Guns abound in Kabul

? On a side street, camouflage-clad partisans of the northern alliance play pickup volleyball, their AK-47s bouncing against their backs. On a corner in ramshackle western Kabul, a bony boy no older than 10 paces back and forth, his battered Kalashnikov dragging on the ground.

Kabulis take such displays in stride. But though far fewer weapons are on the streets than five months ago, guns are still everywhere big guns, automatic guns, battered, dented guns that look like they’ve already been used to kill people.

U.S. forces unload Romanian-donated rifles in Kabul, Afghanistan. Romania donated 1,000 guns Thursday to the new Afghan National Army, which is being trained by U.S. forces. Guns are common on Kabul's streets, and it is often difficult to tell who is legally armed.

Yet with the loya jirga national council convening next week in the capital to select a transitional government, some worry the weaponry could intimidate delegates inclined to grant power to other groups with less firepower.

“The country should have been disarmed first,” says Tajwar Kokar, the deputy minister of women’s affairs in the interim government. Her office, too, is guarded by northern alliance soldiers with guns.

Most of them, northern alliance soldiers loyal to Defense Minister Mohammad Fahim, rolled into town in November when U.S.-led airstrikes drove the Taliban from Kabul. They took up positions around the city, and dozens remain.

“There’s no one to tell them, ‘Don’t carry your guns,”‘ says Abdul Basir, a 42-year-old teacher. “Our people don’t want men with guns and military uniforms walking around in the streets when they’re not on duty.”

But many of the armed men have found a temporary patina of legitimacy. Under the umbrella of the defense and interior ministries, they say they are helping international forces protect the city until the new police force is fully trained.

Thus the paradox that some find troubling: The very forces eager to hold onto power after the loya jirga northern alliance soldiers from the Panjshir Valley are nominally charged with helping keep the peace.