Friday, Aug 29, 2008
The Uzbek warlord, and Afghanistan's new interim deputy defense minister, sounds enlightened, but can he walk it like he talks it?
Jan 8, 2002 | General Rashid Dostum rules a region in Afghanistan the size of Massachusetts and has waged wars for much of his life. In the past few months, aided by heavy American bombardment, Dostum's troops swept through Taliban-controlled areas, bringing an end to the Taliban rule in Mazar-e Sharif, parts of Kabul and Kunduz and eventually helping with the capture of Kandahar. It was under his watch that the bloody uprising of prisoners in Mazar-e Sharif was quelled when Dostum's men literally flushed out the Taliban prisoners -- and the American Taliban, John Walker -- by flooding the basement of the 19th century fortress.
Among the warlords of Afghanistan, Dostum is an enigma. The New York Times recently called the commander of U.S.-backed Northern Alliance troops "a potentially destabilizing force in the new Afghanistan." In 1997, he was the first and last Afghan leader to invite a United Nations human rights commission to investigate massacres of the Hazara minority at the hands of the Taliban. Yet critics say he is authoritarian and eventually wants to establish his own rule. It is no secret that the 47-year-old Uzbek views his current position of deputy defense minister under the new interim government as a disappointment. Supporters, especially among the country's Uzbek and Tajik minority, claim Dostum faces a racial prejudice -- a tendency to vilify Uzbeks as a warrior race due to their Turkish roots. They claim the Soviet-trained officer has the makings of a democratic ruler.
Dostum is known to rule with an iron fist and his troops have a reputation for pillaging, although during the period he reigned in Mazar-e Sharif in the early '90s, the city was peaceful and reasonably well-run -- a place where women attended school and university and worked in public offices. His backers insist he's been unfairly characterized as a thug, while detractors say that Dostum is simply trying to reconstruct his reputation. Speaking over the phone from Ankara, Turkey, Dostum's younger brother, Abdulqadir, complains that unlike the Pashtun chiefs who are called "tribal leader," his brother is always referred to as a "warlord" in Pakistani and Western media.
Warlord or not, Dostum is not a tribal leader. Unlike Afghanistan's newly appointed ruler, Hamid Karzai, and the majority of the nation's top political figures, Dostum can claim neither tribal lineage nor religious status. The son of poor Uzbek peasants from Shibarghan, Dostum spent the first years of his adult life as a worker in a state oil and gas company, then fought with the invading Soviet army, against them, against others, and, since 1995, against the Taliban. He is a self-proclaimed secularist, is the father of nine children from two marriages, and is known to enjoy an occasional drink. We spoke with Dostum by phone recently. Can he be the antidote to fundamentalist tribalism in a country still struggling with the political and ideological remnants of the Taliban?
Why do Afghans fight all the time -- is it the geography, the climate, one of the byproducts of living in a tribal society?
There are enough people who love power and control. Fighting is in their interest. Also, we've always had foreign interference from neighboring countries. They are afraid of Afghanistan becoming powerful and peaceful because this would create pressures in their own countries to be better, more democratic.
You've been fighting since 1978. Is this what you wanted to do with your life?
You're right, this fighting has been going on for too long now. But it's a type of mandatory fighting -- everyone in Afghanistan was forced to take sides and fight. This wasn't at all what I had desired for my life. If Afghanistan had been a peaceful country, I'd have liked to remain as a worker in the gas and oil company in Northern Afghanistan where I started. I wanted to continue helping the development of my country. Maybe one day when there is peace, I can do that.
Is there any hope of that for Afghanistan?
People are tired of fighting here. We should have a federal system in which all groups will be equally respected and given the same rights. In the past, we had different zones, each with autonomy. If the world wants to respect the rights and wishes of the Afghans, there should be a type of federalism. This is what I'd like to see in the end.
How on earth did you get into the business of fighting in the first place -- since you are neither a tribal leader nor a religious one? You must have made a series of choices.
Long story. But to make it short, we as the Uzbeks used to take a lot of abuse as a minority. I remember being abused even as a child. Same thing was happening to the Hazara people. At some point when I was in the military, I went back to my village and talked to the people there. I explained the military situation in the country and made a case for defending ourselves and our rights. That's how it all started.
Do you ever get a chance to spend time with your family?
My wife is arguing with me over the telephone about the same thing. "Why don't you come and see us?" my family says. What can I do? I tell them there is fighting and that I have responsibilities to take care of. I haven't seen my wife and kids for a year now. I hope to see them soon.
Do you have a big family like everyone else in Afghanistan?
I have nine children. My first wife died -- from her I have four -- and I have five kids from my second wife. The oldest is an 18-year-old girl and the youngest is only 3. They live outside the country [in Turkey].
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