From the Inner Circle: Said Tayeb Jawad, Chief of Staff for President Karzai in an article titled "The Guns of Kabul" published by the Washington Post states that at the Bonn conference, the factions in Afghanistan had pledged to "withdraw all military units from Kabul." He says a glance around the city, especially at nights, reveals the emptiness of those words. Clumps of armed Afghans in olive fatigues loom up out the darkness, Klashnikovs slung over their shoulders, they search, harass, shake down or wave, at whim. He further says, " 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."

From the man in charge: Reuters reports: Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Sunday that a massive program to disarm thousands of factional fighters, seen as the biggest threat to peace, would begin over the next few weeks.

The Price for peace: "Karzai told reporters that a $51 million pledge he had received from international donors at a conference in Tokyo last month would help to kick off the process to demobilize, disarm and re-integrate the former soldiers."

In Washington: His Trips abroad: Karzai has returned from a trip to many capitals. Among these were Tokyo, Kualalumpur, Washington and Delhi. His quest was for input in the process of reconstruction in his homeland. He further wanted to let the world know that his country had not received enough help as pledged in many international gatherings. He also wanted to emphasize the need for not forgetting Afghanistan at this juncture that the US administration is obsessed with Iraq. In doing so, he encountered a few hurdles. The embassy staff, the Afghan Ambassador and his deputy, had failed to make appropriate arrangements, at par with the current protocols, for his reception by the US Congress and the Congress received him not in the manner it receives heads of states but as a testifier. Appropriately, the United States President in a telephonic conversation apologized for this. But was the Afghan Embassy to blame for this? Rumors followed the visit that the Ambassador was to be fired. The Ambassador a well known solar energy pioneer, but with no prior diplomatic experience, in an interview with Radio Free Europe pointed to his deputy, a member of the Jamiat Party of the Northern Alliance, as a person who has not cooperated with him, but expressed surprise over the news of his dismissal and called it laughable. The importance of Karzai's visit could not be overemphasized. Besides asking for more help, he was also to draw Washington's attention to the need for dealing with the warlords. Instead, it was decided that Marshal Faheem, the Defense Minister and the main military leader also directly affiliated with the Northern Alliance movement, travel to Washington and talk about establishing of a national army. The Main problem: The main problem in Afghanistan, however, is the fact that contrary to what Karzai wanted the world to believe, his authority is not universal in his country. His ministers have their loyalties shared with other parties and movements and many of the provincial governors belong to a variety of movements and are either warlords or affiliated with one. Karzai has failed to coordinate matters of government with the provinces especially where the main warlords are in power such as Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat, Kandahar, Nangrahar and Khost.

Who is to be disarmed? In the past Karzai's efforts for disarming of factional fighters resulted in confiscation of arms of smaller warlords by bigger ones. Now, with $51 million, Karzai hopes to restart the process. Apparently, he will not attempt at doing away with warlordism for the following two reasons: 1. The warlords are stronger militarily than the center and could directly challenge his authority. 2. For some reasons never explained, the United States and especially the Bush administration has hesitated to give Karzai a hand in getting rid of the major warlords. Some say this is because they were essential for the United States war on terrorism; others contend that the United States does not want one strong central government for Afghanistan.

What has been accomplished: To get rid of factional militias, the central government needs to be strong militarily. To achieve this, a national, politically neutral and nonaligned army is needed. So far a maximum of 3000 troops have been trained. This small group is no match for the strong armies of Ismail Khan, Dostum, Shairzai , the Haji Brothers of Nangrahar or Zadran of Khost.The new emerging threat from the Islamic Party of Hikmatyar together with remnants of Taleban and Al-Qaeda also need to be dealt with. Yet, the task of developing such an army is entrusted also to Marshal Faheem, who is the main contender for power at the center himself. In the words of an Afghan political satirist, Zabandraz, " Faheem says he has 70,000 generals within his own family and clan and therefore an army of 70,000 would be too small." Indeed in reality too, even today, there are many generals with a range of stars and swords on their shoulder plates, who do not have shoes and wear rubber sandals with their worn and torn uniforms, instead.

Is a massive disarming of fighters possible? To many, this sounds too good to be true. In a country where the gun has ruled for at least the past quarter of a century and that fighters have slept with their guns, tilled the land with their guns on their shoulders, and many have earned their livelihood because of their guns with their loyalties firmly established to warlords who support them and feed their guns with ammunition and the mighty power of the warlords, Karzai's program seems like a day dream. It may be more feasible to prevent further empowerment of the warlords which would definitely result from disarming of people who are not directly covered by the support of the warlords, by planning to effectively get rid of warlordism altogether. This could be achieved by offering warlords lifelong guarantees, positions in parliament, foreign service such as ambassadorships, huge pensions and allowing of a certain number of personal bodyguards and some other attractive benefits so that they disengage from their direct involvement in provincial administrations or posing a threat to the central government.

What then? Then, the central government could concentrate on raising the $20 billion needed for the reconstruction of Afghanistan and issues directly related to reconstruction of the devastated land. It would then be able to breath a sigh of relief and bring coordination and scientific planning to the process of nation building all over the country without the intervention and influence of the warlords. 03/15/03