Former warlord makes appeal for peace
AFGHANISTAN: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a controversial Afghan militia leader who has spent the past two decades as a fugitive abroad, returned yesterday to the city he once attacked mercilessly, and made an impassioned appeal for peace and unity in his war-torn homeland.
The extraordinary scene was unimaginable even a year ago, when Hekmatyar was a wanted terrorist under United Nations sanctions, leading armed fighters against Nato and Afghan forces in a part-time alliance with the Taliban, and hundreds of his followers were in prison.
‘‘I have come to co-operate with the government to help end the war and restore peace,’’ Hekmatyar, 69, told about 2000 people at a ceremony in the presidential palace. He urged the militants to join the peace process to ‘‘end all reasons for the presence of foreign troops’’ in Afghanistan.
President Ashraf Ghani embraced Hekmatyar and declared that his return, under a peace agreement they signed in September, showed that ‘‘an end to hostility and strife can be achieved’’.
Once a ruthlessly effective antiSoviet militia leader in the 1980s, Hekmatyar was bankrolled by the CIA but later turned against the West. He has denounced US military intervention in Afghanistan for years, and he reiterated that stand in his speech while vowing to reject violence.
Hekmatyar, who served two brief stints as prime minister, became embroiled in the civil war of the early 1990s. As he and other warlords fought for control of Kabul, his rockets badly damaged several districts and killed thousands of people, earning him the nickname the ‘‘Butcher of Kabul’’.
When the Taliban took power in 1996, he fled to Iran. After the Taliban was driven out in 2001, he took up arms against the government of President Hamid Karzai while reportedly hiding in Pakistan.
He also called for jihad against the United States, and in 2003 he was designated a ‘‘global terrorist’’ by the US government after declaring support for al Qaeda. His forces were reportedly behind two attacks on helicopters carrying foreign troops in Afghanistan.
Last year, with the Taliban gaining momentum, Ghani proposed a deal with Hekmatyar, encouraged by the US, which took months of negotiations. The president offered him full amnesty for wartime abuses and asked the UN to lift its ban if Hekmatyar would return to civilian life and help persuade the Taliban to end its nearly 16-year guerrilla war.
Yesterday, the deal came to fruition when Hekmatyar roared into Kabul in a convoy of fast-moving trucks and SUVs full of armed men. Several hours later, he appeared at Ghani’s side at the palace, where his speech was repeatedly interrupted by shouts of ‘‘God is great!’’.
Critics have complained that Ghani’s peace deal gives too many concessions to Hekmatyar, including the right to bring armed guards with him and the release of hundreds of prisoners from his once-banned party.
Disputes over the prisoner release delayed his return for weeks. On Tuesday, the first release of 68 men was abruptly cancelled after Hekmatyar’s aides were told that 13 names had been crossed off the list. The next day, the dispute had been smoothed over, and 55 men walked out of Kabul’s Pul-i-Charki prison, where they were given flowers, new clothes and turbans at a private welcoming ceremony.
There has also been opposition from human rights activists and Kabul residents who recall Hekmatyar’s ferocious rocket attacks on the capital. Elders waiting for his convoy yesterday said they admired him as a ‘‘hero of jihad’’ against the Soviets, but others said his wartime cruelty should not be forgiven.
‘‘I know people have high hopes today, but we have to remember all the innocent people he killed, the children left orphans,’’ said Faisal Khan, 24, a business student. Around him, men and boys cheered as the convoy of trucks, some mounted with machineguns, sped past. Hekmatyar, whitebearded and wearing spectacles, waved from inside a white SUV.
In his speech, Hekmatyar took pains to portray himself as sincerely committed to the cause of peace. ‘‘I am bringing my family to Kabul to send a clear message to all Afghans: from now on, this will be our home as well as our grave, and we will not abandon it for anyone,’’ he said, challenging other Afghan officials to do the same. Many have moved their families abroad because of insecurity.
- Washington Post