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Afghan national army plan unveiled
Plans for a 70,000-strong national army for Afghanistan have been outlined by President Hamid Karzai. Mr Karzai told a meeting of UN representatives and donor countries that the safety of his citizens remained his top priority, and that the new army would be a force loyal solely to his government and the only legal army Afghanistan would recognise. The creation of the new Afghan army will mean that all private militias will now be banned. It's always convenient to have your own army when your country's crawling with warlords and wannabe theocrats... Attempts to form a national army have been hampered by a lack of non-partisan army volunteers and problems with convincing Afghanistan's different ethnic factions on how much representation they should have in the army. The Pashtuns, naturally, think they should be in charge of it, a thought that gives both non-Pashtuns in general and professional military men in particular the runs... So far, about 2,000 troops are reported to have received US training. The army itself will be largely paid for by the US and UK governments. Mr Karzai said his government was also working to create a national police force, for which Germany is helping to train officers. Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2002-12-02 |
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