Word: warlords
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...warlords—minus a few notable exceptions—are back to their old tricks. Do not be fooled by those pictures of Hamid Karzai posing with George Bush and Tony Blair. Everyone in Afghanistan knows that real power resides with people like Rashid Dostum, the ethnic Uzbek warlord who controls Mazar-i-Sharif; Ishmael Khan, ruler of Herat and recipient of Iranian tanks and money; and the exiled Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a religious fanatic who currently resides in Iran but who is rumored to be staging a comeback...
...have nothing against Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, Interior Minister Younis Qanooni or Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim. These three young disciples of deceased Afghan hero Ahmed Shah Massood impressed Western diplomats at the Bonn Conference and are probably among the most reliable warlords. The problem is that the Tajiks’ preponderance in the government makes other warlords very unhappy. And an unhappy warlord is often an unfriendly warlord...
...Soviets lost more than 50,000 well-trained soldiers in Afghanistan. Getting rid of a warlord like Dostum or Khan might be even harder than defeating the Taliban. When U.S. forces fought the Taliban, they had the support of all the warlords because everybody despised Mullah Omar and Co. But these warlords have a knack for forging alliances—even among enemies, especially when foreigners try to impose their will on Afghanistan. Just ask the Russians...
AFGHANISTAN Roundup As the first 600 members of the new Afghan multi-ethnic National Guard completed their training, the need for it became apparent. The government ordered the arrest of more than 200 political opponents. The detainees, said to be supporters of the anti-Western warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, were accused of conspiring to mount a terror campaign against the government of interim leader Hamid Karzai...
...some areas, such fighting has already started. In the north around Mazar-i-Sharif, ethnic Uzbek General Abdul Rashid Dostum and Hazara warlord Mohammed Mohaqiq have used the hunt for al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders as an excuse for a pogrom against Pashtuns. Human Rights Watch has documented 150 separate cases of looting, rape and killing in the area that have sent thousands of Pashtuns fleeing south. There are also persistent accusations that Afghan commanders are calling in U.S. air strikes against rivals, not terrorists. Meanwhile in Kabul, local factions have begun turning their newly acquired firepower on one another...