Global Policy Forum

By Pamela Constable

The squad of soldiers emerged from a trench and moved stealthily across a field. Sniper fire erupted from a nearby ridge, and they instantly threw themselves to the ground.

Three of the men wriggled forward at a silent command, while the others provided cover for them by spraying bursts of bullets toward the ridge or setting off clouds of purple and green smoke. The sniper was pulled from his nest, wrestled to the ground and handcuffed.

The audience, no longer able to restrain itself, burst into applause.

The mock encounter, staged at a military base outside Kabul today, was the highlight of a three-hour graduation exercise for the first 600 members of the new Afghan National Guard, who had just completed six weeks of basic training by international peacekeepers.

The training program represents a small but politically ambitious effort to mold Afghans from a variety of ethnic groups, many of whom are former guerrilla fighters from Islamic militias, into a cohesive and united military force that answers to a central command and is sworn to defend the nation rather than a particular faction. With international peacekeepers confined to Kabul and foreign governments refusing to expand their mandate, officials here and abroad have said the creation of an Afghan army is the best remedy for continued factional fighting around the country.

"Before, Afghanistan had only freedom fighters and militias. Now we have trained officers and soldiers, we know our responsibilities and we have taken an oath to serve the country," said Ahmadullah, 32, a captain in the new guard, which is seen as a prototype for a national army. "We come from every ethnic group, and we have been taught not to hate. This is what will make us powerful."

The members of the battalion-size group have not yet received a salary, and some have not even been issued weapons. Their initial role will be limited to guarding the presidential palace. A second battalion is due to begin training by the U.S. military in May, but funding has not yet arrived from Washington, and the project may have to wait.

Still, Afghan officials and foreign trainers said the feat of forging a multi-ethnic armed force, after nearly a quarter-century of bitter factional fighting among ethnic Tajiks, Pashtuns, Hazaras and other Afghan groups, is far more important at this stage than its size, strength or combat capability.

"At first we had some problems, especially with language. We had to give all the instructions through interpreters in two dialects," said Lt. Antonio Longo, an Italian army trainer. "But at night all the groups were in the barracks together, and in training they learned to help each other. I would say the symbolic value of this is equal to the military value."

Afghanistan has not had a national army since the 1980s, and hundreds of thousands of Afghan men spent the last two decades as Islamic guerrillas under the command of rival ethnic leaders, initially fighting Soviet troops and then one another.

Since November, when the ruling Taliban was defeated by a U.S.- led military coalition and a Tajik-led Afghan militia known as the Northern Alliance, the Defense Ministry has been dominated by Tajik troops and its top leadership is drawn largely from one particular corner of Northern Alliance territory, the Panjshir Valley.

While leaders from the Panjshir effectively control the security apparatus in the capital, the interim civilian administration chaired by Hamid Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun, has no fighting force of its own. Thus, the creation of the multi-ethnic guard is as politically important for Karzai as it is for the country.

"Today, after all the years of destruction and division, the national army of Afghanistan is being organized," Karzai said after reviewing the newly formed battalion. "They are ready to defend the fatherland and serve all Afghans. This ensures that Afghanistan will become a nation again."

Because many of the recruits were once members of armed ethnic factions, their trainers said, they demonstrated considerable combat skills from the beginning. On the other hand, they knew nothing of military discipline or principles, and many had never fought alongside members of another ethnic group.

Peacekeeping officials said the Defense Ministry, headed by Gen. Mohammed Fahim, who is from the Panjshir, tried at first to stack the new guard with ethnic loyalists, but eventually backed off and came up with a broad-based list of candidates. Roughly half the members of the first battalion are from the Pashtun ethnic group, Afghanistan's largest, but the 30 officers chosen to command the battalion come from each of the country's 30 provinces.

Today, the troops were indistinguishable from one another as they marched in identical uniforms donated by the Turkish army, conducted several exercises and stood at attention on the parade ground under a hot noon sun.

"The whole idea of this training is to strip away all that baggage, so that before long the tribal loyalties give way to military loyalties," said Army Col. Wayland Parker, a U.S. military liaison officer with the peacekeeping mission, who attended the graduation. "It will be important to keep these units together so that spirit of ethnic unity doesn't scatter and fade."

After the ceremony, the troops squatted to rest in relaxed clusters, congratulating one another and posing for pictures. In interviews, a number of trainees insisted that they bore no ill will against comrades from other ethnic groups, and they expressed an enthusiastic esprit de corps.

"In the past, foreign intervention made us Afghans fight against each other," said Abdul Qadir, 28, a Pashtun captain in the new guard. "But our people suffered many bitter experiences because of this, and here we have learned we must act like brothers, like members of one family. It is in the best interests of our country."