Dostum: the changing face of Afghan politics
Vice president may be exiled over human rights abuse
KABUL // He is under house arrest and on notice that he could be exiled to live out his days in Turkey. He is also the vice president of Afghanistan.
Abdul Rashid Dostum, a former ruthless warlord, stands accused of forcing his bodyguards to kidnap, torture and rape a political opponent.
And the Uzbek’s reformation into political office is what many see as wrong in Afghan politics. The country’s president, Ashraf Ghani, is ready to use his deputy to show other officials that they cannot break the law and expect to get away with it.
And angry protesters in Afghanistan’s north are demanding Mr Dostum stand trial for crimes against human rights. “Dostum committed too many crimes,” said Waheed Muzhda, a political analyst in Kabul.
“But the Americans were supporting him earlier. Now that the US support for him has ended, he may face a court or be exiled to Turkey.”
KABUL // Abdul Rashid Dostum lives under house arrest, and under the threat of being sent into exile.
Mr Dostum, vice president of Afghanistan, has been accused of ordering his bodyguards to kidnap, torture and rape a political rival.
His case is emblematic of a larger problem in Afghanistan, in which leaders with long records of human rights abuses have been rehabilitated into the political sphere – to the dismay of most citizens, who would rather they were prosecuted.
In March, the warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar received a pardon from the government and threw himself into politics.
Mr Dostum denies the charges against him but his residence in Kabul has been surrounded by security forces since February.
His bodyguards have appeared in court to testify but their employer continues to stay out of public sight, amid reports that president Ashraf Ghani may be under pressure to exile him to Turkey.
Mr Dostum, 62, a leader of the country’s minority Uzbek community, ruled over northern Afghanistan for decades, thanks in part to his ability to reinvent himself. He switched from pro-Communist union leader to ally of former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani’s mujahideen, and finally to a partner of US forces against the Taliban.
He had a reputation for cruelty and was claimed to have ordered tanks to be driven over the legs of his captured enemies.
In 2001, he was accused of suffocating hundreds of Taliban prisoners after locking them up in shipping containers.
Mr Dostum entered politics soon after, but his volatile past made him a target of at least one assassination attempt. He lived in Turkey intermittently, returning to Afghanistan permanently only in 2009. In 2014, Mr Ghani named him as his vice president, but violence continues to follow him.
He is, however, politically influential, making it difficult for the government to arrest him and put him on trial.
Protests in the north have greeted the investigations against Mr Dostum and his bodyguards.
Waheed Muzhda, a political analyst in Kabul, said Mr Dostum was “trying to make a big coalition of non-Pashtun tribes in the north”.
These tribes differ in their politics, which weaken the government’s hold on the region, Mr Muzhda said.
“From these differences, the Taliban is benefiting. They are capturing districts.”
Mr Dostum’s role in trying to unite the tribes is thus valuable for Mr Ghani’s government. Bashir Ahmad Tahyanj, a spokesman for Mr Dostum’s Jumbash Party, denied the for- mer warlord is under house arrest, or that he may be exiled to Turkey. But Mr Dostum’s son Bator has had to take over aspects of the Jumbash leader’s work. The younger Mr Dostum recently travelled to the US on behalf of his father, who was banned from entering.
Mr Tahyanj said he held key meetings with an adviser of president Donald Trump and another with a potential American ambassador to Afghanistan.
The protests in the north began after his trip to the US, and they were conducted “under the leadership of Bator Dostum”, Mr Tahyanj said.
“The government must listen to the demands of his people. If they don’t, the people who elected this government with their votes can collapse the government too.” Mr Dostum’s support base, particularly among Uzbeks, is undeniably large, said Bharath Gopalaswamy, director of the South Asia Centre at the Atlantic Council in Washington DC.
“At the end of April, we saw that there were large protests of up to 2,000 people, organised by the office of Mr Dostum,” Mr Gopalaswamy said.
“He was able to secure votes among Uzbeks for Ashraf Ghani in 2014.”
Nevertheless, Mr Ghani is treating the accusations against Mr Dostum seriously, said Mr Gopalaswamy.
“Mr Ghani believes that the case will undergo proper judicial review, to reveal that no one is above the law,” he said.
“I’ve seen reports where Mr Ghani is frustrated with officials defying the law with impunity, and that this particular case is seen as a make-or-break obstacle to the administration.”
The shifts in Afghanistan’s geopolitics over the past decade may also work against Mr Dostum, Mr Muzhda observed. “Dostum has committed too many crimes – this isn’t the first crime he committed,” he said, referring to the allegations of torture and rape.
“But the Americans were supporting him earlier, therefore he never faced a court.
“Now that the United States support for him has ended, he may face a court or be exiled to Turkey.”