Picking and choosing over Afghan army


	March 9, 2002	atimes.com

Central Asia/Russia

Picking and choosing over Afghan army
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - The ongoing moves to establish a national Afghan army are proving difficult, having raised fears among various warlords that they might be left in the cold.

At the same time, in the new phase of fighting in the country, United States and allied forces are having difficulties in attracting local troops to join their Operation Anaconda, and they may have to draw on Northern Alliance reinforcements or pump in more men of their own.

Meetings are well under way in Kabul to discuss the structure of a multi-ethnic Afghan army. However, many warlords are concerned that only those elements who were loyal to the former communist regime or to the liberal administration of former monarch Zahir Shah will be eligible.

The Afghan army has traditionally been a multi-ethnic force, but soldiers drawn from the majority Pashtun population have always received the greater representation, especially those hailing from the provinces and cities located near Kabul.

And educated Pashtun Kabulis have in the past been the backbone of the officers' core, with the less educated making up the rank and file. With a perennially battered economy, the army has offered the best-paying jobs, ensuring a regular income - as well as satisfying the Pashtun penchant for fighting.

Many Afghan politicians and leaders have served in the army. Former Afghan premier Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is Pashtun and was born in Gazni and raised in Kabul, joined the Afghan Military Academy, but was subsequently sacked. Later, he studied engineering at Kabul University, where he teamed up with Ahmed Shah Masoud (assassinated military mastermind of the Northern Alliance), Abdul Rahim Niazi and one of their lecturers, Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani, head of the Northern Alliance.

Now, many of the former Northern Alliance men, including Rabbani, Abdul Rab Rasood Sayyaf and Ismail Khan, believe that their brand of Islam in the new Afghan army will not be possible as its foundations will be laid on the lines of that of Zahir Shah's. Clearly, this will not please the hardliners in the Northern Alliance camp as they have already seen a major erosion of their power with the establishment of the interim government of Hamid Karzai, who is pro-Zahir Shah.

The former Afghan monarch was not well-liked among leaders of the Afghan resistance movement against the Soviet invasion that ended in 1992. Rabbani, the chief of the Jamiat-i-Islami Afghanistan and Hekmatyar, chief of the Hizb-i-Islami Afghanistan, the two major parties of Afghan resistance movement, at that time announced a death penalty on Zahir Shah, who has lived in exile in Rome since abdicating in 1973.

However, with the fall of the Taliban, the circumstances have changed and Rabbani has said that "Zahir Shah may come to Kabul, but as a private citizen, he will have no role in Afghanistan." Zahir Shah is due in Kabul for a full state visit in mid-March.

Meanwhile, contrary to US claims that Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters are on the run in the rugged terrain of Shahi Kot and Zurmat in eastern Paktia province, they continue to give US and allied forces a hard fight. According to sources, the local administration has failed to deliver fresh troops. As a result, the Kabul administration has sent 1,000 fighters, most of them non-Pashtun, or not from Paktia or neighboring Khost provinces. These fighters do not understand the area, which is a major drawback.

In other parts of the country the guerrilla war continues, including in Logar, and activities are increasing in intensity in the south. Most of the action here is being carried out by factions not linked with the Taliban or al-Qaeda, such as Hekmatyar's Hizb-i-Islami. Strikes include an assault on a market in Khost and an attack on a US convoy in Logar. In Kandahar, an ammunition depot was destroyed by Hizb-i-Islami fighters, with the death of a number of Afghan soldiers.

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