Proposed militia a threat to civilians: HRW

KABUL (Pajhwok): An international human rights organisation has asked the Ashraf Ghani administration to reject proposals to create a new militia with inadequate training.

Human Rights Watch said on Monday President Ghani was weighing setting up a defense unit modelled on the Indian Territorial Army, comprising personnel who serve on a contract basis with the regular forces.

In report, the watchdog said the NATO Resolute Support Mission was supportive of the local security force, which could be another abusive militia operating outside the military’s chain of command.

The Afghan government is expected to determine the location of a pilot project by September 20, 2017, if the proposed force is approved.

Patricia Gossman, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: “The Afghan government’s expansion of irregular forces could have enormously dangerous consequences for civilians.”

Instead, Gossman suggested, the Afghan government with US and NATO support should be strengthening training and oversight to ensure that all forces respected the law.

Created in 2010, the Afghan Local Police (ALP) was meant to serve as a local defense force. While these forces have gained some support as a result of reforms, they have been blamed for numerous abuses against civilians, as well as summary executions of captured combatants.

The proposed Afghan Territorial Army would ultimately replace the Afghan Local Police as a defense force at the local level. There is concern that existing Afghan Local Police units could remain armed as militia forces.

Instead of creating a new militia, Afghan authorities should improve the training and capabilities of its existing troops, and hold accountable those responsible for abuses, Human Rights Watch said.

The Afghan government has been unable or unwilling to hold powerful strongmen accountable for abuses, including those who command ALP units or other militias.

It’s not clear how the government intends to ensure that new Afghan Territorial Army units, whose members will be paid less than their army counterparts, won’t fall into the same pattern.

Kabul is also mulling creating a new 15,000-strong tribal militia, under the Ministry of Tribal and Border Affairs, currently headed by former governor Gul Agha Sherzai.

The model for such a militia appears to be those established along ethnic lines by then president Najibullah in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The militia forces were responsible for serious human rights abuses.

Gossman noted: “There is a long, unsavory history of using tribal and irregular militias in Afghanistan, and it has led to egregious crimes without accountability. Too often they have inflamed conflict rather than provide security.”

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