Afghanistan: The challenge of ‘good’ vs ‘bad’ militias

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Christian Science Monitor
, 11 January 2013
AAN’s Gran Hewad is quoted extensively here about militias in Kunduz, talking about a related ‘new wave of insecurity in Kunduz’. He adds that new militias ‘are the proxy forces undermining the rule of law and national government…. They have fought people, looted, burned houses, abducted, and raped women – whatever crimes are known in Afghanistan are committed by them’. About one of the most powerful militias, Mir Alam’s, he says it is ‘getting bigger, with the normal argument that the Americans are leaving and the Taliban are recruiting. The government argues that the ANSF [Afghan National Security Forces] would be better after 2014. If they are not lying, they should disarm these people. If there is a political will, it is possible” and that Mir Alam “has been known as the major obstacle for implementation of the disarmament agenda,” Hewad wrote. “These militias have already become a big source of trouble for the local people,” concluded Hewad. “If a real disarmament effort does not take place soon, before 2014, they can be considered a major threat to the security of the province after NATO’s troop drawdown.’