About 200 fighters for one of northern Afghanistan's key warlords have laid down their weapons in a ceremony that may mark the first step towards broader disarmament. "We have turned a new page," Atta Mohammed told his soldiers marshaled at the 120-year-old Baghjahanuma fort, about 50 miles southeast of the main northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif. "Now is not the time for fighting, now is the time to lay down our guns."
Atta Mohammed, the Tajik leader of the Jamiat-e-Islami faction in the area, and Majid Rozi, a senior lieutenant of Dostum's ethnic Uzbek faction, met in Khulm, where clashes between fighters from both sides killed at least six people and injured dozens of others last week.
That's wonderful. Now if they're not slaughtered by troops who've retained their arms, there might be enough incentive for more to give them up. Dostum wants his troops paid before they give up their arms. |