Afghanistan Proposes to Build 80,000-strong Armed Force: UN Spokesman

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, April 04, 2002

Afghanistan Proposes to Build 80,000-strong Armed Force: UN Spokesman

The Afghan interim administration has proposed to build a 80,000-strong armed force, including the army, the air force and a border guard, a U.N. spokesman said Thursday in Kabul.

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The Afghan interim administration has proposed to build a 80,000-strong armed force, including the army, the air force and a border guard, a U.N. spokesman said Thursday in Kabul.

The Afghan interim government made the proposal Wednesday at a donors' meeting in Geneva, Manoel de Almeida e Silva told a regular press briefing.

The meeting discussed the building of a national army, a national police force, demobilization, and strengthening the judicial and penal system, and the administration of justice and counter-narcotics. 35 delegations attended the meeting, he said.

Another meeting has been scheduled for the first half of May, and attention would move from proposals to specific commitment and program implementation, he added.

The proposed Afghan armed force would include 60,000 members for the army, 8,000 for the air force, and 12,000 for the border guard. In addition, the Afghan authorities also proposed to build a 70,000 police force, said the spokesman.

Some 435 million U.S. dollars would be needed for the military side and 180 million dollars for the police, he said.

Silva said that there were an estimated 70,000 people to be demobilized, and another 100,000 former combatants that needed assistance in Afghanistan.

Five areas were established at the meeting to coordinate the mechanism for contribution to that purpose.

Military training would be led by the United States, police training by Germany, counter-narcotics by Britain, demobilization by the United Nations Assistance to Afghanistan and support for the judicial and penal administration of justice by Italy, the spokesman said.

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