Afghans announce main disarmament complete

KABUL - Afghanistan announced on Thursday the completion of the main drive to disarm tens of thousands of factional militiamen, but said it would press ahead with the collection of arms from illegal armed groups.

More than 60,000 militiamen have been disarmed since October 2003 under a programme funded by foreign donors led by Japan, Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak told a ceremony to mark the formal end of the drive.

Several dozen militiamen handed over AK-47 assault rifles attended by President Hamid Karzai and foreign diplomats.

"The completion of DDR is a success. No more one can resort to power through the barrel of gun and cannon," Wardak said of the drive, known as Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration.

However he said that although the main phase of DDR was complete the government was still focusing on seizing illegally held arms, mostly light weapons, from underground militias.

Government officials said last month that up to 1,800 small illegal armed groups remain, most comprising just 100 to 200 men, posing a continuing threat to stability more than three years after US forces overthrew the Taleban.

Taleban guerrillas active in the south and east are considered the main threat to September 18 parliamentary elections, the next big stage in Afghanistan's difficult path to stability.

But there are also fears that gunmen from underground militias could intimidate voters. Poll organisers say 208 candidates for the parliamentary and concurrent local council elections have been provisionally disqualified for ties to such groups.

Wardak said nearly 50,000 light and heavy weapons, including medium-range missiles, tanks and rocket launchers had been handed in and placed in military storage since the drive began. DDR had been set as the Karzai government's main task in the Bonn agreement that established him in power after the Taleban's overthrow.

Most of the militiamen disarmed belonged to Mujahideen (holy warrior) factions that battled Soviet troops in the 1980s and helped a US-led army topple the Taleban in late 2001.

Some of these factions fought each other in the provinces after the Taleban's fall, hampering Karzai's efforts to spread central authority.

UN Special Representative Jean Arnault described completion of the DDR drive as a "remarkable achievement" for both Afghanistan and the international community.

Afghan officials have given no time frame for completion of the second phase of disarmament.

- REUTERS