Afghan Warlords Stall on Disarmament
Uzbek warlord Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum and his Tajik rival Gen. Atta Mohammed — the two main Afghan militia leaders who have supported the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition — agreed to turn in all their heavy weapons after the most serious post-Taliban factional fighting between their forces erupted in October, killing at least 10 people. Yet northern Afghanistan has remained tense, with more clashes breaking out in April. The disarmament process has slowed down amid mutual suspicion and political jockeying ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections in September. At Afghan army Capt. Abdul Jabar base west of the northern capital of Mazar-e-Sharif sit a dozen rusting tanks and some 75 artillery pieces handed in by Dostum — an estimated 40 percent of his heavy arms, according to Australian Army Lt. Col. Chris Mead, military liaison officer for U.N. operations. Full Story