Taleban arm the people

Even rocket launchers are being distributed

		By Kate Clark BBC Afghanistan correspondent

The Taleban are arming civilians in preparation, they say, for any American ground attacks on Afghanistan.

They have been distributing weapons to people, particularly in the rural areas of the south and east, where the Taleban have generally been most popular.

The Taleban are clearly confident that the weapons will not eventually be turned against them

It shows they are still confident of support there.

But it is a move which has left many Afghans worried about the future.

One of the greatest achievements of the Taleban in the 1990s was the disarming of the general population.

Resistance

The decision to start distributing arms was announced after the last Taleban council of ministers.

Light and heavy weapons, including rocket launchers, machine guns and anti-aircraft guns, should be given out to villages and other places, said one of the ministers, in order to resist American commando operations.

Reports are now coming in that the new policy is being implemented, particularly in rural areas in the mainly ethnic Pashtun south and east.

The Taleban are clearly confident that the weapons will not eventually be turned against them, despite claims by Washington to have forged alliances with many of the Pashtun tribes.

If that is the case, it could cause problems for the American war planners.

Worries for future

The move has left many people here worried about the future of their country - worried that the arms will in the end be used against fellow Afghans either in crime or war.

Weaponry given by the West to the mujahedin to fight the Soviet occupation of the 1980s helped lead to lawlessness and in-fighting after the defeat of communism.

The Taleban swept to power by bringing order out of the chaos of those times, with a policy of disarming the population.