Afghan National Army Is Born
Boot camp began Monday for a tiny first battalion of the new Afghan army.
Elite troops from five countries began training men representing various groups in Afghanistan, said Jonathan Turner, a spokesman for the British-led international peacekeeping force.
The aim is to draw recruits from all the country's provinces and numerous ethnic groups, to try and bridge the divides drawn by rival regional warlords who command their own personal armies.
In the early days, the training will be basic, with an emphasis on discipline as well as military skills, Turner said. The men are been chosen by local governments and approved by the Defense Ministry of Afghanistan's fledgling interim administration.
Meanwhile, a U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan said the U.S. was considering the use of military advisers to deter rival warlords from plunging the country back into civil war. Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said maintaining order is Afghanistan's main challenge since the power the interim administration is limited. The United States could send military advisers into conflict areas or use U.S. special forces already in place to act as advisers, Khalilzad said. The was no confirmation of the statement from the Bush administration.
Because many of the regional governments are controlled by rival warlords, there is a danger that some of the troops will be more loyal to their former bosses than to the central government, but Turner said international peacekeepers will make sure undesirable candidates are kept off the new Afghan force
"If there are some we decide should not be there we will have no hesitation in saying so," he said.
Turner said it is possible that some men who once fought with the Taliban may end up in the new Afghan army. But he said the foot soldiers of the Taliban were often conscripted and did not necessarily have any more loyalty to the deposed hardline regime than they did to past governments.
When the northern alliance ceded power to the Taliban in 1996 and fled Kabul, many of its soldiers stayed behind and joined the new rulers.
Troops from Britain, Turkey, France, Italy and Germany are conducting the training.
The United States is providing cots for the recruits to sleep on and may take over the training of the next batch of recruits, Turner said.
Turner warned of "teething problems" as the international forces lay the foundation of a national army in a country long ruled by warlords and their private militias.
ISAF spokesman Captain Graham Dunlop said 30 officers and just over 200 rank and file soldiers have signed so far. Another 40 were on their way from the southern city of Kandahar, the stronghold of the former Taliban regime.
"The lack of numbers does not reflect a lack of interest or apathy on the part of the (Afghan) ministry of defense," said Dunlop. "But it will take time to get the forces together."
Already there have been reports of bitter fighting in northern Afghanistan between armies loyl to Uzbek warlord Rashid Dostum and former commander Atta Mohammed as well as in central Bamiyan province between rival groups.