U.S. Hopeful on Warlords’ Disarming

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld met Thursday with the two main warlords of northern Afghanistan on his first trip to this city and said he was satisfied that they had begun disarming.

Abdul Rashid Dostum and Atta Mohammed, whose armies remain in conflict, met Rumsfeld at a dusty compound used by the British army as headquarters for a civil-military reconstruction project.

Disarmament of their armies is considered critical to extending the central government’s authority beyond Kabul, the capital.

Rumsfeld, making his fourth trip to Afghanistan since the Taliban regime’s fall, told reporters: “Each of them has initiated that process.... At what pace it will proceed I guess remains to be seen, but we’re pleased that they’ve agreed to do so.”

Col. Dickie Davis, the British commander of a provincial reconstruction team that is attempting to use both civilian and military tools to improve security and quell factional rivalries, told Rumsfeld that Dostum was “dragging his feet.”

So far, Dostum has given up the military units he trusts least, while maintaining most of his heavy artillery and armor, Davis said. Mohammed said he was proud to have been the first to give up heavy weapons.

A Rumsfeld aide who was in the closed meeting quoted Dostum as saying, “Our side is a little slower, but we’ll cooperate, without any doubt.”

Underscoring the country’s fragile security, a rocket exploded in a field near the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, two hours after Rumsfeld met with interim President Hamid Karzai in another part of the city.

No one was injured in the explosion, which was blamed on Taliban fighters or their ally, renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

At a joint news conference with Karzai, Rumsfeld said he had made it clear to Dostum and Mohammed that the United States saw the disarmament and disbanding of regional armies as “an important step for this country” if it was to gain political stability and prosperity to avoid again becoming a haven for terrorist groups.