Afghanistan army recruits graduate from basic training

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The first 600 troops in the new Afghan army completed six weeks of basic training Wednesday, eagerly performing their skills before Prime Minister Hamid Karzai and other dignitaries.

The men -- drawn from every province and ethnic group in Afghanistan -- are to be the vanguard of a 68,000-strong army that Karzai says will bring an end to the "warlordism" that has kept the country mired in decades of civil war and destruction.

But making that army a reality is many months and many hundreds of millions of dollars away. On Wednesday in Geneva, Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah asked donor countries for $422 million to rebuild the army and police. President Bush has asked Congress to approve a $278 million package of extra aid for Afghanistan, nearly half of which will go for security. Britain, Russia, Pakistan, India, China and Iran also pledged support.

Afghanistan is waiting for most of the $4.5 billion pledged by international donors in Januar. None is earmarked for the army.

At Wednesday's military ceremony, Karzai said his interim administration was staying on top of the donors.

"The countries that have promised us money, they should know we're after them," he said.

Military exercise

The new troops, dressed in green camouflage uniforms and green berets and armed with machine guns, demonstrated their response to a mock attack with a long burst of machine-gun fire and smoke grenades, finally apprehending the bad guys hiding in a ditch.

"Today, after many long years, we have our own national army in Afghanistan. The task before this army is to defend its country, its people, and its religion," Karzai said as the troops stood at attention on a dusty field in Kabul. "I assure the people of Afghanistan that this national army will work in defense of their rights and their security."

The men, many veterans of the war against Soviet occupation in the 1980s, were chosen by local governments and approved by the Defense Ministry of the fledgling administration. Because many local governments are controlled by rival warlords, a challenge is to ensure the troops remain loyal to the central government and not their old bosses.