KABUL: Unable to offer protection to vulnerable villagers against intimidation by Taleban fighters, the Afghan government says it is considering forming tribal militias to guard the places security forces can’t reach.
"The government is not arming these people. They have had arms for generations, and the government is going to register their guns and provide them some earnings in this regard," Abdul Manan Farahi, the Interior Ministry’s counter-terrorism chief, said.
The insurgency is in its bloodiest phase since the overthrow of the Taleban government in late 2001, and with thousands more Nato peacekeeping troops being deployed by the end of July, this summer is regarded as a critical period.
But any decision to put irregular Afghan forces into the fray would run counter to a disarmament programme that is supposed to finish next year. The proposal would be discussed with concerned parties - for and against - in coming days, Farahi said.
In the eastern province of Kunar, where US-led coalition forces launched Operation Mountain Lion earlier this year to clear out Taleban and Al Qaeda fighters, it has already happened.
"A tribal militia force was formed more than 10 months ago here," Zahidullah Zahid, a spokesman for Kunar’s governor, said. "These tribal people know the territory far better than the police and army who are sent from elsewhere." They own their own guns, mostly AK47s, most don’t wear uniforms, and they’re paid around 4,000 afghanis ($80) a month by the Interior Ministry.
In southern Helmand province, where British troops are stationed, former governor Sher Mohammad Akhundzada says he has enlisted several hundred tribesmen.
"I have raised 500 people and am working on their registration. The Finance Ministry pays them $200 a month," Akhundzada said.
Some members of the international community and factional commanders who have already handed over weapons are angered by long-term dangers.
"This shows double standards," said Mohammad Faqir, who had 300 men under his command in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif until they were disarmed last year. "It is collecting arms from the north, but giving arms to others in the south."
Nato’s spokesman in Kabul, Mark Laity, said he was unaware of plans to use Afghan irregular forces in areas where international forces could not provide protection. But he added the disarmament of illegal armed groups, known as the DIAG process, was subject to local conditions.
"We can’t have irregular armed forces, but this is very much a phased process," Laity said. "We are still committed to ensuring the DIAG policy is complete by the end of 2007.
"Implementation of that is obviously conditional on local situations to make it effective." The local situation in the south and east, according to the people who live there, is bad.
Insurgents have infiltrated large tracts of the rural south, although hundreds of Taleban have been killed in the last few weeks, mainly due to air strikes by US-led coalition forces or encounters with large groups of fighters.
Going just a few kilometres (miles) outside Kandahar, the main city in the region, is regarded as risky, even on the main highway leading northeast to Kabul, or west to Herat. That the coalition only has 3,000 troops in the south is part of the problem. The limitations of the Afghan National Army and the police are other factors.
By the end of July, Nato will have stationed 6,000 troops in the four provinces of the south - Helmand, Kandahar, Uruzgan and Zabul - and the coalition force will pull out.
The Afghan army and police will also be sizably reinforced. For all the reinforcements, the government clearly feels it risks losing ground unless it helps villagers defend themselves.
Western officials may not agree with the method, and they are worried about the possible re-emergence of commanders they have sought to sideline, but they understand the compulsions. | 
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