Kabul, June 08: The United Nations has called for urgent implementation of reforms to make Afghanistan's nascent national army and defence ministry more representative of the country's ethnic and regional mix, a UN spokesman today said. "The ministry has undertaken, in compliance with the presidential decree of December 1 of last year, to implement a number of reforms that will give it a more national character," Manoel de Almeida e Silva told reporters at a press conference.

"These reforms are to make changes to the senior echelons of the ministry of defence so they are politically, regionally and ethnically balanced, to ensure the key senior posts of the central corps of the afghan national army are filled with professional officers with a national outlook and not a factional outlook."

Officers should be selected on merit and the ministry should establish a recruitment system open to all eligible Afghans, he said.
Ethnic Tajik Defence minister Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim has been accused of trying to pack the army with Tajik recruits.

These reforms would enable the ministry to take its lead role in the process of disarming, demobilising and reintegrating (DDR) some 100,000 militiamen which is due to start in coming weeks, the UN spokesman said.
"This reform programme needs to be implemented urgently to... ensure there is broad acceptance and cooperation for the DDR process," De Almeida e Silva said.

The United States is the lead nation assisting with the establishment of the national army.
Bureau Report