PRESIDENT, NOTORIOUS WARLORD SIGN HISTORIC PEACE AGREEMENT
KABUL Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, pictured, signed a peace treaty with a notorious warlord on Thursday, pledging to lobby the U. S. and the United Nations to remove him and his party from terrorist blacklists.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar signed the agreement via a video link into Kabul’s presidential palace.
Once international sanctions are lifted, Hekmatyar is expected to return to Afghanistan after 20 years in exile. He is believed to be in Pakistan.
A U. S. official said Washington would “seriously consider” any request from the Afghan government to lift sanctions on Hekmatyar and his party.
Hekmatyar’s party, Hezbi- Islami Gulbuddin, is listed by the UN as a foreign terrorist organization. Hekmatyar himself was designated by the U. S. as a “global terrorist” in 2003.
He is widely disliked by ordinary Afghans for his past support for al- Qaida and for carrying out sustained rocket attacks on Kabul during the 1990s civil war that are believed to have killed thousands of people.
Human Rights Watch last week branded Hekmatyar “one of Afghanistan’s most notorious war crimes suspects” and said his return would “compound a culture of impunity” in that country.
The agreement gives Hekmatyar and his followers immunity for past actions, and grants them full political rights.