Over the years varying policies have been tried in Afghanistan with regards to local militia.

The Taliban enforced a ban against local militia. But shortly after 9/11 people re-armed in fear of the coming disorder. After the Taliban's retreat, the UN and the Afghan government ran an expensive disarmament and demobilization program to get rid of armed local groups.

Karzai warned of local militia in 2004 but in 2006 called for installing some. The 'west' was critical of that plan at that time and it was not implemented.

Then in late 2008 the U.S. planed to re-institute local militia. While Karzai is said by 'western' media to have endorsed that, in a recent interview he seems not to do so and he predicts that the program will end in "a disaster." The U.S. is now arming local folks in Afghanistan with Czech weapons.

Some press excerpts documenting the above are below the fold.

One wonders:

• What is Karzai's real position on militia?
• Against whom will these weapons be used?
• How long will it take until the current 'western' pro-militia stand is changed again?

KAMAL HYDER, CNN JOURNALIST: What I can tell you right now in that in the east, most of the population, which is in the rural area of Afghanistan, are seen more and more with weapons, something that the Taliban would not allow in peacetime because they de-weaponized Afghanistan. But there is a feeling among Afghanistan's rural population that the country may be under threat of an attack and people are getting up for a long guerrilla war.
A rare view from inside Afghanistan, CNN, September 25, 2001

President Hamid Karzai said Sunday that Afghanistan's private militias had become the country's greatest danger — greater than the Taliban insurgency — and that new action was required to disarm them.
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''The frustration that we have in this country is that progress has sometimes been stopped by private militias, life has been threatened by private militias, so it should not be tolerated,'' he said. Without disarmament, ''the Afghan state will have really serious difficulties,'' he said.
AFGHAN PRESIDENT DESCRIBES MILITIAS AS THE TOP THREAT, NYT, July 12, 2004

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the UN Development Program are supporting Afghanistan's New Beginnings Program (ANBP), which is aimed at coordinating [the Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR)] efforts in the country.

After initial setbacks, the DDR program began its pilot project in the northern Konduz Province in October 2003. By mid-April, nearly 48,000 members of the Afghan Military Forces (AMF) — the catch-all label for various Afghan militia units — had been disarmed, according to the ANBP.
Afghanistan: Disarming The Militias — Which Militias And Which Arms?, RFERL, April 20, 2005

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Sunday that his government would give weapons to local tribesmen so they could help fight the biggest surge in Taliban violence in years.
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Western diplomats briefed on the plan expressed concern that the effort could fuel factional fighting by arming forces loyal to warlords with long histories of factional disputes.
Karzai to Arm Afghan Tribesmen In Bid to Stem Taliban Attacks, WaPo, June 12, 2006

The government of Afghanistan has extended its programme to disband all
illegal armed groups by four years, according to officials.
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“Militia leaders and warlords still try to maintain their dominance over communities through military and violent means,” [Masoum Stanikzai, head of the DIAG commission,] said.

“Additionally, while we collect weapons, terrorist networks which have sources outside Afghanistan continuously re-arm insurgents and other criminal gangs,” he added.
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More than US$250 million has been spent on disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration.
AFGHANISTAN: Disarmament programme extended, IRIN, October 31, 2007

The U.S. military will soon launch a pilot program to raise local militias, paid by the Pentagon, in an effort to improve security throughout the country.
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The new program in Afghanistan, tentatively dubbed the Afghanistan Social Outreach Program, has a number of backers. Two weeks ago, it was approved by President Karzai, with the endorsement of the ministers of interior and defense."
U.S. Military to Launch Pilot Program to Recruit New Local Afghan Militias, U.S. News, December 16, 2008

Karzai said that merely sending more troops to Afghanistan is not the full answer and disagreed with a plan to concentrate them around the capital. And he added that a U.S.-supported idea to empower militias in Afghanistan—similar to a successful "Sons of Iraq" program in Iraq—would be "a disaster" in Afghanistan, only repeating the mistakes of the past.

Afghan leader Hamid Karzai defends his rule in an exclusive Tribune interview, Chicago Tribune, December 19, 2008

The first stages of a plan to raise militias against the Afghan insurgency will involve giving 1,200 assault rifles to local men with little training, according to documents that reveal fresh details about the controversial program.
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A 23-page PowerPoint briefing obtained by The Globe and Mail suggests the Afghan government wants the new militiamen in some districts to vastly outnumber the police.

The document shows the first units will be organized in Saydabad district of Wardak province, southwest of Kabul. They will eventually cover the province with 1,200 uniformed men carrying Czech-made assault rifles and driving white Ford Rangers, dwarfing the province's current police force, officially listed at 688 officers.
Afghan militia gears up to fight the Taliban, Globe & Mail, February 18, 2008