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Home » News » Energy

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Big fish among the Afghan warlords

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Flip-flopping general a mixed blessing to U.S.

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  • "To understand Afghanistan you have to go to the places the majority of the poor go to," Haji Sher said. "The bazaar is Afghanistan." In one of the shops, only miles from the ISAF headquarters of Gen. David McKiernan, a middle-aged man was selling hundreds of AK-47s. "You can buy almost anything on the street," Haji Sher said laughing, as the proprietor pulled an old Kalashnikov off the shelf and handed it to him.
  • Armed men stand guard at Gen. Dostum's palatial home in Kabul. As the world struggles to salvage Afghanistan, Gen. Dostum, along with the nation's 14 other warlords, represent a relic of the last 30 years of war that cannot be easily dismissed.
  • Left: Before he was a warlord, Gen. Dostum (second from left, on bicycle) was a student of military studies in the Soviet Union and then a foreman at the Soviet-controlled oil fields in his home province of Jowzjan.
  • Gen. Dostum gave a glimpse into his life and an in-depth look at the current state of the war. He relaxes at his heavily guarded estate in Kabul.
  • His chapan flowing with every step, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum strides into a room in his palatial home in Kabul to show a picture of his early days to visitors. Gen. Dostum rose to power after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, forming a militia, which later became a full regiment under the Soviet occupation.
Photographs by Mary F. Calvert/The Washington Times
  • Gen. Dostum, Afghanistan's most notorious warlord, aided the Defense Department and CIA in toppling the Taliban militants eight years ago, but he has been accused of murdering tens of thousands during uprisings in the 1990s. He sits in his palatial home in Kabul fingering his prayer beads.
  • Below: Haji Sher, a trusted friend of Gen. Dostum, looks for rugs for sale in a shop located in an area of Kabul where the merchants are loyal to the general.

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By Sara A. Carter

KABUL, Afghanistan

Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum watched an emperor angelfish swim back and forth in a large tank, competing with other brightly colored fish for a few flakes of feed drifting in the saltwater.

"Do you like my fish?" the general asked. "If I introduce new fish to the tank, the others attack it, kill it and sometimes bite out their eyes."

It is a simple matter of "territory and survival," the burly Uzbek explained, his bellowing laughter bouncing off the marble floors of the foyer in his heavily guarded estate in Kabul.

Seven years after the overthrow of the Taliban, the Bush administration is struggling to come up with a new strategy to salvage Afghanistan. In that effort, Gen. Dostum and the nation's 14 other warlords are a mixed blessing. Often corrupt and clinging to 14th-century notions of justice, they are an integral part of Afghanistan's past and present and are likely to remain so in the future.

Photo Gallery

The Art of Warlord

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Seven years after the overthrow of the Taliban, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum and the nation's 14 other warlords are a mixed blessing. Often corrupt and clinging to 14th-century notions of justice, they are an integral part of Afghanistan's past and present and are likely to remain so in the future.

Allied forces often rely on the warlords' information and mastery of the tribal system to combat a growing Taliban insurgency. At the same time, they fear that the warlords' resurgence could doom efforts to democratize the Muslim nation of 32 million and drag Afghanistan back into all-out civil war.

Afghan President Hamid "Karzai is weak so he indulges the warlords," said Peter Tomsen, the U.S. special envoy to Afghan resistance fighters during their war against Soviet occupation two decades ago.

Many of the major warlords, including Gen. Dostum and Ismail Khan, an Iran-backed leader in western Afghanistan, have been given government jobs by Mr. Karzai in an effort to cement their allegiance.

In 2004, Mr. Karzai appointed Gen. Dostum commander in chief of the Afghan Army but had to remove him seven months ago after the general kidnapped and beat a former election manager, Akbar Bai, whom the general believed was planning to kill him. Gen. Dostum remains a member of parliament representing his Jumbesh-i-Milli Islami (Islamic National Party), which is based in the northern province of Jowzjan

Violent behavior is hardly out of character for Gen. Dostum. The quintessential warlord provided crucial help as part of a U.S.-backed Northern Alliance that toppled the Taliban in 2001, but his militia has also been accused of murdering thousands of people — charges that have not been verified.

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