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3,000 Soldiers Desert U.S.-trained Afghan Army
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The deserters will have to come back or pay training costs
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KABUL,
January 11 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Thousands of the
U.S.-trained Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers have deserted the
fledgling service after completing training, defense ministry
officials said Sunday, January 11.
"Some
3,000 ANA soldiers have fled the army," ministry spokesman
General Mohammad Zahir Azimi was quoted as saying by Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
"The
defense ministry has announced that they have to come back and join
the army otherwise they will have to pay for all the expenses spent on
their training."
The
desertions are a serious blow to the nascent 10,000-strong ANA, trained
by American, British and French instructors.
On
December 2, 2002, Afghan President Hamid Karzai decreed
the formation of an army
within a year to extend his authority beyond the capital Kabul and to
neutralize local warlords.
Even
though it is forecast to grow to about 70,000, the number remains
modest compared to the 100,000-strong militia currently being disarmed
and demobilized by government authorities.
Tough
training, low wages and factional links to the private militias which
still control wide swathes of the country outside Kabul are believed
to be behind the mass exodus from the ANA, according to AFP.
It
is not known how much money has been spent on the deserters but
recruits receive 50 U.S. dollars a month during training and a minimum
wage of 70 dollars per month after that.
In
addition to their imported uniforms and tuition, soldiers receive a
seven dollar a day food allowance and 60 dollars a month if they go on
exercises outside the capital Kabul.
The
ANA accepts volunteers and initially local militia commanders and
warlords were instructed to force some of their troops to join the
national army although this practice has stopped.
"The
militia commanders introduced the weak and lazy ones (into the ANA),
not the active fighters, and they couldn't bear the tough
training," Zahir Azimi said.
"The
salary they were paid was less than what they could make in a month
doing other things so they left.
"Now
it is totally volunteer soldiers and that is why in the last several
months we haven't had any escapes."
Afghanistan
has endured almost three decades of war. The 1992-1996 civil war
destroyed all government institutions, including the national army.
After
the ouster of Taliban regime in 2001 by U.S.-led forces, the Bonn
agreements laid out plans for a national army and a police force to
gather weapons and disarm militia.
The
U.N. has begun a pilot Demobilization, Disarmament and Re-integration
project in several areas under which 1,000 to 2,000 ex-combatants in
each location would be disarmed
and receive training in a new occupation to fit them for civilian
life.
The
main phase of the program is due to begin in 2005.
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