Karzai Said to Be Ready to Bar Private Security Guards

[frigidmagi]

NYTimes

[quote] President Hamid Karzai is planning to sign a decree this week ordering the disbanding of all private security forces by the end of the year, his spokesman said Monday.

But it is not clear how the move, which would constitute an extraordinary change in the security make-up of the country, could be carried out. There are at least 24,000 private armed guards in the country, some foreign but most Afghan, and there is no immediately available alternative for the array of crucial tasks they perform. They escort convoys of supply trucks across dangerous roads to NATO military bases, protect government and military buildings, and provide protection for political leaders and others. .

President Karzai had been under pressure to bring private security companies under control, since a United States Congressional investigation and news reports have asserted that the private gunmen often behave recklessly and, in some cases, even bribe Taliban insurgents to allow supply convoys to pass unmolested. Some security companies are so large that they constitute private armies of thousands of gunmen, who can challenge or ignore local governments.

“They are parallel structure to the government,â€