U.S. may send advisers as referees

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Worried that renegade warlords could plunge Afghanistan into civil war once again, the United States may send military advisers to act as referees between rival factions, the U.S. special envoy said Sunday.

The idea appeared aimed at finding a way to stem factional fighting without expanding the U.S. military presence or diverting troops from hunting Taliban and al-Qaida fugitives.

"We are worried about the multiple armies," envoy Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters. "There is a danger of multiple armies going to war."

Khalilzad said the best way to curb the problem would be to establish a well-trained Afghan national army, an effort that is expected to take many months and could also be challenged by powerful local leaders and their militias.

In the meantime, "military advisers could be put in areas where there is the danger of potential conflict among forces or armies that exist in order to deter and discourage a return to conflict," Khalilzad said.

"Or, where we have special forces in place, those forces could be given this additional mission of advising, with regard to a discouragement of a return to conflict," he added.

The goal is to keep these militias apart until a national army can be established, Khalilzad said -- a difficult task because warlords who hold sway across much of the countryside outside Kabul may be reluctant to turn over their armed men to a single command.

"The major overall challenge is how to stay away from returning to war, another challenge is security," the U.S. envoy said. "Ultimately the answer has to come from Afghans. We don't want Afghanistan to become a security welfare state. We want Afghanistan to be answerable to a single army."

Limited control

In the meantime, however, "The control the interim government has is limited," Khalilzad said, suggesting strong doubts about the ability of the two-month-old government's ability to broker compromises mean the international community must find a way to keep the peace.

"We are discussing options to deal with the problem. We need to come up with an answer and relatively soon," he said.

Some international officials have also discussed expanding the international peacekeeping force as a way to improve security.

Interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai has repeatedly called for a larger force that would deploy troops outside Kabul, but received no commitments. The 4,500-member British-led force is currently limited to the capital.

While the United States has offered to help Afghanistan build a national army, it is not participating in the peacekeeping force, and Khalilzad said it would not pledge soldiers to an enlarged force.

U.S. officials have said the job of the American troops in Afghanistan is fighting terrorism -- hunting Taliban and al-Qaida members -- not peacekeeping or nation building.

Stronger warlords

Some Afghans say the United States has strengthened some of warlords whose help it needs to track down remaining Taliban and al-Qaida forces. Khalilzad would not comment when asked whether the United States has given money to warlords in exchange for help in the campaign against terrorism.

In a meeting with Khalilzad on Saturday, Karzai said the United States must make certain that warlords it works with understand that they must be subordinate to the central government.

In the deadliest factional fighting since the defeat of the ruling Taliban last fall, scores of Afghans were killed in January when rival militias battled for control of Gardez, the capital of Paktia province in eastern Afghanistan. U.S. troops did not get involved.

Rival factions struggling for control over Mazar-e-Sharif, the largest city in the north, have withdrawn their forces outside city limits under a tentative agreement reached this month, but they remain armed and the situation is unsettled.