KABUL, December 1 (IslamOnline.net) - Afghani Defense Minister Mohamed Qasim Fahim currently seeks to persuade some of his military commanders in Banshir Valley, north of Kabul, to hand over their weapons to the army within the framework of disarming 100,000 Afghan combatants and form a unified Afghani army within the three forthcoming years.

Military commanders in these regions refuse to surrender their weapons to the army under the pretext that such weapons secure their future under unstable circumstances witnessed by Afghanistan.

Afghani Defense Ministry has agreed Sunday, November 30, to disarm combatants of Kabul factions.

“A committee including the army’s chief of staff General Bismillah Khan and members of NATO-led peacekeeping forces in Kabul have been formed to locate weapons and combatants,” the Ministry’s spokesman Mohamed Al-Zaher Azeemy said.

“We are completely ready to disarm Kabul on the basis of Bonn agreement. The committee attempts to find an appropriate places to move heavy weaponry and combatants to,” he added.

Disarming Kabul factions was a part of Bonn peace agreement, concluded in December 2001, which led to Hamid Karzai’s coming into office after U.S.-led troops overthrew Taliban regime in the late 2001.

Since then, thousands of pro-Defense Minister combatants representing the north alliance, to which the backbone of the government in Kabul belongs, possess heavy weaponry, including tens of artilleries and tanks.

Some observers of Afghani affairs deem the issue of collecting weapons from Banshir Valley a difficult test for the ability of General Fahim to make the disarmament plan a success, as several local leaders in Afghanistan say that the Defense Minister should start disarming his hometown before turning to their factions.

Meanwhile, press circles talk about several disputes between General Fahim and President Karzai. Some observers deem the efforts exerted by the former in collecting weapons from the areas under his control as a deal to secure his post in the Ministry of Defense.

Observers expect that the Minister of Defense will not be welcomed by his supporters in case he seeks to disarm them and hold a political deal with Karzai in the forthcoming Presidential elections, as former Afghani President Burhanuddin Rabbani enjoys greater popularity in these regions.

Observers think that non-coordination between General Fahim and the former President concerning the disarmament plan in Kabul will lead to a big rift in the number of voters in such regions.

Fahim has recently moved to close ranks with his former allies in the united front and held an important meeting in Kabul early November, yet the meeting did not reach a settlement regarding a clear-cut political plan for this old alliance formed against Taliban in mid-1990s.

It is not expected that General Fahim, who thinks that he is the only legitimate heir to the status enjoyed by the late Ahmed Shah Massoud, will control the political affairs.

Fahim has been severely criticized since his troops entered Kabul in November 2001, following the fall of Taliban regime. Yet, the Ministry of Defense has been exposed to tremendous administrative liquidation to conform to the ethnic formation of Afghanistan.

The plan of disarming 100,000 combatants has been launched on October 24, 2002, under U.N. supervision and has been funded by Japan, yet observers interested deem the results “unsatisfactory”.