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Afghans' Hidden Guns Raise Specter Of Warlords' Return

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By KIRK SEMPLE, The New York Times

Published: October 28, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan - Many former militia commanders and residents in northern Afghanistan have been hoarding illegal weapons in violation of the country's disarmament laws, giving the excuse that they face a spreading Taliban insurgency from the south that government forces alone are too frail to stop, Afghan and Western officials say.

After years of moderate success for government disarmament programs, rumors of widespread defiance in the north have arisen recently.

The talk of rearming, and possibly remobilizing militias, underscores a deepening north-south ethnic divide that some diplomats and Afghan officials privately worry could lead the way toward a shift of power back to warlords - and toward a countrywide armed conflict - if left unchecked.

The situation poses a major challenge for President Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun from the south whose administration has failed to win the confidence of many non-Pashtun leaders and northerners.

Col. Mats Danielsson, the Swedish commander of a 450-man military unit helping to provide security in four northern provinces, said the Karzai administration and its international allies must find a way to roll back the Taliban threat and reassure northerners.

The Taliban insurgency is strongest in southern and eastern Afghanistan. But government officials report an increase in Taliban activity in the north this year.

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