(12 Jan 2002)
1. Wide shot of Northern Alliance soldier handing over a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) to local authorities
2. Various of soldiers taking weapons to be registered by the local officials
3. Shot of guns being stockpiled on the ground next to the registrar
4. SOUNDBITE (Dari) Zemarai, local anti-Taliban militia soldier:
"For the past two years I've been carrying this weapon and I'm really tired of it. All I want to do now is to go back to being a farmer."
5. Various of soldiers queuing up to turn in their guns
6. Set-up shot of General Atiqullah Baryalai, a Deputy Defence Minister of Interim Afghan Government taking aim with one of the rifles that has been surrendered
7. SOUNDBITE (English) General Atiqullah Baryalai, Deputy Defence Minister of Interim Afghan Government:
"The people like disarmament and the people support my disarmament programmes and I believe that after two weeks, Inshalla, there won't be any more guns in the Baghlan Province, in the villages, in the city and in the streets."
8. Tight close-up of several guns on the ground that have been turned in
9. Local soldier unloading his backpack which is filled with RPGs
10. Wide shot of soldier placing his gun in the stockpile of surrendered weapons
STORYLINE:
After more than twenty years of war, soldiers in Northern Afghanistan are doing something that would once have been unthinkable - they are giving up their guns.
General Atiqullah Baryalai, a Deputy Defence Minister of Interim Afghan Government is heading up the disarmament process to take the guns out of the hands of these soldiers who once used them to fight the Taliban.
In the small town of Khoja Khon, in the Baghlan province of North East Afghanistan, these former Northern Alliance soldiers are taking their guns to be registered.
The men, all anti-Taliban fighters, said they were relieved when their commanders ordered them to come to Khoja Khon to register their guns in advance of a mass disarmament.
Zemarai got his grenade launcher two years ago when he was recruited by an anti-Taliban commander.
Shrapnel from a mine has since left him blind in his right eye.
The guns will be returned to the owners after registration but in the near future there will be a massive collection of weapons.
General Atiqullah Baryalai estimates there are a million guns in Afghanistan, the majority of which have to be surrendered in order to prevent factional violence in the post-Taliban era.
The general controls four provinces in North Eastern Afghanistan, and he heads the disarmament process in the region.
Baryalai believes that in the Baghlan Province alone, there are approximately 20-thousand guns.
He hopes that by registering them he will in the future be able to leave 3-thousand guns in the hands of a Provincial army and collect the rest.
Though the government has said it wants to disarm many of those with guns, many Afghans seem unwilling to comply.
After the guns are taken for good, probably in a week, they will be placed in an armoury and become the property of the government.
At the same time, soldiers will be sent out of the cities to barracks, and a small police force will be left in charge of local security.
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