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Warlords With Dark Pasts Battle in Afghan Election
By ROD NORDLANDFEB. 26, 2014
Inside
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Boys in Kabul fixed a tire below a billboard for the presidential campaign of Ashraf Ghani. Credit Mauricio Lima for The New York Times Continue reading the main story
Continue reading the main story
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KABUL, Afghanistan — Ashraf Ghani, the apparent front-runner in the Afghan presidential race this year, was once unstinting in his opinion of one of the country’s most prominent warlords, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, calling him a “known killer.”
He said that in 2009, when General Dostum was supporting President Hamid Karzai for re-election. Now, Mr. Ghani simply calls General Dostum his running mate.
In fact, of the 11 campaigns in the April 5 presidential election, six include at least one candidate on the ticket who is widely viewed as a warlord, with pasts and policies directly at odds with Western attempts to improve human rights here.
That is the field that American military and diplomatic planners have to consider as they take up President Obama’s call on Tuesday to look past Mr. Karzai and try to get the next Afghan administration to sign a long-term security deal.
For officials working to finalize the bilateral security agreement, there is still potential good news: All 11 of the Afghan presidential candidates say they support the deal, which would allow Western troops to stay here past 2014.
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Ghani's running mate, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, shown in 2009, is a prominent warlord. Credit Caren Firouz/Reuters
But past that, American officials have taken pains to avoid expressing any preference for a particular candidate, sensitive to accusations from Mr. Karzai that they interfered in the 2009 vote, when American pressure led him to agree to a runoff after widespread reports of election fraud.
The preponderance of candidates with some sort of unsavory past has also made American officials especially leery of weighing in, despite the fact that many warlords have been recipients of American support and cash in the past.
Recently, for instance, allegations circulated that the American ambassador, James B. Cunningham, had met secretly with one of the presidential candidates, Abdul Rab Rassoul Sayyaf, who has been accused of war crimes and who while in Parliament helped pass a law giving amnesty to war criminals and tried to repeal a law outlawing violence against women.
An American official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivities of the issue, said that Mr. Cunningham and other senior officials had met with all 11 presidential candidates “as part of our normal diplomatic engagement.” Asked what would happen if an accused war criminal were elected, the official said the American government would not speculate on the outcome of the election.
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General Dostum’s candidacy poses some thorny questions. He still maintains a private army, and human rights activists accuse him of ordering mass killings. But he was also a stalwart of the American-allied Northern Alliance that overthrew the Taliban in 2001, and he is a powerful political leader among Afghanistan’s ethnic Uzbek minority.
General Dostum is now the first vice-presidential candidate on the ticket of Mr. Ghani, who is regarded as the front-runner based on an early poll conducted for the American government. Mr. Ghani is a former World Bank official who helped negotiate an initial version of the security agreement, and as a Karzai adviser he presided over the handover of responsibility for security to Afghan forces.
His most significant challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, who ran second to Mr. Karzai in 2009, also has ticket members branded as warlords: his vice-presidential candidates — Mohammad Khan, a former leader of the insurgent party Hezb-i-Islami, and Mohammad Mohaqiq, a Hazara leader of the party Wahdat — have both been accused of abuses by human rights officials.
Spokesmen for Mr. Ghani and Mr. Abdullah said on Wednesday that upon election they would quickly sign the bilateral security agreement with the Americans. Both also expressed concern about Mr. Karzai’s refusal to sign it before then.
“We request the U.S. should wait, and in May there will be a new president,” said Mr. Ghani’s spokesman, Hameedullah Farooqi. “Giving ultimatums and bringing pressure only create sentiments that would harm the process.”
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Of the leading five presidential tickets, the only two without members accused of being warlords are those of Zalmay Rassoul, the low-profile former foreign minister, and Qayum Karzai, the president’s brother and the owner of restaurants in Baltimore.
Qazi Mohammad Amin Waqad, a tribal leader appointed by President Karzai to negotiate the withdrawal of either Mr. Rassoul or Qayum Karzai, said the president had thrown his weight behind Mr. Rassoul. The president’s brother was debating whether to withdraw, Mr. Waqad said, and if so, who to endorse.
Human rights activists are alarmed by the number of warlords so obviously still in the political mainstream.
Ajmal Baluchzada, a member of the Transitional Justice Coordination Group, a coalition of Western-financed groups that lobbies for past war crimes to be acknowledged and punished, said that some of the men initially tried to stay out of the spotlight after the Taliban’s overthrow, worried about potential war-crimes proceedings. “But as time passed and they saw nothing happen, and they saw the Taliban growing stronger, it made them want to get involved.”
By ROD NORDLANDFEB. 26, 2014
Inside
Photo
Launch media viewer Boys in Kabul fixed a tire below a billboard for the presidential campaign of Ashraf Ghani. Credit Mauricio Lima for The New York Times Continue reading the main story
Continue reading the main story
Continue reading the main story
KABUL, Afghanistan — Ashraf Ghani, the apparent front-runner in the Afghan presidential race this year, was once unstinting in his opinion of one of the country’s most prominent warlords, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, calling him a “known killer.”
He said that in 2009, when General Dostum was supporting President Hamid Karzai for re-election. Now, Mr. Ghani simply calls General Dostum his running mate.
In fact, of the 11 campaigns in the April 5 presidential election, six include at least one candidate on the ticket who is widely viewed as a warlord, with pasts and policies directly at odds with Western attempts to improve human rights here.
That is the field that American military and diplomatic planners have to consider as they take up President Obama’s call on Tuesday to look past Mr. Karzai and try to get the next Afghan administration to sign a long-term security deal.
For officials working to finalize the bilateral security agreement, there is still potential good news: All 11 of the Afghan presidential candidates say they support the deal, which would allow Western troops to stay here past 2014.
Photo
Launch media viewer Ghani's running mate, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, shown in 2009, is a prominent warlord. Credit Caren Firouz/Reuters
But past that, American officials have taken pains to avoid expressing any preference for a particular candidate, sensitive to accusations from Mr. Karzai that they interfered in the 2009 vote, when American pressure led him to agree to a runoff after widespread reports of election fraud.
The preponderance of candidates with some sort of unsavory past has also made American officials especially leery of weighing in, despite the fact that many warlords have been recipients of American support and cash in the past.
Recently, for instance, allegations circulated that the American ambassador, James B. Cunningham, had met secretly with one of the presidential candidates, Abdul Rab Rassoul Sayyaf, who has been accused of war crimes and who while in Parliament helped pass a law giving amnesty to war criminals and tried to repeal a law outlawing violence against women.
An American official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivities of the issue, said that Mr. Cunningham and other senior officials had met with all 11 presidential candidates “as part of our normal diplomatic engagement.” Asked what would happen if an accused war criminal were elected, the official said the American government would not speculate on the outcome of the election.
Continue reading the main story
General Dostum’s candidacy poses some thorny questions. He still maintains a private army, and human rights activists accuse him of ordering mass killings. But he was also a stalwart of the American-allied Northern Alliance that overthrew the Taliban in 2001, and he is a powerful political leader among Afghanistan’s ethnic Uzbek minority.
General Dostum is now the first vice-presidential candidate on the ticket of Mr. Ghani, who is regarded as the front-runner based on an early poll conducted for the American government. Mr. Ghani is a former World Bank official who helped negotiate an initial version of the security agreement, and as a Karzai adviser he presided over the handover of responsibility for security to Afghan forces.
His most significant challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, who ran second to Mr. Karzai in 2009, also has ticket members branded as warlords: his vice-presidential candidates — Mohammad Khan, a former leader of the insurgent party Hezb-i-Islami, and Mohammad Mohaqiq, a Hazara leader of the party Wahdat — have both been accused of abuses by human rights officials.
Spokesmen for Mr. Ghani and Mr. Abdullah said on Wednesday that upon election they would quickly sign the bilateral security agreement with the Americans. Both also expressed concern about Mr. Karzai’s refusal to sign it before then.
“We request the U.S. should wait, and in May there will be a new president,” said Mr. Ghani’s spokesman, Hameedullah Farooqi. “Giving ultimatums and bringing pressure only create sentiments that would harm the process.”
Continue reading the main story
Of the leading five presidential tickets, the only two without members accused of being warlords are those of Zalmay Rassoul, the low-profile former foreign minister, and Qayum Karzai, the president’s brother and the owner of restaurants in Baltimore.
Qazi Mohammad Amin Waqad, a tribal leader appointed by President Karzai to negotiate the withdrawal of either Mr. Rassoul or Qayum Karzai, said the president had thrown his weight behind Mr. Rassoul. The president’s brother was debating whether to withdraw, Mr. Waqad said, and if so, who to endorse.
Human rights activists are alarmed by the number of warlords so obviously still in the political mainstream.
Ajmal Baluchzada, a member of the Transitional Justice Coordination Group, a coalition of Western-financed groups that lobbies for past war crimes to be acknowledged and punished, said that some of the men initially tried to stay out of the spotlight after the Taliban’s overthrow, worried about potential war-crimes proceedings. “But as time passed and they saw nothing happen, and they saw the Taliban growing stronger, it made them want to get involved.”
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