Introduction

Demilitarization is one of the cornerstones of the Afghan peace-building project. After 23 years of civil war and internecine strife, it is the key to removing the culture of impunity that prevails in Afghan society, to replace the rule of the gun with the rule of law. The process features four pillars: the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) of the formal militias associated with the government; the disbandment of illegal armed groups (DIAG); the cantonment of heavy weapons and the collection and destruction of anti-personnel mines and ammunition stockpiles. Although each pillar of the process has a disarmament element, little consideration has been accorded to the establishment of a countrywide small arms and light weapons collection programme. In light of the fact that estimates of the number of uncontrolled small arms in the country range from 1.5 to 10 million, such a process would seem to be a prerequisite for sustainable peace and security (Small Arms Survey, 2003, p. 74; Pirseyedi, 2000, p. 13). The flagship of the demilitarization process, the DDR programme, treated the collection of small arms as a secondary and largely symbolic objective. Disarmament has a more central role in the DIAG programme but is perceived as a means to achieve the programme’s central goal, the disbandment of informal militias, rather than as an end in itself.