Peacekeepers to start training King's bodyguards

The international peacekeeping force in Kabul is to start training 40 Afghans to become personal bodyguards for the former king once he arrives in the country.

The two-week training course will start on Monday.

It comes after the United States and Italy raised concern about the security situation in Kabul ahead of the return of former King Mohammad Zaher Shah.

Those fears prompted a delay in his arrival, which had been scheduled for last Tuesday and now appears will come towards the end of April.

A spokesman for the peacekeepers, Flt Lt Tony Marshall, said the 40-strong personal security detail was multi-ethnic, but he refused to say which ethnic groups were represented and in what numbers.

The king, an ethnic Pashtun, is reported to have asked that his security should be provided by someone other than the defence or interior ministries - both of which are dominated by ethnic Tajiks, most of them from the Panjshir Valley.

The Panjshiris consider themselves the only true wielders of power in Afghanistan and want no part of royalist Pashtuns, who spent much of the Taliban era as exiles abroad.

The king has lived in Italy since he was ousted by a cousin Mohammed Daoud in 1973.

The Italians have assumed responsibility for him ever since, and have been actively involved in planning his return to Afghanistan to convene a traditional assembly that will select a transitional government to rule until elections.

The United States has said it had been helping to train a group of Afghans to guard the king once he arrives.

Flt Lt Marshall said the 40 new recruits had received previous training, but refused to say from whom. He also refused to say who would be conducting the two-week course.

Italian carabinieri and Swedish military police have already been training a selected group of Afghans to be bodyguards for Afghan Cabinet ministers.

Marshall said the king’s 40-man team would act as a close, personal security detail, travelling with him and guarding him while at his residence, a two-story gated compound in Kabul’s nicest residential area.

The team will form just a part of Zaher Shah’s security.

General Mohammad Jorat, head of security and public affairs in the Interior Ministry, said before the king’s arrival was delayed that a 600-man detail would be deployed to guard the royal convoy from the airport to the king’s home the day he arrived.

He said another 20 troops had been assigned to guard the king’s house, working in two 10-man shifts a day.

It was not clear if those plans had been altered, but Marshall did say there had been a slight change in the role Italian carabinieri would play on the day the king touched down.

Previously, the Italians were to have accompanied the king to his house and then handed over to an Afghan detail.

Now, the 40-man personal guard and other forces would take over from the Italians as soon as the plane touched down at Kabul’s airport, Marshall said.

International peacekeepers would still clear the motorcade route for any bomb threats or other dangers, and would continue their regular patrols in the king’s neighbourhood, he said.

Peacekeepers have stressed that the Government was responsible for the king’s security, but have said they would take action if they sensed an immediate threat against him.