Residents of Afghanistan Ghowr province encouraged to turn in illegal weapons
On August 4 assistant head of Lithuanian Special Mission in Afghanistan Tomas Urbonas and officers of the Lithuanian-led PRT visited Du Layna District of Ghowr and met with elders of villages and members of local government. The visit was aimed at discovering opinion of the locals about security situation in the district and to encourage them to turn in illegally kept weapons in order to more actively joint the Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups process. 12 weapons (one AK-47 among them) were gathered in the Du Layna district during the visit. According to the elders, local residents feel secure and do not possess illegal weapons. Elders of Lal Va Sarjangal District villages too estimated security condition positively and claimed to be holding no illegal weapons. T.Urbonas and PRT officers visited them together with the Afghanistan’s New Beginnings Programme members a little earlier on the same purpose. Despite the DIAG process having been launched in Afghanistan several years ago, not too many illegal weapons were collected during the period. The so-called stage of negotiations has been underway since recently, it involves present or former warleaders, elders of villages and administration of the districts being encouraged to cooperate and individuals allegedly keeping illegal weapons being invited to join the DIAG process by means of negotiations. According to T.Urbonas, outgoing sessions of negotiations should intensify the relatively slow DIAG process. Collecting illegal weapons from individuals and armed groups is one of methods to ensure security as fundamental condition of successful development of the province. Consequently, it is sought that provincial departments and other institutions would control weapon gathering process in cooperation with their district villages’ elders who say they understand objectives of the DIAG process and agree that they are no longer in need of arms as “their war is over”. Majority of them claim that they have already disposed of their weapons. DIAG process in the provincial districts is supported and enhanced by members of local administrations in close cooperation with senior villagers.
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