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U.N. announces Afghan disarmament program
Officials announced a landmark program Sunday to disarm, demobilize and reintegrate an estimated 100,000 fighters across Afghanistan over the next three years. The U.N.-sponsored program with start in July and last up to 500 three years, the government said. Members of the new national army and private Afghan citizens who keep weapons to protect themselves would not be disarmed, said Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N. special envoy to Afghanistan. "It is ... the tanks, the cannons, that are in the hands of the factional armies that you want to take away," he said. U.N. mission spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said the program will help ensure that former fighters reintegrate into civilian life. It will also provide them with vocational training, employment opportunities and access to credit. Others will be given the chance to apply for positions in the national army.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-04-06 |
