KABUL: Afghanistan has formally banned eight foreign private security firms, including the controversial company formerly called Blackwater, and confiscated their weapons, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said on Sunday. The Afghan government announced in August that it was giving security firms working in the country four months to cease operations, potentially hitting hard efforts by Nato-led troops fighting Taliban in Afghanistan.
There are fears the measure could create huge problems for the military and other international entities that depend on the estimated 40,000 employees of private security contractors.
“The Afghan interior ministry today reported the dissolution of eight private security companies to the national security council of Afghanistan,” Waheed Omer told a news conference.
He said some of the companies had been fully dissolved and their weapons had been collected, while for others the process was still under way.
Xe – the former Blackwater – and White Eagle Security Services, which provides security for Afghan government officials and NGOs in particular, and Four Horsemen International are among the first companies banned.
The security firms provide a wide range of services, including protecting supply convoys for Nato, guarding foreigners’ compounds, embassies and other installations, as well as training Afghan security forces.
The dissolution will not immediately affect companies’ activities that deal with the training of national security forces or those guards who operate inside buildings to provide protection, Mr Omer said.
The August presidential decree ordered the 52 private security contractors operating in the country, both Afghan and international, to cease operations by January 1, 2011.
Mr Karzai had accused the security companies of running an ‘economic mafia’ based around ‘corruption contracts’ favoured by the international community.
He has said the firms duplicate the work of the Afghan security forces and divert much-needed resources, while Afghans criticise the private guards as overbearing and abusive, particularly on the country’s roads.
At a separate news conference, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said more than 400 weapons had been seized and the government had already closed down an Afghan security firm with 75 employees, as well as several smaller groups.
Critics, though, say the tight deadline will not allow enough time to negotiate an alternative to private contractors in a country where security is a priority and police are generally not trusted.
Private security firms in Afghanistan are employed by US and Nato forces, the Pentagon, the UN mission, aid and non-governmental organisations, embassies and western media.—Agencies
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