Sacked Soldiers Vow to Fight On

Wednesday, 16 November, 2005

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Hafizullah Gardesh

Senior Local Editor, Afghanistan

The fatal shooting of at least one dismissed army officer late last month in a violent protest in Kabul over salary arrears will not deter his sacked colleagues.

The men’s determination to continue their campaign for up to a year’s back pay comes amid conflicting accounts of the incident.

It occurred when a group of unemployed soldiers - casualties of a move by the authorities to create a smaller, more ethnically diverse army under central government control - attempted to storm the defence ministry building in Kabul.

Ex-lieutenant Rahamdin recently lost his job after 26 years’ service and has spent the past three months standing outside the defence ministry with fellow sacked soldiers. Hundreds more redundant colleagues have joined them for a series of noisy street demonstrations.

Many of those sacked are former mujahedin with little education and few employment prospects.

The defence ministry incident, on November 23, happened after frustrations over delays in payment of salary arrears boiled over, with tragic consequences.

The sacked soldiers remain defiant, however, and are determined to press ahead with their claims. “We may lose some people to gain our rights but our spirit is high,” said Rahamdin.

Meanwhile, markedly different accounts of the violence have emerged.

Defence ministry spokesperson General Zahir Azimi told IWPR that there was shooting on both sides after some 250 demonstrators entered the premises and smashed windows.

“The situation was very tense, so army chief Bismellah Khan ordered shooting to control the situation. The soldiers shot over the [protesters’] heads. Those who were injured were hurt by ricocheting bullets,” he said.

Expressing deep regrets at the casualties, Azimi confirmed that one man, Mohammad Esa, had been killed and nine people injured.

One defence ministry employee, who did not want to be identified, backed this account. “The demonstrators at first came inside the defence ministry compound but after a few minutes they attacked the building. They broke the glass with wood and stones and as the situation deteriorated the soldiers who were guarding the building were obliged to start shooting and the other side also started firing pistols,” he said.

However, one of the protesters, ex-colonel Fawad Ahmad, who was shot in the lower leg, alleged that the injured were hurt outside the ministry, and that none were carrying weapons.

Ahmad also claimed there’d been a second protest fatality – a man who’d been injured and later passed away in hospital.

Another protesting former soldier present on the day told IWPR that two ministry guards had verbally provoked the crowd before opening fire.

“Even when the demonstrators retreated from the ministry they were being shot from behind,” said the man, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The majority of demonstrators estimate that they are owed between six months to a year’s salary.

Finance ministry official Mohammad Arif Musa Zai told IWPR that 38 million afghanis had been allocated to pay off at least some of those affected.

Azimi claimed that the delay was caused by a lack of documentation, as many of the men’s papers were lost or destroyed over the decades of war.

Sacked soldier Ghulam Abas, who was also shot in the lower leg during the demonstration, denied this angrily. “These are photocopies of my documents, they are telling lies,” he claimed, waving a sheaf of papers from his hospital bed.

“They just make allegations and shoot at us because we wanted our rights. No one has so far come from the defence ministry to ask about us.”

Ex-lieutenant Ainuddin, who served for 21 years, claimed that the downsizing of the army was “brutal”, and feared some officers would have no choice but to turn to a life of crime.

"[President] Karzai should send an order to all the courts and police that if the fired officers are caught in any sort of stealing, killing and other crime they should not be sentenced because they do not have any other choice," he told IWPR.

Azimi insisted that military reforms were necessary, and pointed out that the international community had insisted on them during talks held in Bonn on the future of post-Taleban Afghanistan. "There is also a lack of budget for a national army of 100,000 in the current situation,” he told IWPR.

Outside the ministry, ex-lieutenant Abdul Naser acknowledged that the army needed to be streamlined, but felt the process has been badly handled.

“We want the government to pay our salaries and clarify our future. We are happy to see the army reduced but we want our rights and they should help us build a new future,” he said.

Hafizullah Gardesh is an IWPR staff reporter in Kabul and Najibullah Khalwaetgar is an independent journalist undergoing IWPR training.