Fugitive Afghan warlord makes tense return
After decades in hiding, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar offers plea for peace peppered with anti-western rhetoric
Fugitive warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar made his first public appearance in Afghanistan on Saturday after nearly two decades underground, calling on Taliban insurgents to “join the peace caravan and stop this pointless holy war.” He also urged all political parties to reconcile and seek change “without bloodshed.”
The return of Hekmatyar, 69, who spoke at an outdoor ceremony at a government compound in Laghman province, represented a sorely needed success for the beleaguered government of President Ashraf Ghani, who invited him to return home last fall in hopes it would encourage the Taliban to follow suit.
But his homecoming was fraught with tension and his expected arrival in Kabul was delayed by disputes over the release of prisoners from his former anti-government militia. Also, his remarks had a strong anti-western theme and were critical of the U.S.-led military campaign against the Taliban, which he compared to the Vietnam War and the Soviet quagmire in Afghanistan.
“If you are working to help Afghanistan we are grateful, but if you are fighting here for your own political and economic interests, we ask you to stop using Afghanistan as your rivals’ battlefield and instead face each other directly,” Hekmatyar said to the gathering in Mehtarlam city. “Don’t test your ammunition on our oppressed people.”
Hekmatyar, long believed to be hiding in the rugged border region of Pakistan, was allowed to enter Afghanistan after the U.N. and the Obama administration, at Ghani’s request, lifted anti-terror bans on him. His entry followed months of negotiations over his rights, privileges and role in civilian life. He is travelling with numerous armed loyalists as he makes his way to the Afghan capital, being greeted by supporters from his Hizb-e-Islami party.
Despite his call for conciliation and harmony Saturday, the peace plan involving Hekmatyar has been denounced by the Taliban, who have condemned him as a criminal and a traitor to Islam. The Taliban and Hizb-e-Islami both fought the Kabul government, but they were never allies and sometimes fought over power in rural areas.
Now, there are concerns Hekmatyar’s presence country could add a new disruptive factor to an already volatile political situation. In Kabul, he is remembered as a brutal warlord who destroyed entire neighbourhoods during the civil war of the 1990s, and later took up arms against civilian rulers.
His arrival coincided with “Mujahedeen Victory Day” events marking the installation of anti-Soviet militias in power here in April, 1992. They were attended by hundreds of men in guerrilla-style garb, but this year the muscle-flexing and shouts of “Allah is great” were more than a ritual.
The president, who held a separate ceremony in the palace, faces a crisis of infighting, pressure and defections by former militia leaders. Ahmad Zia Massoud, Ghani’s special adviser on governance and brother of slain anti-Taliban hero Ahmad Shah Massoud, was just fired by Ghani after he threatened to quit and lead anti-government protests.
Abdurrashid Dostom, the Uzbek warlord and Ghani’s first vice-president, is under virtual house arrest in Kabul as a result of charges that he beat and raped an elderly political rival in November, but supporters held rallies against the Ghani government in two provinces this weekend.
Now, Hekmatyar joins the mix of rogue ex-mujahedeen and militia leaders that once fought each other, and reviving the political prospects for a once-banned Islamist party with many enemies and hundreds of war prisoners who may soon be released — all ostensibly to set an example for the Taliban. His aides said he plans a massive rally upon reaching Kabul in the next several days.