Security hangs by thin thread of pay

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Tens of thousands of unpaid Afghan soldiers and police threaten to become a new source of instability in this unstable land, a government spokesman said Thursday.

It's a "problem of arrangement," that is, fiscal coordination among international donors, Afghanistan's interim government and provincial administrations, said Yusuf Pashtun, spokesman for Gov. Gul Agha of the key southern province of Kandahar.

"How long it will take for this to explode is anyone's guess," Pashtun told reporters. He suggested that outside forces -- neighboring countries -- might take advantage of Afghanistan's lack of funds to buy influence among armed Afghan units.

Hamid Karzai's interim regime in Kabul is almost totally dependent on financial support from donor countries, three months after it was installed following the ouster of the Taliban from power by the U.S. military and its allies. Major aid flows have yet to begin, however.

"We have not received a single penny from the central government," Pashtun complained.

The greatest impact in this region falls on some 20,000 soldiers and 3,500 policemen who are supposed to be paid through provincial governments, he said. The soldiers are members of tribal and other independent militias, victors in last fall's war who are now earmarked for integration in an embryonic national army.

These armed men are being given only a food allowance, Pashtun said. Many of them seem to have little idea of how much they should be paid in salaries.

The soldiers, who come from tribal militias or units loyal to regional warlords, have yet to develop a strong allegiance to the national government. "This will be a major source of instability," said Pashtun, who suggested officers may turn elsewhere to "fill the gap" -- to neighboring countries seeking influence here, for example.

American officials complain that neighboring Iran already has been funneling money and supplies into western Afghanistan, including to local militias, to influence political developments there.

At a news conference, the Kandahar spokesman also said provincial leaders had suggested to American military commanders here that Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, the former Taliban foreign minister, be released from U.S. custody as a way to encourage other ex-Taliban officials to come out of hiding and surrender.

Muttawakil, generally regarded as a moderate within the old hardline Islamist regime, is the senior Taliban leader in custody.

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