Collecting Bombs and Bullets

Mohammad Afzal remembers the day the ammunition dump exploded in his village of Qala-ye-Zal in Kunduz province.

“Three years ago, I was living in a house when the arms dump exploded next door,” said Afzal, who now lives in Balkh.

"We were uninjured but the house shook. One person was killed and several others were injured by the flying bullets,” he recalled. “No one was able to get close enough to do anything about the blaze and it was two hours before all the bullets were spent. Everyone just took cover indoors."

Afzal’s experience is all too common in a country that, after more than two decades of conflict, remains littered with vast stores of unexploded munitions.

According to recent figures released by the United Nations Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan, 626 people were killed or injured in 2004 by landmines and unexploded ordnance.

Huge amounts of ordnance are thought to be hidden at old military bases, in the hands of former commanders and in private stockpiles.

Now the government has set an ambitious goal of collecting more than 100,000 tonnes of unexploded munitions through the UN-backed Afghanistan New Beginning Programme, ANBP.

Defence ministry spokesman General Zahir Azimi said the first phase would entail locating stockpiles. Munitions that are still usable would be transferred to the new Afghan National Army, while ammunition that has been damaged or deteriorated would be destroyed.

"The plan is an effective one, because the army will benefit and it will also save lives and limbs," he said.

The project has been launched in Balkh and Herat provinces before extending to other regions.

"The Disarmament, Demobilisation and Rehabilitation [DDR] process is now 60 per cent complete but the disposal of ammunition was not included in it," said Azimi. "That is why this initiative was launched."

Under DDR, local commanders and militia members have turned in weapons.

Azimi said the project won’t be easy and may take some time to complete.

"These stockpiles could be anywhere,” he said. “There were many military posts used in time of war, and we do not know where many of them are, but we will carry on until the task is completed."

Many in the north consider the arms collection a major step towards getting the country back to normal.

"We will all be relieved when these shells and bullets are removed. Then we will know the war is over," said Sayed Hussain of Mazar-e-Sharif.

"There is no need for ammunition in Afghanistan any more,” said Raz Mohammad, also from Mazar-e-Sharif. “Now we must start thinking about rebuilding our country which has been razed to rubble by tanks and bullets."

Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi is an IWPR staff reporter in Mazar-e-Sharif.