Steven Mace
01-16-2002, 03:33 AM
Afghans to test new idea: gun control
With violence, fear on rise, government wants fewer armed civilians
By MARK LANDLER, New York Times
First published: Monday, January 14, 2002
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Starting today, people here whose jobs require them to carry guns will also have to carry government identification cards, the authorities said Sunday. It is part of an ambitious plan by Afghanistan's interim rulers to end the ubiquity of weapons in this heavily armed society.
Disarming Afghanistan's 24 million people is critical to restoring order in the country, according to Gen. Bismullah Khan, a Northern Alliance commander who oversees security in Kabul and its surrounding province.
Khan said that crime had spiked in Kabul in the chaotic aftermath of the fall of the Taliban, as Northern Alliance soldiers, militia members, irregular troops, security guards and any number of other people with guns roam this city.
After two decades of war and repression, the people of Kabul now face the more pedestrian, but equally lethal, dangers of banditry and car-jacking as well as the threat of death by violence.
Once the ID cards are issued, the authorities plan to require civilians to register their weapons with the police. At that time, they will take on the politically sensitive issue of who is allowed to keep guns.
"We haven't decided to go house-to-house yet,'' Khan said, "but we are studying how to do it.'' Officials said they hoped to carry out the program across the country.
The Taliban regime also believed that guns destabilized society and it too devoted considerable resources to collecting weapons. Successive rulers of Afghanistan have discovered, however, that with an estimated 700,000 armed men, reducing the influence of guns is extremely difficult.
It is complicated by the fact that after 23 years of nearly constant war, people here do not feel safe without a gun. Firearms are deeply embedded in the Afghan culture, as the image of a rebel fighter with an AK-47 strapped to his shoulder attests.
"After 23 years of war, you can't expect there to be a sense of security in Afghanistan,'' Khan said.
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyKey=74716&category=F
Steve Mace
With violence, fear on rise, government wants fewer armed civilians
By MARK LANDLER, New York Times
First published: Monday, January 14, 2002
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Starting today, people here whose jobs require them to carry guns will also have to carry government identification cards, the authorities said Sunday. It is part of an ambitious plan by Afghanistan's interim rulers to end the ubiquity of weapons in this heavily armed society.
Disarming Afghanistan's 24 million people is critical to restoring order in the country, according to Gen. Bismullah Khan, a Northern Alliance commander who oversees security in Kabul and its surrounding province.
Khan said that crime had spiked in Kabul in the chaotic aftermath of the fall of the Taliban, as Northern Alliance soldiers, militia members, irregular troops, security guards and any number of other people with guns roam this city.
After two decades of war and repression, the people of Kabul now face the more pedestrian, but equally lethal, dangers of banditry and car-jacking as well as the threat of death by violence.
Once the ID cards are issued, the authorities plan to require civilians to register their weapons with the police. At that time, they will take on the politically sensitive issue of who is allowed to keep guns.
"We haven't decided to go house-to-house yet,'' Khan said, "but we are studying how to do it.'' Officials said they hoped to carry out the program across the country.
The Taliban regime also believed that guns destabilized society and it too devoted considerable resources to collecting weapons. Successive rulers of Afghanistan have discovered, however, that with an estimated 700,000 armed men, reducing the influence of guns is extremely difficult.
It is complicated by the fact that after 23 years of nearly constant war, people here do not feel safe without a gun. Firearms are deeply embedded in the Afghan culture, as the image of a rebel fighter with an AK-47 strapped to his shoulder attests.
"After 23 years of war, you can't expect there to be a sense of security in Afghanistan,'' Khan said.
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyKey=74716&category=F
Steve Mace