DPA
09/03/2004
By
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KUNDUZ - Afghan warriors are trading in their AK-47s for computers, setting aside the conflict that has beset their country for a generation.

In Kunduz in the north of the country, former militiamen and army soldiers are being introduced to civilian life by foreign instructors, both military and civilian, who have been working since October last year to set up courses in computer and other skills.

It has not been an easy task to turn former fighters into apprentices in local businesses. When the supervisors apply to artisans for places for apprentice they are often met with scepticism.

“You really need to convince traders and businessmen to take on an apprentice, as these young men are not well thought of,” says Walter Pausch, who works for the German development agency DED.

“They have to learn punctuality and discipline, and the owners of the businesses fear they could also steal their property,” he adds.

The DED is currently supporting projects with funding and with German experts, and a pilot project training around 200 men aged between 19 and 36 is just coming to an end.

Foreign experts know that there can only be peace in Afghanistan if the former fighters and soldiers of the disbanded army are given new skills to allow them a chance of survival as civilians.

During the 1980s, when Afghans were fighting the Soviet occupation of their country, almost every family was proud to be able to say that one of their number was fighting for the Mujahideen.

After the Soviet withdrawal and the collapse in the 1990s of the communist regime they installed, civil war raged between the various Mujahideen groups.

Alienated warlords

After that warlords ran Afghanistan, each ruling over his fiefdom of varying size and repressing the local population through extortion.

Few Afghans now feel any respect for these fighters, although many still fear them. In the areas where the new government has been able to stamp its authority, the warlords are unable to retain their fighters.

Re-education programmes have a chance in this new environment, and the United Nations has promised assistance to fighters who turn in their weapons and register for training.

They are allowed to go home to their villages and apply for funding for their small farms or to enter a training course.

Those who are able to read and write and have a skill have the opportunity to enroll in a two-week course to learn business skills, including the use of a computer.

In addition there are courses in construction work lasting several months available at local building sites.

But it is far from plain sailing for the trainers. “We have come to realize that they resort to their fists very readily once there is any difference of opinion,” Pausch says.

Nevertheless many of the former fighters are making the change successfully, and the first graduates of these training schemes are in high demand. The construction sector in particular is booming in the north of the country.

Pausch hopes that local industry will also get going in the near future, for example in making ploughs, harrows and other agricultural implements.

Then there will be more than enough employment opportunities for the fighters-turned-trainees.

But if this does not happen, the future looks bleak both for the former fighters and for the country.

“The main danger is not that the militias are re-established, rather that they turn to crime,” Pausch says.

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