Word: dostum
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...ethnic backgrounds have taken Mazar, and they are the city's key players for the foreseeable future. Two of the commanders, Ustad Mohammed Atta (of Tajik descent) and Haji Mohammed Mohaqiq (a member of the Hazara tribe), set themselves up in palatial villas in the city center. General Rashid Dostum, an Uzbek, took over Kalai Jangi, an ancient mud-walled fortress to the southwest. In public, all three insist an alliance born of necessity is holding. They say they are cooperating in the primary task of emptying Mazar of armed men and establishing a joint security force under the authority...
...night, the streets of Mazar aren't exactly safe; residents lock themselves in high-walled homes and the pop and crack of gunfire sounds across the city until dawn. Even in daytime, people tend to remain within their neighborhoods, which are lumped into three zones under the control of Dostum, Atta or Mohaqiq. The Hazaras catch most of the blame for the city's violence. In fact, they have most cause for revenge: when the Taliban took the city in 1998 they singled out Hazaras, who are Shi'ite Muslims (the Taliban are Sunnis) and massacred 6,000. The Hazara...
...phone swatting away the occasional autumn fly in an empty meeting room, Atta's home is crowded with tribal elders and local dignitaries paying respects and requesting his signature on a flurry of papers. In turn, both Atta and Mohaqiq are required to drive out of the city to Dostum's fort when the veteran warlord summons them. (Dostum also maintains a castle-like complex in Shiburghan, some two hours west of Mazar.) And while the popular Atta talks loftily of democracy and elections to form a new city administration, Mohaqiq's aides scoff at what they see as provincial...
...After two decades of fighting, defections and double-crosses, suspicion and betrayal are the guiding principles of any smart Afghan operator. Atta, for example, once fought with the Taliban. Dostum allied himself with Soviet forces during occupation; when they left, he sided with and then betrayed their successor, ill-fated President Najibullah, before being given up himself by onetime ally Abdul Malik. Much of the Taliban's sweeping success came from confronting the atomized, warring mujahedin factions with a nearly psychotic demand for uniformity. "The mujahedin say they are together now, but in reality no alliance ever lasts for long...
...bright, warm Saturday, 300 Taliban soldiers who had fled the American bombardment of Kunduz, their last stronghold in the north of Afghanistan, laid down their weapons in the desert a few kilometers to the north of Mazar-i-Sharif. They surrendered to Northern Alliance General Abdul Rashid Dostum, who crowed that his forces had achieved a "great victory" as the POWs were herded 50 at a time onto flatbed trucks...