Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a decree yesterday setting a deadline of four months to disband private security firms to avoid the misuse of weapons that have caused “horrific and tragic incidents.”
The decree said the order to disband the companies, which employ up to 40,000 people working mainly for Western enterprises in Afghanistan, was being issued “to prevent irregularities” and the misuse of weapons and other military equipment.
“I am signing the dissolution of all local and foreign security companies within four months,” said the decree, issued by the Presidential Palace.
With complaints that they are poorly regulated, reckless and effectively operate outside local law, such operators have become a point of contention between the Afghan government and US and NATO coalition forces and the international community.
Private security contractors working in Afghanistan will have to either join the Afghan police force or cease operations by the deadline, the decree says.
The decree does provide an exception for private security firms working inside of compounds used by international groups, including embassies, businesses and non-governmental organizations, even though Karzai’s office said last week there would be no exceptions.
“They will have to stay inside of the organization’s compound and will have to be registered with the Interior Ministry,” the decree says.
All security outside of these compounds will have to be provided by Afghan security forces, along with all security for supply convoys for international troops, the decree says, and any unlicensed contractor will have their weapons and equipment seized.
The deadline was announced on Monday by Karzai’s spokesman, but no details were available until the decree was formally issued.
The decree is expected to meet resistance from NATO officials who rely heavily on private security companies to guard convoys and installations across the country.
Officials in Washington have questioned whether a four-month deadline is realistic.
In November last year, Karzai pledged in his inauguration speech to shutter both foreign and domestic security contractors by November next year. Yesterday’s decree significantly speeds up the timeline.
The government has estimated that 30,000 to 40,000 people work for security companies in Afghanistan.
The Afghan Interior Ministry has 52 security firms licensed, but some older contracts are still being completed by unlicensed firms, according to the US military.
According to the Pentagon, there are about 26,000 private security contractors working in Afghanistan for 37 different companies — 17 of them Afghan-owned.
The State Department and USAID rely the most heavily on the companies to provide their employees security.
The issue of private security contractors was a topic of talks that Karzai had earlier in the day with US Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who is visiting Afghanistan, along with General David Petraeus, the top commander of US and NATO forces, and US Ambassador Karl Eikenberry.
The US officials are pushing Afghan officials to step up the battle against government corruption.
Meanwhile, officials said bomb attacks killed three US service members and two Afghan civilians yesterday.
The deaths — in eastern and western Afghanistan — were a reminder that the Afghan war continues to be violent far from the southern Taliban strongholds currently targeted by a surge of US troops.
Two of the Americans were killed in a bombing in the east, while the third was killed in the west, NATO said. It did not provide details on where or how they were attacked. Including these deaths, 15 US service members have been killed so far this month.
A bomb hidden on a motorbike killed two Afghan street cleaners early yesterday in Ghazni Province.
The bomb, which was remote-detonated, appeared to be targeting a police truck that was driving down the street in Ghazni City, said Ismail Jahangir, a provincial government spokesman.
While it wounded one police officer, the explosion killed two civilian city workers who were cleaning up trash on the street, Jahangir said. Four other civilians were wounded, he said.
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