet fighters who gave up their guns have been reintegrated into civilian life, Wardak said.
He said some 34,727 small- and medium-range weapons and 9,085 heavy weapons, including tanks and artillery, have been collected from the private militia forces.
The total of weapons collected is less than the number of militiamen disarmed because in some cases private army units handed over a number of weapons and all their members were then considered as being nominally disarmed.
But the defence minister said an even greater number of illegal forces and weapons were still circulating in Afghanistan.
Wardak said the collection of arms from illegal militia groups will continue under the second phase of the program, known as the Disarm Illegal Armed Groups scheme, which was launched on June 11.
Most of those disarmed are former mujahideen fighters who fought the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and then helped the United States and other countries to oust the Taleban in late 2001. But since the fall of the hard-line Islamic regime many warlords have fought for control of their regions, leading to the death of scores of people including many civilians.
Afghanistan's fledgling national army, currently being trained by US-led forces, is designed to replace the disarmed militia forces. The army currently has more than 23,000 troops and is expected to reach 70,000.