Word: dostum
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...sheep." As the Obama Administration signals that it intends to devote more attention to the war in Afghanistan, many Afghans claim that in the name of fighting the Taliban, the West is ignoring abuses committed by its Afghan proxies. One of the worst offenders, alleges Samimi, is Abdul Rashid Dostum, an ethnic-Uzbek warlord who helped in the triumphant ousting of the Taliban in 2001, when, backed by U.S. special forces, he led hundreds of men on horseback to liberate the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. Dostum's militia is accused of that war's worst human-rights atrocity...
...Watch and Afghan human-rights organizations like Samimi's have documented extortion rackets operated by former warlords and militia-run prisons where captives are held for ransom. Afghan journalists covering these crimes have been harassed by police or thrown in jail. In 2007, Samimi received a phone call from Dostum threatening to have her raped "by 100 men" if she continued investigating a rape case in which he was implicated. Dostum denies ever making such a threat, telling TIME that the rape allegation is "propaganda." And yet a witness to the phone call, military prosecutor General Habibullah Qasemi, was dismissed...
...Afghan government seems largely unwilling to curtail the power of the warlords, whose wealth and influence have only increased in the new Afghanistan. These days, Dostum strides across the marble-inlay floors of his new mansion--a pink, three-tiered wedding cake of a house. The foyer boasts a massive aquarium stocked with exotic fish, next to a life-size portrait of Dostum standing beside U.S. General Tommy Franks. During a visit by TIME, workmen were putting the final touches on an immense gold-painted crown that spans the compound's entry gate. The crown was modeled on that...
...rights organizations such as Samimi's have documented extortion rackets run by former warlords and militia-run prisons where captives are held for ransom. Afghan journalists covering their crimes have been harassed by police or thrown in jail. Last year Samimi received a phone call from General Abdul Rashid Dostum, a U.S. ally who was appointed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai as Army Chief of Staff, threatening to have her raped "by 100 men" if she continued investigating a rape case in which he was implicated. Dostum denies ever making such a threat and calls the rape allegation "propaganda...
...Eight million Afghans swarmed to the polls, defying Taliban threats of sabotage and terror. "It was a moral and psychological defeat for the Taliban," Olson told TIME. Karzai helped the process along, clipping the wings of regional warlords such as Ismael Khan in Herat province and Uzbek strongman Rashid Dostum, enemies of the Pashtun tribes that are the main backers of the Taliban...