I just want to get rid of this weapon

Associated Press

KHOJA KHON, Afghanistan — Leaning on assault rifles and grenade launchers, nearly 50 men weary of war waited patiently in this northern village Saturday to do something long unthinkable — give up their guns.

"I just want to get rid of this weapon. I just want to be free," said Zemarai, a 20-year-old who was toting a grenade launcher and a bag of grenades.

The men, all anti-Taliban fighters, said they were relieved when their commanders ordered them to come to Khoja Khon to register their weapons before a mass disarmament.

Zemarai was given his grenade launcher two years ago when he was recruited into the fight against the Taliban. Shrapnel from a mine explosion has blinded his right eye.

"I’m tired of war," he said. "If I can just give up this gun, I can go back to my farm."

No one knows how many guns and other weapons are in Afghanistan after two decades of war, but some government officials estimate there may be as many as 1 million. International observers worry the arms will be used by rival factions and ethnic groups vying for power in the chaotic post-Taliban period.

Many Afghans seem unwilling to comply with the government’s stated desire for widespread disarmament. Armed men continued to wander through Kabul after a midnight Friday deadline to be off the streets of the capital, where crime has soared since the Taliban collapsed.

On Friday, U.S. troops and Afghan soldiers went to the southern town of Spinboldak, where security was deteriorating, to work toward disarming people there.

In the region around the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, factions loyal to different warlords have skirmished.

Gen. Atiqullah Baryalai, deputy defense minister in charge of northeastern Afghanistan, said disarmament is a matter of political will. "If the big commanders want this, it is easy. If the big commanders do not want this, it is not easy," he said.

Baryalai, who is overseeing disarmament in Khoja Khon and other towns in Baghlan province, laid out a comprehensive plan for disarmament.

First, he is asking everyone to register their guns. Then, in a lightning swoop, authorities will confiscate all the weapons in a particular region in one day, so no disarmed village is left at the mercy of a still-armed neighbor.

Baryalai hopes to accomplish all this in the next few weeks in Baghlan. He began the same program in Kunduz province a few weeks ago, he said.

He hopes to disarm northeastern Afghanistan with gentle persuasion. But he said he will resort to force if he has to.

In Kunduz, he said, a group of local Taliban refused to give him their weapons, so he sent 300 soldiers with six tanks to surround them. The troops fired a few shots in the air, and the Taliban agreed to disarm, he said.

No force was needed in Khoja Khon, a village just outside the city of Baghlan, 100 miles southeast of Mazar-e-Sharif.

The men, wearing tunics, turbans and blankets on a cold, foggy day, walked up to the porch of a house one at a time and placed their weapons on a table covered by a white cloth.

Two men behind the table wrote down each weapon’s serial number and the personal details of its bearer. A third man carried the weapon to a nearby tarpaulin, covered with dozens of assault rifles, heavy machine guns and grenade launchers. The weapons were to be given back to their bearers at the end of the day.

After the guns are taken for good, probably in a week, Baryalai and local commanders will decide who will be integrated into a national army and who will return to civilian life.

For disarmament to work, the international community will have to invest heavily in rebuilding Afghanistan’s factories, dams, irrigation systems and other infrastructure necessary to give former soldiers new jobs, Baryalai said.

Haji Yaqub, a local commander who began fighting 20 years ago in the war against the invading Soviet army, said he was happy to give up his gun and return to his rice and wheat farm.

He trusts the government to protect him from crime and is unconcerned his people will be defenseless in the event of another war, he said.

"If a foreign country attacks us and the government gives us back our guns, that would be good," he said. "Otherwise, we will find other guns."

Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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