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| Afghanistan |
| Rumsfeld Visits Afghan Rebuilding Effort |
| 2003-12-04 |
| Did he cut to the front of the line at the mess hall? MAZAR-e-SHARIF, Afghanistan (AP) - For a glimpse at the likely future of peace-building in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Thursday visited this northern Afghan city where British soldiers are working to improve security and calm tensions between rival factions. The British Army has formed a ``provincial reconstruction team’’ designed to accelerate disarmament while enabling humanitarian organizations to work in areas wracked by civil strife. Rumsfeld was briefed on the work being done and was meeting later with the governor of Balkh province, Habibullah, before sitting down with the two main warlords in the region, Abdul Rashid Dostum and Atta Mohammed, whose armies remain in conflict. Who just coincidentally turned over During Thursday’s visit, Rumsfeld also was to meet with U.S. troops and then with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. It was Rumsfeld’s first visit to Mazar-e-Sharif, the principal city in the northern part of the country. Mazar is where the tide turned against the Taliban in November 2001 as U.S. forces leveraged a linkage with the opposition northern alliance to defeat the radical Muslim rulers. In October, clashes between Dostum and Mohammed’s forces reportedly left dozens of civilians dead. Karzai then sent Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali and enlisted the help of British peacekeepers and the United Nations to bring the warlords into line. The warlords agreed that a battalion from the new Afghan national army would guard surrendered weapons until the Ministry of Defense decides what to do with them. Eventually, the Ministry of Defense and its sponsors hope to disarm and decommission 100,000 Afghan militia members as it creates the new army and national police. So far, the new forces have only 6,000 members. Time for some help wanted ads. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 On the first time I passeed this post it didn't make sence to me that Dostun would give up his tanks on Karzi's word. It now strikes me that Nato airpower could have leiminated the tanks quite easily if these two warlords had balked. The small arms will be harder to take from them. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-12-4 7:23:12 PM |