Southerners Take Up Arms Against Taleban

Afghan military commanders are recruiting soldiers in the south of the country in the hope that they will be effective against the Taleban and al-Qaeda forces hiding in the mountains there.

In early June, for example, 130 former mujahedin clad in brand new uniforms set out from their homes in Logar province just south of Kabul to begin a tour of duty in the troubled neighbouring region of Paktia.

As in the days of the Soviet occupation, the men enjoy the backing of the United States as they take on a common enemy. Now the opponents are Osama Bin Laden and what’s left of the Taleban. But local support for this fight is less solid.

The Logar men who make up the Third Army Corps are the remnants of guerrilla bands which fought against the Russians, then against each other and the Taleban over 23 years. They are led by Brigadier-General Atiqullah Ludin, one of a number of officers whom the defence ministry has asked to recruit volunteers on their home ground.

Afghanistan’s military forces are still in flux. A few thousand recruits have been trained for the official Afghan National Army, but they are not yet ready to be deployed in combat. The status of some 70,000 other soldiers – and commanders such as Ludin – who are controlled by Defence Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim is uncertain.

Ludin returned to his home in Logar after the fall of the Taleban in 2001. Bolstered by cash handouts from the US, he has pledged to help the international war on terrorism.

Now middle-aged, the general has been a warrior all his life. During the war against the Soviets, he is said to have worked for the Pakistani and American intelligence services.

Villagers in Khateb Khel, where Ludin lives, are grateful to him because as local government commander he has stopped army men from elsewhere in Afghanistan, especially the north, from coming into the area. He is also credited with putting local warlords out of business by hiring many of their gunmen.

Ludin has a reputation for charity, and paid 5,000 dollars for a school to be built in the village. At the same time, some people say he is has the high-handed manner of a warlord, and has been quoted as saying, “I am king of the village”.

Although Ludin works for the defence ministry, he is effectively contracted out to the international coalition forces. His soldiers say they serve as ground troops for the Americans, who follow in helicopters.

Some of them are acting on principle – they say they believe it is important to fight this war alongside the US.

Others see it as a practical solution to problems such as unemployment and lack of education. Captain Abdul Salam, head of operations for the campaign, told IWPR that the soldiers are paid a salary by the US military, while food is provided by the Afghan army. Only men who already own a Kalashnikov or other semi-automatic weapon are allowed to join up.

Ghulam Rabbani, 45, has recently been on patrol around Gardez and other parts of Paktia. His pragmatic view is that “although our lives are in danger, we are fighting for US dollars because America is here to help make our country better”.

A soldier named Qand, from the Mohammed Agha district in Logar, said he took part in the Gardez patrols because it was so hard to find a job in his village.

Asked how he should be judged if he is killed while helping the non-Muslim US forces, Qand told IWPR, “There has been civil war here for many years, with each side accusing the other of being against Islam. I am a Muslim who fought against the Russians for many years. On my death, Allah will judge me.”

Maulavi Sher Ahmad, imam or prayer leader of the mosque in Mohammad Agha district, said the soldiers were doing the right thing, “If it hadn’t been for General Ludin’s forces, the security situation in those southern regions adjoining Logar would be very bad.”

But other Muslim leaders in the area are opposed to Afghan soldiers working with the international troops.

“Islam does not allow us to work with infidels against our Muslim brothers, so this is an un-Islamic action,” said Maulavi Inzar Gul, imam of Surkhab mosque. “Those who die in this endeavour deserve to go to hell.

“For this reason I didn’t allow funeral prayers to be said for Dilawar [a Third Army Corps soldier] who died in this way.”

Still, some residents appear grateful for the stepped-up security in the provinces, especially because the troops also take on local warlords. They told IWPR that although the imam may not approve, they like the increase in stability.

Atiqullah Ahadi, a shopkeeper in the Qandahari Bridge bazaar in Mohammad Agha district, said he is happy that the corps has got rid of people who pose a threat. Even so, he does not think many of the soldiers are involved out of altruism. “Only ten per cent joined up for economic reasons,” he said. “The other 90 per cent just want to walk around with guns as they did during the decades of civil wars.”

There are two other groups of volunteers, totaling about 450 in all, operating further south in the Khost region. They earn 150 US dollars a month plus food, paid for by the US, and they patrol along the border with Pakistan, hunting down al-Qaeda and Taleban and protecting a military airport.

In Khost, as in Logar, reactions to the volunteer force vary. While there are some al-Qaeda or Taleban sympathisers who voice hostility to the incomers, other people say the soldiers are doing the right thing because they are helping to build peace. And mullahs still pray at the funerals of soldiers who are killed.

In other parts of Afghanistan, especially along the Pakistani frontier, it is tribal militias rather than regular army units that carry out security patrols. The transitional government of President Hamed Karzai has decided this is the most efficient way to control the border, especially in the south where insurgents continue to pose problems.

Pakistan is unhappy about these militias operating in a contested border region, and has requested that international security forces or the Afghan national army do the job. But the Karzai government says there is neither the time nor the money to train regular troops - who in any case would be outsiders, unlike the tribesmen who are very familiar with the terrain.

Mohammad Naseer, Mohammad Kabeer, Amanullah Khatir & Ahmad Shapoor Adil are independent journalists who recently completed IWPR basic journalism training in Logar. Zahid Shah Angar is an independent journalist in Khost.