Military

DATE=02/11/03

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

TITLE=AFGHANISTAN ARMY

NUMBER=5-53109

BYLINE=JIM TEEPLE

DATELINE=KABUL

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Efforts are intensifying to create a new Afghanistan army. Recruitment drives have been stepped up and military trainers hope to have a viable army in place by next year. V-O-A's Jim Teeple reports from Kabul that Afghanistan's new army is being built one recruit at a time.

TEXT:

/// ACTUALITY OF MARCHING MUSIC IN AND UNDER ///

The 600 men of Afghanistan's new Sixth Battalion march out smartly in front of their commanders and visiting military officials and diplomats.

The men of the Sixth Battalion have been training 10 weeks for this day. It is the day they pass from being mere recruits to soldiers of Afghanistan's new national army.

They will join about two thousand other soldiers, who over the past year have been trained to form a force capable of taking on the remnants of the Taleban and al-Qaida.

U-S Lieutenant General Dan McNeil, the commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, says Afghan army troops are already in the field and so far, the reports have been good.

/// MCNEIL ACTUALITY ///

The Afghan soldiers that have been trained to date here at the Kabul military training center have been used in operational deployments in

Afghanistan and have in fact done very well. In Paktika province we had some good events out there and there is presently a force up in Bamiyan with the same results. But if your question is, are they completely trained the answer is no. The training is a continuing process, their operational deployments will take them to yet another level, and after we have trained sufficient numbers to form three brigades, some of them will go back and train at a higher level in some specific equipment and tactics.

/// END ACTUALITY ///

General McNeil acknowledges getting Afghanistan's new army off to a fighting start has not been easy. The new force has been hurt by a high desertion rate blamed on low pay. Another problem has been the unwillingness of regional Afghan warlords to give up their best troops to the new army.

Creating an ethnically balanced force has been another challenge but General McNeil says as Afghanistan's new army takes shape it will closely resemble the society it comes from.

/// MCNEIL ACT TWO ///

We think we are fairly close - we think the most recent recruiting has produced better results in terms of demographics than any recruiting.

The Afghans are doing it themselves so all the signs are encouraging.

/// END ACTUALITY ///

Morale seems high among the soldiers. Mohammed Rizak, a new infantryman from Maidan province, says through a translator that the men in his unit learned to overcome their traditional ethnic rivalries and work together.

/// RIZAK ACT IN DARI W/ TRANSLATION ///

We had different groups there were Pashtun's, Hazara's, Uzbeks and they were all working together and all be working for their country.

/// END ACTUALITY ///

Mohammed Rizak says he has been well trained by French and American officers and is now ready to fight those he calls Afghanistan's enemies.

/// OPT ///

While they say they were well trained, many recruits complain about their low pay - 30 dollars a month during training, 50 dollars a month after graduation and 70 dollars for those with specialized training.

/// END OPT ///

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai says the new army is a top priority and he wants to see a force of about 70-thousand troops by the end of the decade.

Foreign military observers say getting to that goal will depend on whether the powerful regional warlords will turn over large numbers of the troops they control to the new army.

So far the warlords have sent only a token number of troops to join the army - raising fears that Afghanistan's new highly trained force might not have enough troops to meet the threat posed by terrorism and instability. (SIGNED)

NEB/HK/JT/KPD