Vilest of war criminals cannot be forgiven

Among the warlord combatants during Afghanistan’s brutal civil war, none was more pathologically destructive than Gulbuddin Hekmatyar – which is saying a great deal, given the rogue’s gallery of mass murderers who vied for power.

Hekmatyar, leader of the UN-blacklisted Hezb-i-Islami – which predates the Taliban – well-earned his moniker as “The Butcher of Kabul.” For a few years he squatted with his militia in the hills south of the capital, raining indiscriminate rocket-fire on the city. Estimates of civilians killed by the merciless onslaught, though Hekmatyar was hardly alone in reducing Kabul to a moonscape of rubble, range from 20,000 to 50,000.

He is an internationally-wanted terrorist and war criminal. By any definition of crimes against humanity, his name should be on top of the list – and leading the targets which are to be investigated by the prosecutor’s office of the International Criminal Court. The ICC, as reported this week by Foreign Policy, is preparing to initiate a full investigation into a range of possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan, including alleged abuses of detainees by American military personnel. (The U.S., however, is not a signatory to the international court and the ICC has no jurisdiction over either American soldiers or civilians.)

Yet despite Hekmatyar’s extensive criminal jacket, Hezb-i-Islami has announced that the 69-year-old fugitive – once the darling of the CIA, in the mujahedeen resistance against Soviet occupation, simultaneously a key beneficiary of the Pakistan Intelligence Agency (until his outrageous maneuvering convinced Islamabad to mid-wife the birth of the Taliban) and one of the richest profiteers of the heroin trade – will arrive in Kabul soon, his return as a hero in from the cold hailed and negotiated by the U.S.backed Afghan government of President Ashraf Ghani. “This is a grand jihad that Afghanistan desperately needs,” said Ghani.

In the tangle of Afghanistan politics, the absurd re-casting of Hekmatyar – twice, albeit briefly, Afghanistan’s prime minister (not good enough, he coveted the presidency) and in spite of repeatedly breaking a promise to lay down his arms, an oath he took on the Koran – has been heralded by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry as a deal model for the Taliban to abandon insurgency and accept a seat at the government table. Kerry called it “an honourable peace.” It is the epitome of dishonorable.

Why the Taliban would want to pursue negotiations when they now control more Afghan territory than ever since the blitzkrieg toppling of their regime by a U.S.-led coalition in 2002 is difficult to fathom. Some 85 per cent of Helmand Province is under the Taliban thumb today. The Guardian reports negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government have been conducted in Qatar over the past year, with Mullah Abdul Manan – brother of Taliban founder Mohammad Omar (died 2013) – allegedly in attendance. The Taliban denies it. But Sayed Muhammad Tayeb Agha, until recently the Taliban’s chief negotiator and head of their political commission, issued a letter about peace talks to the insurgency’s supreme leader, as reported this past weekend by The New York Times, which obtained a copy. In it, Agha supported the peace talk initiative, arguing the militants should be trying to position themselves as a political movement separate and detached from Pakistani intelli- gence officials who have sheltered the leadership in exile.

The Taliban and Hezb-i-Islami have been one-two on the insurgency depth-chart for the past 15 years, though many analysts argue the latter has become a spent force. Now an old man who has somehow survived decades of violence, enjoying asylum in Iran (until he was kicked out) then Pakistan, Hekmatyar as a shape-shifting government ally may be more symbolic than strategic. But symbolic of what? That even the worst of Afghanistan’s internal enemies can be superficially rehabilitated by a current regime desperate to gerrymander peace accords as the country slides back into anarchy? These solemnly-signed treaties have never worked before.

Afghanistan and the Taliban have largely slipped off the international radar since the rise of Daesh in Iraq and Syria. The fact is America is still at war inside the writhing country: U.S. and NATO have nearly 15,000 troops in Afghanistan under security agreements signed in 2014. President Barack Obama had planned to draw down U.S. troops by the end of 2016 but announced in July that he would leave 8,400 military personnel in place through the end of his term because “the security situation in Afghanistan remains precarious.”

Yet Afghanistan has been barely mentioned by either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump during the presidential campaign. It came up only once in their three debates.

One of the “demands” that Hekmatyar made during negotiations with the Ghani government was the complete removal of all foreign troops from Afghan soil. That was just about the only invocation that wasn’t granted. Without the Americans and NATO there would be no Ghani government, corrupt as it is.

Last month Western government and other donor nations pledged more than $15 billion through 2020 in aid and military funding at an international conference in Brussels. There are few safeguards, however, to ensure money goes where it’s needed instead of into the pocket of government officials, cronies and foreign contract workers. Afghanistan is addicted to foreign aid, receiving more than $100 billion from the donor community in the last decade, with little evidence of life improving for citizens. The country is third, along with Somalia and North Korea, by corruption watchdog Transparency International, with an eighth of the funds estimated disappearing. Example of the fraud and extortion: According to John Sopko, U.S. special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, the U.S. is paying salaries for 320,000 Afghan soldiers and police nationwide. Yet the actual number of troops and police is just 120,000.

But sure, with the 15th anniversary of the U.S. invasion just passed, bring Hekmatyar home to be feted and enriched as a calming influence.

The deal includes releasing all Hezb-i-Islami prisoners, permits his supporters to run for office and provides millions of dollars for their security, housing and vehicles. Ghani will also press to have Hekmatyar removed from international terror lists. Like none of it ever happened, all sins pardoned.

What a basket-case of a country. Yesterday’s enemy may be today’s ally; that is the way of war. But some war criminals are in a league of their own and should never be forgiven.

The other most notorious warlord in modern Afghan history is treacherous Uzbek tribal leader Abdul Rashid Dostum (known as “The Bull” for his staggering cruelties) erstwhile collaborator with the CIA, the Soviets and whichever vulture he could cut a deal with over the years.

He’s now Afghanistan’s vice-president. Rosie DiManno usually appears Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.