UN alarmed as Afghans remobilise militias to fight Taliban

The Afghan government is reported to be remobilising disbanded militia groups to fight the Taliban as it faces an increasingly bleak security situation in the south of the country.

The strategy has caused alarm among both UN and Western diplomats, who argue that it runs contrary to the doctrine of strengthening central government. They say it also conflicts with the continuing UN programme of disarming armed groups outside the official police and army, and risks re-empowering factional forces to pursue private, tribal or inter-ethnic agendas.

Diplomats have been particularly horrified to discover that a number of former provincial governors with alleged links to the drugs trade claim to be in charge of recruiting the new forces.

The government says it is planning to introduce what it calls "community police". President Hamid Karzai's spokesman said: "They will only be in areas where there are not enough police and they would answer to the district police chief. There are no forces or presidential decree authorising them yet."

But The Independent understands that a militia in Helmand is already operating. "The militia has been approved by the governor and they are already operational under the command of his deputy," said one Western army officer in the south. Another officer in Helmand province, where British forces have been deployed, complained that his men had no way of recognising local militia who operated without uniforms and were indistinguishable from the Taliban.

The former governor of Uruzgan, Jan Mohammad Khan, said that he was raising a force of around 1,000 "community police" in Uruzgan and personally vetting membership. The chief UN officer in Kabul, Tom Koenigs, said the UN opposed the idea.