Afghan gov’t: 4 months to disband security firms

Associated Press Update Original Story last post

KABUL, Afghanistan — A spokesman for the Afghan president says Hamid Karzai will order all private security companies in the country disbanded within four months.

Spokesman Waheed Omar says the decree is expected later Monday. It will both set the deadline and detail a process through which the companies should cease operations.

Omar spoke at a press conference in the capital and declined to give further details until the decree was released.

Afghan Government Sets Deadline for Private Security Firms

A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai says the Afghan leader is giving private security firms four months to cease operations in the country.

Waheed Omar told reporters that Mr. Karzai plans to issue the deadline later on Monday.

More than 50 international and Afghan security firms operate in Afghanistan, employing at least 30,000 people.

President Karzai has said the companies undermine the work of Afghan security forces by creating a parallel security structure.

Omar says greater regulation of the security companies will not solve the problem posed by the firms presence and “the way they function.”

NATO officials said dissolving the companies would be possible once the Afghan army and police are capable of providing the security that private companies currently offer, including protecting officials, troops and supply convoys.